Shiseido Co Ltd Ord

Investors and analysts, thank you for taking the time to participate in the 2024 Q2 results presentation for Shiseido. The disclaimer for today is shown on the screen. Now, the video and script of today's presentation is planned to be uploaded on the company website. Now, I would like to introduce to you the participants. President and CEO, Kentaro Fujiwara. CFO, Ayako Hirofuji. And I will be the moderator of today's presentation. My name is Oshima from the IR Division. Today we will present to you about the 2024 first half results from the CFO, Hiro Fujii-san, and we will be presenting to you the mid- to long-term strategy from the COO, Mr. Fujiwara, and open up for Q&A session afterwards. During the Q&A session, we will have the CEO of the China region, Mr. Umitsu, to participate to reply to any questions. necessary in his area. We plan to finish at 6.40 p.m. today. Now, Hirofuji-san, please.

Now, I would like to explain the results for the first half of 2024. Please take a look at page 3. First, the first half of 2024 results. The consolidated net sales for like for like were down 4% in three months from April to June and down 1% in the first half. excluding the impact of foreign exchange and business transfers. Local sales in Japan continue to grow strongly, led by core brands, thanks to the successful implementation of selective and focused investments. Similarly, in EMEA, strategic investment in focused areas have helped maintain strong growth in both skincare and fragrances. On the other hand, in travel retail in China, weakening Chinese consumer sentiment and changes in purchasing behavior, which was seen as risks in the first quarter, became apparent, posting a deeper than expected negative result. In the Americas, sales decreased due to lower shipping volumes due to a temporary production decline. Co-operating profit was 19.3 billion yen, a decrease of 8.8 billion yen year-over-year due to the significant impact of lower profit from travel retail, although the decrease was partially offset by a positive impact of fixed cost reduction through structural reforms as well as year-over-year sales growth in Japan, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. The four-year focus remained unchanged. We will take additional company-wide measures to address the weakness in travel retail in China and continue to aim to achieve 55 billion yen in core operating profit. Details of these measures are explained in the next page. First half result were below expectation for both sales and profit in Chinese market due to uncertainty over employment and future drives consumer sentiment for less spending and more saving. This has resulted in a change in purchasing behavior and weakening consumer sentiment leading to a significant slowdown in travel retail in China. Particularly as travel retail has high profitability, the decline in sales has also led to a significant drop in profits deteriorating the so-called regional mix to push down overall profits. However, this volatility in the Chinese market is not a new phenomenon. In order to protect current profits amid this volatility, we will further strengthen measures based on right understanding of market realities and also promptly formulate and take additional medium to long-term initiatives to improve profitability and address essential issues. The current negative impact on profit in travel retail will be compensated by maximizing the strong local sales in Japan and Europe, capturing demand from inbound tourists to Japan, and company-wide efforts to improve profitability and so on, so as to achieve a four-year forecast. Now page 5, PL summary. Like-for-like net sales and core operating profit are as explained earlier. Operating profit was minus 2.7 billion yen, a 16.4 billion yen decrease from the previous year. In addition to the decrease in core operating profit, non-recurring items were as large as 22 billion yen. The breakdown of non-recurring items of 22 billion yen includes restructuring costs of 20.1 billion yen, such as early retirement incentive plan in Japan. The main items of 1.9 billion yen in the second quarter includes restructuring costs related to organizational optimization and store closures in China. Four-year non-recurring items planned at the beginning of the year is 30 billion yen, and there is no significant deviation from this forecast. Profit attributable to owners of the parent decreased 11.7 billion yen to 0.0 billion yen from the previous year. In the first quarter, the company was in the red and profit decreased due to provision of the early retirement incentive plan, but in the second quarter, it turned to be in the black and increased profits. In terms of cash generation capability, EBITDA margin was 8.9%. Next on page six shows the first half sales results by brand. For our fragrance brands led by Narciso Rodriguez and Drunk Elephant continue to perform well, especially in EMEA. On the other hand, other core brands saw either lower sales or only single-digit growth due to weakness in travel retail, China and Americas. On the other hand, other major brands saw either Shiseido was also down 6% globally due to lower sales in China. On the other hand, Clé de Peau Beauté, like Shiseido, has a large exposure to China, but the strength of the high prestige and luxury markets sustained, posting an increase in consolidated sales while maintaining positive growth in China. NAR suffered from a decline in travel retail Asia and a shipment cutback in Americas. Especially in this year, performance varies depending on the balance of each brand's sales composition by region. However, our policy of investment in core brands to nurture our brand value remains unchanged. In particular, we will significantly invest in marketing for the Shiseido brand in China and in the Americas, where sales declined sharply in the second quarter, so as to win back the customers and regain our business while controlling the overall investment amount. Next, on page seven, the sales trend. The first half saw double-digit growth in Japan and EMEA, but negative growth overall due to lower sales in travel retail, China and the Americas affected negatively. Japan maintained strong momentum with this growth of 7% in the second quarter. This is a slowdown from 20% in the first quarter, but within our expectation, as there was a rush demand before a price hike in Q1. The plus 7 percent in the second quarter and 13 percent in the first half were encouraging results, despite the pullback after the price increase. Similarly, EMEA maintained a double-digit growth in the first half. despite the pullback in the second quarter due to the advance shipments in the first quarter before the IT system implementation. In China, in travel retail, we had anticipated negative growth in the second quarter even in the original plan due to the high hurdles of the previous year. But the negative growth was deeper than expected due to the changes in Chinese consumer sentiment in the market. In the Americas, no change in the annual sales plan, despite the temporary decline in sales, as we expect, turned around in the second half of the year. Page eight shows Japan business. The local Japan market maintained growth in the second quarter, A downgrade of COVID-19 to Class 5 in May 2023 raised high comparison base in the previous year, and although the growth rate was slower than in the first quarter, we maintained solid trend. In particular, growth in the mid-price segment, our largest market, exceeded overall growth rate. The number of inbound tourists to Japan has already surpassed the pre-COVID-19 level in 2019, while the number of Chinese tourists is still 26% below the level of 2019. Our Japan business continues to see a strong growth in core brands with high teens and hero products plus 30% and above, contributing to overall share expansion. The key core brands Shiseido, Clé de Peau Beauté and Elixir also saw steady growth in the number of loyal customers and increased their local market shares. E-commerce sales also grew at an accelerated pace, exceeding 30% in the second quarter. For inbound, sales growth slowed down in the second quarter. Although the initially projected annual growth rate of 60% year over year is difficult to achieve, we will make up for this by increasing sales in the local business, which is performing well.

