As you may already know, our company celebrated the 80th anniversary last year. This year, each and every employee is to reflect on our 80-year company history and renew our commitment to the company's further development and growth.

The year ending in February 28, 2024 is the second year of our "Mid-term Business Plan", which was announced in April 2022, being a crucial year to achieve the plan. Building on the results of the first year, or the fiscal year ending in February 28, 2023, we are working as one to further expand our sales and profits in order to ultimately achieve the final year's goals.

We have only two months left in this fiscal year. Despite the challenges we face in the current fiscal year, including rising procurement costs due to the weak yen, soaring resource costs, record heat waves in the summer, and so forth, we are pleased to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has finally subsided and the market has stabilized. Furthermore, we continue to make progress in improving our gross profit margins and optimizing our inventory through the business restructuring we have implemented for the past three years. As a result, we are steadily moving forward in accordance with our revised plan, which we announced in October 2023. We will continue to take all possible measures in the remaining two months to achieve our expected target.

The final year of our "Med-term Business Plan" will start in March to be completed in February 2025. We will strive to achieve our plan, with the vision of becoming "a Company of excellence with high value creation and strong earnings power".

We remain focused and renew our commitment to achieving our goals by rallying the collective efforts of the entire company. We thank you in advance for your continued support in the upcoming year.