| Hamee Corp. (3134) |
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Company |
Hamee Corp. |
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Code No. |
3134 |
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Exchange |
TSE 1st Section |
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Industry |
Retail (commerce) |
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President |
Atsushi Higuchi |
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Address |
Square O2, 2-12-10, Sakae-cho, Odawara-shi, Kanagawa prefecture |
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Year-end |
April |
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URL |
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*The share price is the closing price on December 28. The number of shares issued was obtained by subtracting the number of treasury shares from the number of outstanding shares as of the end of the latest quarter.
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*The forecasted values were provided by the company. From FY4/16, net income is profit attributable to owners of the parent. Hereinafter the same apply.
*400-for-1 share split in Dec. 2014 and 4-for-1 share split in Mar. 2016, and 2-for-1 share split in Nov. 2016. EPSs were retroactively adjusted. |
| Key Points |
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| Company Overview |
  Business Outline Commerce Business: By utilizing its capability of planning products, the company covers the upstream to downstream sectors of the distribution field, and operates EC efficiently with Next Engine.
Hamee Corp. conducts product planning and production (as a fabless manufacturer), and purchase of general goods including mobile phone accessories, and sells such goods over the Internet to general consumers (retail) as well as through wholesale to major retail stores of general goods, electronics and home appliances, and the like. As for online sale, in addition to the domestic business, the company runs e-commerce websites for foreign general consumers and has opened their online shops in overseas e-commerce shopping malls, etc. through their overseas subsidiaries (cross-border e-commerce).
Domestic online sale (retail): To sell products to consumers via a website with its original domain and leading EC sites
The company runs multiple shops, including a website with its original domain, the same type of shops in EC sites, including Rakuten and Yahoo!, and stores with different concepts and targets in the same mall. For example, in "Rakuten Shop," which is recognized as a comprehensive shop and easy to understand for everyone, the company operates "Hamee TV" for men, "Ketchup!" for women, and "Kawaii Kan," which collects goods considered "Kawaii" by store staff. Its strength is the business operation conducted jointly by Product Development Dept. (product development), CR Management Dept. (attending to customers), and Web Marketing Dept. (store development).
Wholesale: Sale to retail stores and e-commerce operators
In addition to wholesale of mobile phone accessories chiefly to leading retail stores of general goods, and electronics and home appliances, they have developed a website for online wholesale to e-commerce operators. The headquarters of the company is located in Odawara (Kanagawa prefecture), and they have branch offices in Tokyo and Osaka and post personnel called rounder who provide support for creating sales floors in physical stores.
Sale to foreign customers: Online sale to general consumers by their subsidiaries in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, and China
The company wholesales products to online shop operators and retailers via the 5 consolidated subsidiaries in South Korea, China, the U.S., Taiwan, and India. The subsidiary in South Korea also plans, designs, and selects products. The subsidiary in India also serves as a back office for the EC in the U.S. In China, the company operates 3 shops, including one shop in the website with its original domain.
  Platform Business: To improve the attractiveness as a platform by differentiating it, increasing its advantage, and enriching apps with the know-how to operate EC
The Company developed "Next Engine," a management platform that uniformly manages back-office operations necessary to run online shops (such as order receipt, order placement, procurement, inventory management, and analysis), and offer it to e-commerce operators who sell products over the Internet through their own websites, online shopping malls, and the like. "Next Engine" is a system for e-commerce back-office operations, which was developed by the Hamee group in the course of expanding their e-commerce business, as well as a backbone system which is still used in the commerce business segment of their corporate group.Eyeing the possibility of business expansion to overseas markets, the company has mapped out a basic strategy for "development and release of local (overseas) versions of Next Engine after actually conducting e-commerce businesses in overseas local corporations and accumulating knowhow, such as coordination with e-commerce shopping malls of each country." Provision of "Next Engine," an operation management platform for operators who sell products via the Internet, with the cloud technology
"Next Engine" is a cloud system that automates the process of online store operations and assists e-commerce operators in enhancing their management efficiency, with various functions such as automatic e-mail response, comprehensive management of order slips, automated coordination of goods in stock, and comprehensive uploading of web-pages of products. The system enables not only as much automation of the routine work of online shops as possible but also uniform management of multiple online shops that a company runs in different online shopping malls, including its own online shop and shops in major online shopping malls, and synchronization of the quantity of stock displayed for the wide range of online shops involved. The business efficiency so improved will contribute to making time for sales strategy formulation and product development, as well as to reducing overtime work.
Flexible fulfillment of user needs by means of the main functions (standard specifications) and applications (expanded functionality; hereinafter referred to as the "apps")
The basic rate for "Next Engine" is determined based on the pay-as-you-go system where fees are dependent on the number of orders each e-commerce operator gains (this is a rate structure that is in proportion to the business scale of each user). In addition, multitudinous services such as the special server plan and customization (custom-made Next Engine) are also available with fees charged separately to each customer. The fees of apps on Next Engine vary for each application (free of charge, based on the flat-rate or pay-as-you-go system).  Platform development (System to Platform)
They published the API (*) of "Next Engine" in December 2013, achieving so-called platform development of "Next Engine" which makes it possible to offer on "Next Engine" myriads of applications developed by the company or other outside developers, etc. This allows establishment and operation of systems, according to the circumstances of each user company, by coordinating apps and "Next Engine."*API (Application Programming Interface) The API is an interface that makes it easier to read functions of a computer program (software), data managed by the program, and the like from an external program, and use them. Here, an interface means the specifications that specify a number of matters, including a function reading procedure and description method. Any functions compatible with the API do not need to be independently developed from scratch, which enables efficient program development. |
| First Half of Fiscal Year April 2018 Earnings Results |
 Sales and operating income increased 17.6% and 42.0%, respectively, year on year.