Next is page 9 about China and travel retail. For the China market, through all the channels, market maturity is progressing in parallel with the ever more unpredictable economy, resulting in trend for consumers to demand better quality for more reasonable price. As a result, the discount ratio is getting higher than ever, causing the whole market to be in price competition. Even in such environment, our policy not to be dependent on excessive discounting remains, and we will continue to strengthen the sales power based on brand value and not price. As for performance by brand, Clé de Peau Beauté and NARS realized growth of high single digit in the first half. The very high price point category, known as high prestige luxury, continues to perform well. On the other hand, since the treated water impact, especially brand Shiseido is struggling and there is urgency to rebuild the business. In the second half. Travel retail is facing a difficult situation as the Chinese consumer sentiment weakens, like the China market. Also, the travel retail's price appeal is declining due to the exchange rate fluctuation. In the previous business earning call, we have shared with you that the travel retail plans to turn into positive in May, although the month of May alone was positive in actual performance of the company's shipment sales, the numbers turned negative again in June, performing lower than expected. On the other hand, travel retail in Japan recovered its consumer traffic, marking a significant growth as well as the high growth rate in Americas and EMEA, particularly led by fragrance brands. Next is page 10. EMEA market continued to grow in all categories, and our company marked a double-digit growth in the first half, contributed by Brand Shiseido, Narciso Rodriguez, and Drunk Elephant. Along with skincare and fragrance, the strategic investment to the focused areas drove the results. The second half will continue to strengthen investment in focused areas, including the new launch of Issei Miyake. Asia Pacific was impacted by the slowdown of markets in Taiwan and South Korea, but was offset by growth in other main countries and region, such as Thailand, showing solid performance. America's marked negative growth. However, Branch Isedo and Narciso Rodriguez were positive in sales. Currently, both manufacturing and shipments are recovering as we forecast to achieve the initial target on a full year basis. Next is page 11, COGS ratio. The bold line is the reported number in the accounting system. The dotted line is the COGS like-for-like. The one-off factors that were pushing up the bold line for COGS, such as product supply due to business transfers, impairment loss and structural reform expenses due to factory transfer, are much smaller this year. Therefore, the bold line and dotted line is planned to trend closer together going forward. The COGS like-for-like shown in the dotted line has steadily improved from Q1 to Q2. primarily due to the reduction of inventory imbalance, price hike impact and the mixed improvement from seasonal impacts such as Q2 China sales size from 6-18 promotion, resulting in mixed improvement from increase in high-margin skincare-related sales. Next is page 12, core operating profit by segment. Japan marked significant increase in profit, not just from sales growth but from mixed improvement, higher gross profit and price hike. Japan is steadily making its way to the over 20 billion yen annual target. China's real growth rate for the first half was minus 7%, but the profit remained at minus 600 million yen. As we continue to enforce marketing investment to focused areas, we will minimize profit-loss impact by reduction of fixed costs and structural reform effects to build a sound P&L structure. and travel retail with the highest profit rate experienced significant sales decline causing decline in profit. The sales decline in travel retail significantly impacted intersegment sales, resulting in minus 8.8 billion yen in total core OPM. As for the adjustments, the increase in elimination of unrealized profit drove the minus in profit. This is quite technical, but the main factor for this is the inventory decline range was big in the first half of last year, impacting profit positively, and this year experienced the negative rebound. Next is page 13. I would like to explain about the second half actions to achieve the annual forecast. First, the company's approach to the currently struggling Chinese consumer market does not change in the direction that we will rebuild a structure where we can deliver stable profit, even in a moderately growing environment, and to realize high-quality growth. As for the growth strategy, we will maximize sales by strengthening investment to focused areas with growth, even when the macro situation is weak. Especially brand Shiseido, which has the highest sales ratio in the China business, we will work on the brand by enforcing proactive development and strategic marketing to develop the next hero SKUs. In the second half, we have vital perfection and future solution renewal planned, as well as the launch of Serum Foundation and Skin Glow Foundation that continue to perform well in Japan. Also, we will focus on high-function product category such as Sun Care, Cream, and Serum. And for Drunk Elephant, which we launch in April, we will make efforts to elevate brand recognition as well as promote high-function and high-efficacy campaigns. Furthermore, we will cautiously watch the travel retail market for sustainable growth and to execute well-balanced marketing initiatives so that we do not get spiraled into the vicious cycle of the excessive price competition. In the offline channel, we will focus on pop-up stores in regional cities. In terms of profitability, we have been taking measures such as reducing over 10% headcount in the first half of the year compared to last year, and boldly closing negative performing stores in this fiscal year, contributing to the profit amidst the difficult times. We continue our best efforts for stable and sustainable profit creation. Next is page 14 regarding the activities planned for Japan in the second half of the year. As explained earlier, the first half realized effective sales growth in local and the number of loyal users showed strong growth in core brands. In the second half, we will continue to strengthen investments to core brands to maximize this positive trend. Next for new market creation, the two products in the Serum Foundation category continue to perform well, driven by the communication focused on technology in April. To ensure this does not become a one-time trend, we aim to establish this as a new market and expand its size. The EC sales, as shown in the graph on the bottom right, has been exceeding the growth rate of the Total Japan Local from last year, especially accelerating its growth from Q3 of last year. We are on track of renewing the owned EC site as well as launching Branchiseiro on Amazon and Rakuten. We will continue to focus on expanding the EC sales. As for the inbound sales, we have launched a tourist marketing team in July in order to capture the demands of tourists visiting Japan, which is now far above the size of inbound tourists back in 2019. Capturing travelers as another consumer segment, we aim to drive inbound sales by offering valuable experiences and enhancing brand and product recognition. Last is page 15, about the global cost reduction and profit improvement strategies which we are proceeding as part of the global transformation. We have the annual target of over 15 billion yen this year, and we marked about 7 billion yen in the first half, showcasing the steady progress of the initiative's impacts. We have executed the early retirement support plan in Japan, as already mentioned, organization structure optimization in China, and employee productivity improvement, which are all on track. Because we are in a tough market situation, we will continue to complete any profit improvement activities that can be done with internal efforts to create benefits of over 40 billion yen and further exceeding that to achieve the annual forecast of the year. And that is it with myself. Thank you.

