Wacoal to amend forecast for fiscal year 2009

03 Nov '08

6 min read

The global economy is currently threatened by the sub-prime mortgage crisis, which originated in the United States and led to a global financial crisis after the bankruptcy of a major securities company.

Japan is facing economic recession as economic indicators such as exports, production and employment are declining. Accordingly, we expect that consumer confidence will deteriorate further and the Japanese distribution market, which is our core market, will face a more difficult environment in the future.

Also in the overseas market, we expect that our consolidated business results will be significantly affected by the appreciation of yen given the weak real economy and reduced consumer spending.

As for our domestic business, we will make efforts to appropriately respond to product needs and to exceed the level of sales recorded during the previous fiscal year for our products such as the Cross-Walker products from our new functionality underwear Style Science series and our Sugoi line, a line of lingerie which recorded sales significantly exceeding our expectations during the previous fiscal year, despite the difficult business environment.

As for our overseas business, we continue efforts to increase our over-the-counter sales. In particular, Wacoal Luxe, our brand sold at upscale department stores, has gained popularity in the United States.

Efforts will be made to halt the downward trend in business results in the difficult business environment and to improve our profit margin by reducing the cost of materials. In China, we will actively develop our advertising activities with Ayumi Hamasaki, the new 'face' of Wacoal. This direction aims to meet the needs of our diversified consumers and expand our market share by further penetrating the Chinese market with the Wacoal brand and by strengthening our three-brand structure, including our youth orientated brand, Amphi and our high value-added brand, Salute.

In the context of this difficult business environment, however, we expect that it will be extremely difficult to achieve our initial plan despite our continued efforts and therefore, have decided to amend our forecast of consolidated business results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009.

Our target for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009 is to achieve sales of 178,000 million yen, operating income of 11,500 million yen, pre-tax net income of 9,500 million yen, and net income of 5,800 million yen.

Wacoal Holdings Corp

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