Workman Co., Ltd.

Workman announced on the 1st that its same-store sales in September rose 20.7% compared with the same month a year earlier. Rain-related products such as rainwear performed strongly due to the effects of typhoons and the autumn rain front, and recovery wear, for which the company launched new products, was also solid. Meanwhile, autumn and winter products were sluggish because the rollout was delayed as a measure against the lingering summer heat. Same-store customer traffic rose 6.4% year on year, and spending per customer rose 13.5%.

Japanese companies are strengthening their response to currency fluctuation risk as the yen stabilizes. Workman has raised the ratio of currency forward contracts for its purchasing plans from the previous 50 to 60 percent to 80 to 90 percent, and has already locked in about 85 percent of its contracts for the fiscal year ending March 2027 at around 148 yen to the dollar. According to Sho Hirayama of Daiwa Securities, companies are increasingly asking to fix exchange rates for five to ten years ahead, and when the dollar was in the 160 yen range, inquiries to prepare for further yen weakness increased. Among exporters, Yamato Nagahama of Bank of America points out that dollar-selling hedges may emerge to prepare for yen appreciation driven by intervention. Corporate responses are not limited to financial transactions: Honeys Holdings has built up currency forwards several years ahead, and Seria plans to curb cost increases by reviewing product specifications and packaging. As domestic interest rates rise, more companies are also converting floating-rate borrowings into fixed rates, and Noriko Iwasaki of Nomura Securities says the need for balance-sheet-wide risk management is growing.