Now I will explain our strategy to ensure sustainable growth in the medium to long term. In February of this year, I announced that we will complete a business transformation to achieve sustainable growth with profitability and build a resilient business structure by 2025. As you can see, We identified the cost reductions of over 40 billion yen globally, in particular, the completion of structural reforms in Japan as our top priorities. The next focus is China and tribal retail to achieve high-quality growth. With regard to the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, we will accelerate growth especially and also advance the growth momentum of core brand and enhance growth profit. Please see page 3. As was explained earlier, the business reform plan for japan mirai shift nippon 2025 which we have promoted as a priority is steadily yielding results among the strategies the selection and concentration of brands and skus and strategic price increase are generating margins that outperform outpace the growth and we will further accelerate these efforts. In addition, to optimize our headcount and achieve growth, we will further promote the model of creating synergy between in-store and online operations by strengthening OMO. We will also accelerate the expansion of our loyal customer base and build a stronger foundation for growth by further strengthening our digital investments and creating a more integrated customer experience that clarifies the roles of online and offline operations. Secondly, we see the increase in inbound customers as a new market opportunity for growth. We established a dedicated inbound team at Shiseido Japan, and they will collaborate with Travel Retail Japan, China, and the rest of Asia to create new growth opportunities in Japanese inbound market and to enhance communication from Japan to the world. We have made steady progress in improving profitability and the process of sustained productivity improvement and the cost reduction has taken root in the organization, which is a big accomplishment. the process and organizational capability to continuously manage progress toward targets and immediately consider new ideas when we are not sufficient will enable us to continue to improve productivity in the future next page 19 about america's emia in asia pacific we will execute continuous action for growth to optimize regional portfolio for the future

