Net profit up ¥1.5 billion, a 17.2% year-on-year increase—sounds like good news, except it's actually a decline. Buried in Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings' revised earnings forecast announced August 13 is a figure that's easy to misread: projected net profit of ¥63 billion looks like an upward revision, but it's actually lower than the previous forecast period. The reason? Last year's numbers were inflated by a one-time gain from selling shares in an affiliated company. What actually matters here is how much total sales and operating profit got revised upward—and the spending habits of the group driving that growth.
For the consolidated forecast covering the fiscal year ending March 2027, total sales have been revised up ¥10 billion from the initial plan to ¥1.36 trillion, a 4.7% year-on-year increase; operating profit was raised ¥2.5 billion to ¥84 billion, up 5.0%. Backing up this revision is the just-released performance for April through June 2026: total sales of ¥320.7 billion, up 6.5% year-on-year, with both operating profit and net profit hitting record highs for the quarter—up 20.6% and 18.5% respectively.
But average spend per customer is the real story this quarter. Within the Isetan Mitsukoshi group, sales from customers spending ¥3 million or more in a single transaction rose 16% year-on-year; those spending ¥10 million or more rose 17%—both far outpacing the overall 6.5% growth rate. In other words, this growth isn't coming from more people walking through the doors—it's the existing big spenders buying even more. July's preliminary figures show domestic customer sales up 3.6% year-on-year, while overseas customer sales surged 32.1%. Even Chinese shoppers' spending power, which had been sluggish last year, has been picking back up since June.
On the store level, Isetan Shinjuku Main Store led the pack with ¥106.9 billion in sales, up 10.0% year-on-year, followed closely by Iwataya Mitsukoshi at ¥32.6 billion, up 8.0%. On the flip side, Nagoya Mitsukoshi, currently undergoing renovations, saw sales drop 2.2%, while Isetan Tachikawa, Isetan Urawa, and Sapporo Maruimitsukoshi all posted slight declines as well.
On the cost side, the company continues to trim the fat: despite rising prices, selling and administrative expenses were actually cut by ¥1 billion from the initial plan to ¥262 billion, thanks to restructuring efforts. The group's credit card arm, MI Card, is set to roll out a new premium card tier this fiscal year—clearly aimed at courting the same high-spending customers who've been carrying this quarter's growth.