In terms of brands, as we strengthen investments to core brands, we will further enhance the skin beauty category with the accelerated growth of derma category with Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare as a new addition to the lineup. For the fragrance category, which continues to show solid performance, particularly in the Emias, we will realize growth and expansion in profit contribution with the new partnership with Max Mara. We will continue to monitor the market, and as we evaluate the strategic synergy and profitability of our company, we will consider pursuing strategic M&As. The market environment changes drastically in these regions too, and we will aim to realize high growth by expanding our consumer touchpoints and e-commerce focusing on digital and especially by collaboration with retailer.com. Also, we have completed building the local business foundation in India and Middle East for our future potential market. We plan to make proactive investment to achieve high growth. Next is page 20. China market continues to be an important market for the company in the mid to long term. However, given the recent market environment, we will be cautious of certain areas in the China and travel retail strategy going forward. Key points to mention are the acceleration of market polarization, increased focus on price, and therefore the price competition amongst retailers including travel retail are becoming very competitive. Taking these factors into consideration, we will not only review the China and travel retail businesses, but also see the necessity to build a more resilient organization and profit structure, as well as optimize regional portfolio on a global basis. On the premise that the market environment will continue to be unstable, we will build a management strategy that will enable us to stably generate profit without being significantly impacted by the market environment's change. First, for the market change that we are facing, we will continuously make efforts to turn China and travel retail businesses to structures that can generate stable profit. On the other hand, we will further progress the business transformation in Japan to evolve the new growth model along with continuous productivity improvement. Globally looking, in order to rectify the profit imbalance between regions, along with the growth acceleration of Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific, we will review the global structure so that we can build an organization capable of profit and cash generation across all regions. For growth, we will rebuild the brand portfolio with selection and concentration of brands. For innovation, we will further focus on building the company's uniqueness and competitive advantage. R&D will continue to be our competitive advantage and aim to drive growth through additional value improvement and new market creation. We will also aim to enhance the quality of business management and operational excellence as we invest further to human capital along with improve the productivity leveraging digital capabilities. In terms of enhancing quality of business management, we will execute strategic capital allocation, selection and concentration of assets, and make sure to penetrate management operation through the organization to be disciplined. Details on the new business strategies to be announced at the end of November. That's it for me. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Now we would like to start Q&A session. Please select raise hands on the zoom if you have any questions. Please accept the panelists role and speak after your company name and your name with the video on and unmuted. We appreciate your patience to switch the screen. If you want to use English, please select the language at the bottom. And if you wish to listen to Japanese translation, please select Japanese at the bottom of the selection channel. And we appreciate your understanding to have only one question per person. Please raise your hand bottom. Now, JP Morgan Securities.

Kuwahara-san, the floor is yours.

This is Kohara of JP Morgan. Sorry, do you hear me OK? Yes, thank you for taking my question. I have to be mindful about one question so. So talking about the China or travel retail, the business, yes, I can feel there should be some impact on the market trend. But the Americas or EMEA region, what is going on? For the first half and the net sales and core, operating profit, how do they affect the overall company performance? Can you please give us the flavor in details, like impact especially? And in your earlier presentations, Americas or U.S. or most likely NARs are affected. So what is the situation there? And beginning of the year, 55 billion yen cooperating profit of which 40% should be generated in the first half. That was your explanation in the beginning of the year. But there are certain decrease, deceleration from that. And then what is the impact from the Americas region for this? Thank you. So thank you for your question. So in terms of the overall net sales, And before entering to the Americas in the net sales, 19 billion yen or so decrease in the first half against the plan. The largest one is America's China and travel retail in the order. of the impact and then the Americas, you know, 10 billion yen or a little less than that negative impact or compared to the plan. And based on that, the core operating profits impact. So the first half, as you said, 40%, and then the second half was originally 60%. However, ¥22 billion in the first half, ¥13.9 billion was the actual performance, so that means ¥3 billion short from our original plan. So the Q1 and a few billion yen, there was a decrease so six billion yen or so in the second quarter uh negatively affected u.s or americas and travel retail uh reduced the sales and affecting the negative profit uh and the china as well but there was the positive impact on the cost uh and then the overall uh the japan and emia uh generated positive results, that's partially offsetting the result. So that's the flavor. Well, thank you for that. The production, the adjustment in the Americas But the focus was introduced in the second half of last year, so that affected on the production site. And if that is correct, going forward, EMEA and other regions will also use a focus going forward, right? So having said that, that kind of impact may be regarded as a risk. So how are you going to address such topic Well, first of all, the adjustment in the production, there were two reasons. First is the IT system. affects the negative impact on the production volume, and that is something triggered by that, but the sourcing of the raw material was slightly delayed. That also affected the adjustment in the production volume, and that was already recovered by now, so the production is now returned to the normal production volume. So the system called Focus, already launched in the Americas, is the core system for the production. And we are now globally implementing the core system. even in the same focus, but the financial and other logistics-related systems. So those functions or modules are working quite well. So by the end of the year, Japan will also implement that same system. So for now, it is... working according to the plan. The sales companies or the regional offices who already started the use of their focus, it's now recovered. But in terms of the production modules, we need to be mindful and monitor carefully about its performance and then move on to the next process. So that is our plan to mitigate the impact. Well, thank you for that.

Thank you very much. Next, from Morgan Stanley, MUFG Securities, Sato-san.

Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you.

Since Umid-san is here with us, I would like to ask about China. On page 20, Looking at China, it's very similar to Japan 30 years ago. You didn't say travel retail, but you've mentioned about the aggressive price competition of retailers, and Japan experienced that too. And so to that, because you have the accumulation of knowledge and experience from the Japanese experience from years ago, I think you have that knowledge. But the price competition amongst retailers, can you dig a bit deeper to explain about that in China? And also along with that, your company. I'm sure you're going to think about it from here on, but you've been focused on offline and to be thorough as a luxury brand. But with that only, I've been thinking that when Shiseido was doing that in Japan 30 years ago, because I don't think that's enough. That's not stable to just do offline in a luxury manner. So at this point, what is the price competition between retailers? How did it happen? And what kind of... negative impact does it have for the manufacturer side or the brand side and also for the retailers before it would be focusing on tmall and some of the big giants but now how do you allocate the funds and the roi because if you ask any company the roi is dropping roic is going down so the return to any investment everybody's dropping their or declining reducing their roi so how could you recover or how what do you think of this return for you so that you can call in your China business that is stable and or profitable. So currently, I would like to you to elaborate on the retailers price competition. And along with that, what kind of actions you're taking in the short term so that the sales doesn't drop any more in the second half. And I would like that comment from Umitsu-san. Okay, thank you very much. I would like to reply. So I am the CEO of the China region. My name is Umitsu. First of all, the price competition amongst the retailers. So in detail, what is happening? What's going on? To simply put it, the consumers are looking for a channel or touch point where they can purchase at the cheapest price. And that has become more active and more aggressive amongst the consumers. So looking domestically, there's the offline and online channel. And so there's a price competition between that. Most of the offline retailers, for example, the 618 big promotion, they will they would look at the bet they would now the consumers are looking at the cheapest price point and that becomes a benchmark and the brand side wants to protect the price don't want to do a price promotion that much but on the ec the platformers on their own they're chiseling off their margins and issuing lots of coupons and that's what's happening and then Now, offline, similar thing. They were sacrificing their margins and offering discounts. And that was what was happening in the aggressive price competition in China domestic. And also, the unauthorized e-commerce platform has been expanding. So these are unauthorized, and these are the cheapest. And that's big. To the top KOL, the top retailers are trying to peg their price or benchmark their price point to that. And similar things are happening in travel retail, too. So there's travel retail, there's the airport, duty-free, but there's also some other operators are doing e-commerce. and they would provide cheaper prices, and their sales is going up online with the cheaper price as well. And they too are looking at the unauthorized, they are also benchmarking the unauthorized price points in the travel retail too. The brands want to control the price, but on their own discretion, they are promoting their price competition or they're trying to provide the cheapest price, and that's what's happening right now. And so with that kind of environment, what is Shiseido 2? What are the countermeasures or the measures that Shiseido is trying to do? As Hirofuji-san has mentioned earlier, when we look at the brands after the Fukushima treated water, yes, it's true, our brand is weakening a little bit due to the impact of the treated water. So China business, B2B2C business, bulk sales or the group sales or group procurement, we're trying to suppress that as much as possible to control the overall. And because if we get more gray market, then of course there's the mechanism that the pricing will all drop. So we want to try to suppress or control that. And within the products, we will try to narrow down what kind of products do we need to do a discount. But there are other brands or products that does not need a discount. So for those brands and products that we want to grow, we don't need to do that much discount. So we want to balance ourselves so that we can create a sales where we don't depend too much on the discount. And that was what Hirofuji-san was saying about the next future Hiro SKU. And if we can do that to try to balance ourselves, then in China, in travel retail, recover our gain and we can balance ourselves with the regular price and the promotion price and be able to control ourselves and that is what we're trying to aiming to do and that's what we're doing right now so unauthorized sales price I think the buyers are bringing it from somewhere else and for example South Korea and Hainan Island from about next June they've started to restrict that so then where are they with the unauthorized sellers bringing these products It has shrank, but there is still the existing routes that is still there. It shrank a lot, but it's still there, some of the existing unauthorized routes for the travel retailers. To the consumers, it's true that they're growing in sales with the consumers outside of, for example, the airport travel retail. And also in Japan, the foreign currency, And so there are some products that due to the FX benefit or advantage, it's going from the route is the product going from Japan. So yes, the overall unauthorized routes are shrinking, but yet the size of unauthorized market is growing. So in Japan, in China, you may be. Are you so in for second half of China, are you going to focus on the profit? Overall looking, yes, we are taking action so that we can achieve the profit. But Cletopo Bote, NARS, and Branch Isedo, which needs quick recovery, where we can win, we want to continue to proactively invest.

Okay, thank you very much.

Thank you for that. Let's move on to the next, Goldman Sachs, Miyazaki-san.

Thank you for the presentation.

Miyazaki of Goldman Sachs. Thank you for taking my question. So for Japan local business, I have a few questions. So generally speaking, it looks solid sales, but the e-commerce, is growing, the factor for that, are they in discontinued growth of such new platform? Is that that you're understanding? Or because the e-commerce sales will be growing, your product mix or sales mix will be changing? Sales mix will be changing. So can you please share your focus on that? Well, thank you for your question. So Japan e-commerce business. So first of all, we are investing in this segment. Because of that, we generate some traffics and then growing the e-commerce sales. So that is one reason. And we will accelerate our business. From that perspective, our own e-commerce business, we have three categories. Number one is owned e-commerce platform. Overall design is now refreshed so that we want to make our platform more convenient for consumers and then better consumer experience. So that is number one. And number two, if you're a player like Amazon or Rakuten and all those platformer, And we want to invest in this segment as well. So for this, we want to find a new customer in this platform. So customers who are mainly using such platform to buy through that we want to find new customers on this platform. That's a pure platformer. The third segment. is that going forward we need to enhance and focus on driver driving growth is that the retail uh dot com like a department store or drug store or our specialized stores They have their own retail.com linked with the offline stores. That ratio is not so small, and the growth rate is significant. So the third piece, this one is the kind of a combination between online and offline. So we believe that this is quite promising for the sustainable growth. So we are focusing on that as well. So as a result of this effort, e-commerce ratio is a three percentage point increase from the beginning of the year in terms of the sales composition. So going forward, we also try to enhance this figure. Well, thank you very much. So as a result of such initiative, as ASP impact or the brand composition will be altered, are there already seen such phenomena or are you going to see such trend going forward well in terms of brand mix there will be no big change in my understanding we will focus on the core brand which is unchanged in terms of the profitability the e-commerce channel profitability has the highest among others Therefore, the ratio of e-commerce sales goes up means our profitability will also improve. So the channel mix change will also be meant to be the structural mix change. Okay, thank you very much. It's clear.

Mizuho Securities, Miyasako-san. Hello, this is Miyasako. Hello. Since Umitsu-san is here, I wanted to ask about China. You said there will be an announcement in November, the new strategy will be announced in November, so that you might have a new strategy in place. But top line, the local players in China, I think Shiseido maybe is taking away, the local Chinese players are taking the Shiseido market share because they're really increasing in their performance. So going forward, how do you plan to grow the top line? First of all, what I would like to share with you, first of all, is the reviewing of the brand portfolio. That is something that we need to do. And if we look at the current status, the first half of this year, skincare, It's on a shrinking trend in the prestige price. Then makeup, and then fragrance. Fragrance is a small size anyways. So to review the portfolio, Japanese skincare brand had been something that was supporting the growth, but now there's NARS, and as we announced before, we want to do a global portfolio optimization. And so when we look at fragrance too, there are other areas of potential growth so brand mix and try to secure growth by portfolio and the other is yes the local brands how do we compete against them the chinese local brands where are they winning which category are they winning we're actually doing an analysis right now for example in skin care basic care lotion and emulsion which used to be Shiseido's strength or Japanese brand's strength. After the Fukushima treated water incident, the local brands are really emerging. And so with that, we want to look at high efficacy and higher price point. And so in terms of brand Shiseido, Future Solution, the higher end brands, we could grow that more. Or the high efficacy cream or the essence, that's something that we can also grow as well. So rather than where they're strong at, where... is our strength. So where to play is we need to be selective of that to be competitive. So the target per product and looking at the competition per product and so that we can try to grow our market share. And that is the kind of direction we want to grow our market share. And the other thing that we are also impacted right now is the premium brands such as Elixir and Opre, these kind of brands, We had a competitive advantage being a Japanese brand, but now it is actually taken over by a slightly cheaper local brands. So that segment. So we do need to revisit the product portfolio. What is the product category in which we can win in this market? And so we need a strategy where we can win in that category. And that's how we are shifting. And of course, to be efficient in our investment, we do need to take another step into the structural reform. And before it was... The brands, we had the product based on products imported from Japan, but we need to try to take another step to be more agile so that we can be very competitive against the local brands. Sorry, one thing I would like to ask. Clé de Peau Beauté, there's the base makeup and face wash, etc. These are doing well, but how do you see the sustainability of that? Is that sustainable? So can you share about the CPB strategy? For the Clé de Peau Beauté brand, as you have mentioned, currently, Majority of the sales for Clé de Peau Beauté comes from the base makeup or the entry face care set and cleansers. But at the same time, there is another higher level lineup, the Supreme line, in which we are trying to grow and expand. And so how can we do that? And if we can expand on this luxury line within Coletta Povote, we can take another step into this Coletta Povote luxury area. So we have the Supreme eye cream that has done a renewal launch, and we have done a proactive investment so that this eye cream, which is a high-end, product so that it can really lift the overall line overall brand and not only in china but also hong kong and travel retail and cpb also has synoptic which is the highest line of cpb so right now we want to solidify the first layer the entries layer for cpb and then we think that there will be a potential for growth in the second and third layer of collateral as a brand thank you

Thank you very much. No more securities. Ohana-san, the line is open. Please understand we can take only one question per person. Looks like it takes a while to be connected. Ohana-san, can you please unmute yourself and put your video on and raise your question?

Sorry about that.

Looks like Ohana-san's line is not connected, so we'd like to call SMBC Niko Yamanaka-san. The line is open. Well, thank you very much. This is Yamanaka of SMBC Nikko. So on page 15, global cost structure reform, page 15, I would like to ask the question about that for the progress and the current status and the top line, China, travel retail, and North America. in the second quarter it's decelerated compared to the expectation so the if the sales was in short still are you able to achieve this target and the first half you We're expecting good progress in Japan and EMEA, so North America may be not affecting overall achievement of the plan. So I just want to understand the impact. Well, thank you very much for your question. Global Transformation Committee. has a 33 billion yen to be generated in the q1 that was what i mentioned but the q2 also tried to achieve the three billion so roughly seven billion yen or so in the first quarter first half so it is working in line with our plan and then america's current slowing down Because of the GGC this time, we do not look at the negative impact this time. But in the second quarter in Japan, there will be some add-on of the early retirement incentive program. So at least 15 billion yen of annual target, this will be very solid in our view, but to achieve. However, as I mentioned in the presentation, amid the current tough situation, there are things that the company can do or must have additional initiatives to achieve. So how far we can do with the new initiatives. So I think that will be the crucial for us to achieve in the second half. Thank you. So in November, there will be the Explanatory session right for your new policy, but even the top line would be very challenging. You will be crafting the new strategy to achieve and address such situation. Is that correct?

Yes, your understanding is correct.

Thank you Mitsubishi UFJ. Trust and banking Hyogo Sun.

This is Hyogo from Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking.

Thank you for having the presentation today. A question for myself. In the midterm, the current situation, do you feel a sense of urgency or crisis? And how is that perceived within the company?

Or cost reduction.

Because just because you're doing being successful with cost reduction, that's not the end of the story. That's not good enough. So I'm wondering what kind of challenges, what kind of discussions are done in the company as challenge and risk and what so that what is the focus for your discussion as you try to create this new strategy for the November announcement? So what kind of actions or initiatives are you taking? taking internally, that is my question. Thank you very much. Just to what you have exactly mentioned, the urgency and sense of crisis within the company is very high. And yes, this is not something that we can resolve with a short term cost reduction. One is, first of all, it has become the market situation is very uncertain and very difficult to predict. So how the business management or the cost structure can be more resilient. And that would be a big theme for us. And this is not for China and travel retail, which we are struggling right now. And this is not just about Japan, who's going through a structural reform, but globally, regardless of what kind of unstable and uncertain situation, how can we create a better resilient organization that we can continue to create profit? And that is a global challenge. And with that, the cost reduction and more efficiency isn't going to be enough. We need a growth strategy. And that is a very important mid-term challenge that we do need to work on. And reflecting back on the market, we're not just looking at the market environment, but also What is the area that Shiseido is most strong at? What can we win? Where is our strength? And what about our brand portfolio? What is our growth area? We need to confirm that, check that, revisit that again, and to work on it and to have a focus around that. And lastly, of course, we need the organization capability to execute these strategies, and we need to review that as well. So there will be innovation, and if we were able to realize what we want to do. We need the capability to provide that to the consumers, to the market. And where are we? What kind of capability development do we need to work on, including digital? So we need to do a full assessment. And those are the things that we are working on discussing for the presentation that we plan to do in November. Thank you very much. For ROI assessment, is it fully done in a tangible, visible manner? For each of the return on investment, especially around marketing, yes, it is all very visible and we can see all of that. It is all captured. And for the capital ROI, we need to look at the return on investment. and make it even more visible. And not only that, penetrate that within the organization. So we need to take a step further to make sure we all understand that as a company. Thank you very much. We are looking forward to you achieving the target business target for this year. So looking forward to hearing good news. Thank you.

So it's almost running out of time. So we would like to take one last question. Daiwa Securities, Hirozumi-san, the line is open.

Hirozumi speaking from Daiwa Securities.

Do you hear me? Yes. Thank you for that. So just to confirm Japan segment, The second quarter, 7% or so year-over-year growth. This is in line with the market growth, or I just want to double-check. And page 8, so the sell-out, the customer trend, and 7% sales increase, and the customer purchasing behavior, there should be some gap. So I just want to clarify that. And in the second quarter, profit 1.3 billion yen for Japan. So is this – am I correct that in line? Because I thought that the profit should be bigger than that. The second quarter, Japan profit operating – profit 1.3, is this in line or a little different?

So can you please clarify that?

So to answer to your second question, 1.3 billion is in line with our progress. And then the inbound, was not meeting our target. So that was compensated by the local sales, Japan sales, and then also the structural reform and cost reduction, and that's trying to secure the profit. And then the first second quarter profit was generated. So your understanding of inline of 1.3 is correct. And then your first question is that the customer behavior, 10% or so, the high teens, So the growth and then the second quarter first half of 13% was generated for the shipment because there was in the first quarter there was the advanced shipment and then the first quarter that was generated. So that's why there was a rebound in the second quarter. So that's why there was this ups and downs from the good first quarter for the shipment versus the decline in the second quarter. So there was the ups and downs. Did I answer to your question? Yes. So in your presentation, the first half, 13, 1.3, was it? 13%, was it in line with the market? The market share, yes, we are growing, outperform the market growth. Understood. Then the first quarter, 20, and then the second quarter, 13. So you have performed the market growth. Yes. And especially local business, you are achieving quite well, but the inbound, a little short for the target, right? Yes. The second quarter, 1.3 billion only, I would say, the profits generated. And in the marketing spending in which quarter, it has to be decided. And also in the first quarter, there was advanced shipment included. So the first quarter was a little bigger than the true figure because of this advanced shipment. So in terms of the first half, the profit is progressing in line with our plan. Understood. Thank you very much. Well, thank you very much. Now we would like to close the Q&A session. Now we would like to end today's earnings report. presentation session there will be a questionnaire to be pulled out so i hope you will answer to this questionnaire for our future operation of the ir events thank you very much for your cooperation and also thank you very much for spending some time to with us thank you