Net sales were 4,210 million yen, up 17.6% year on year, including sales of 3,608 million yen in the commerce business, which went up by 15.8% (493 million yen) year on year. In addition to the healthy sales from wholesale targeted mainly at leading mass retailers (up 226 million yen), sales from retail also grew (up 148 million yen) at major shopping malls, such as Amazon. New sales channels for wholesale opened up in the United States and the e-commerce business booming in China increased sales in the overseas markets (up 117 million yen). Net sales in the platform business, too, rose 27.3% (128 million yen) year on year to 593 million yen. Both the number of companies that subscribe to the main functions and the number of companies that subscribe to the apps showed a healthy rise.With respect to profit, gross margin ratio stood at 50.3%, up 5.4 points, thanks to the decline in the wholesale ratio and the effects of in-house planned products, and, on a consolidated basis, gross margin ratio was 50.5%, up 2.9 points. The increasing selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses, mainly including labor costs and commission paid, were offset, resulting in operating income of 550 million yen which was up 42.0% year on year. Although the equity in loss (70 million yen) following the posting of impairment of affiliate companies' shares was posted as non-operating expenses, ordinary profit also grew 32.1% to 470 million yen. In the platform business, gross margin ratio was 54.1%, down 11.3 points, due to the development of functions of "Next Engine" which was aimed at acceleration of growth, the increase in the number of support staff in order to achieve a goal of 5,000 subscribing companies, and the influences of the server investment; however, the shrunken ratio was offset by the increase in sales from growing number of subscribing companies, and operating income rose 10.5%.      |
| Fiscal Year April 2018 Earnings Estimates |
 Sales and operating income are estimated to rise 9.6% and 5.0%, respectively, throughout the term. The company's full-year forecasts are conservative, regardless of the currently healthy business performance.
Net sales are estimated to be 9,320 million yen, up 9.6% from the previous term. Sales in the commerce business will rise 9.4% from the previous term thanks to the growth in wholesale through the expansion of selling areas, and the increase in retail through the product enrichment (in the previous term, priority was given to wholesale for which demand grew rapidly). Sales in the platform business is expected to grow 11.1% from the previous term following the increasing number of companies that subscribe to the main functions of Next Engine. The growth rate of the number of subscribing companies for the term ending April 2018 is estimated conservatively to go up by 16.0%, based on the results of the term ended April 2017 (in which the growth rate was up 18.6% from the end of the term ended April 2016). Factors, however, in the upturn in the dedicated apps (that can be customized) and the like are not taken into consideration.It is projected that operating income will stand at 1,161 million yen, up 5.0%. While profit in the platform business will be almost unchanged from the previous term as the company plans to increase the number of support staff and make more proactive infrastructure investment, the commerce business is expected to show a profit growth by 6.2% from the previous term by offsetting increasing commission paid and rising logistics costs. Any exchange loss is not taken into account, and ordinary income is estimated to be 1,157 million yen, up 10.4% from the previous term. It is forecasted that net income will be 755 million yen, up 8.5% from the previous term, through offsetting of an extraordinary loss imposed due to the relocation of the headquarters. The term-end dividend amount will be 5 yen/share, up 0.5 yen. The company plans to pay dividends with a payout ratio of 10% for the time being; however, it aims to pay dividends stably at a payout ratio of 20% - 30%.   |
| Growth Strategy - "Kindle the creative spirit" through synergetic effects between the commerce and platform businesses- |
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(1) Efforts for each business
The growth strategies for the commerce business include the following 3 points: brand popularization with products, strengthening of IT, and opening up of new sales channels. In addition, the company will focus to use the knowhow acquired in the commerce business on the platform business, as well as attach more weight to profit than to sales increase.
Commerce Business Brand popularization with products
Starting from distribution of accessories for mobile phones, the company has successfully expanded wholesale and retail through its long-tail product lineup, and afterwards, it has increased both sales and profitability by having manufacturing functions as a company with a fabrication facility. Competition, however, in the market of accessories for mobile phones is intense, and too many products are sold via the Internet, making it difficult to find the product that a customer wants to buy. Thus, what are more important than anything else include not only elaborate product manufacturing but also brand development. The company gives weight, from these perspectives, to "brand popularization with products (enhancement of unique products)." The company has actually succeeded in enhancing an awareness of its brand and improving the gross margin ratio by proactively releasing unique in-house planned products, such as, not to mention the "iFace series" products which have been a smash hit, Bluetooth speakers featuring tremendously popular Disney's characters.
Strengthening of IT
The company puts effort also into strengthening of IT (thorough automation, and investment in system development aimed at productivity improvement). Although the improvement in the profitability of the commerce business is currently attributed largely to the increase in the retail ratio and the ratio of in-house planned products, the company is reaping the fruits of some of its efforts to strengthen IT, such as "Full Automation Apparel App," which is described later in this report (a full-fledged progress in the efforts will be seen from now on).
Opening Up of New Sales Channels
As the number of stores that have opened seems sufficient for retail (B-to-C sales via the Internet), the company will shift its focus to establishment of stores (websites) with target customers clearly defined. Meanwhile, regarding wholesale, in addition to traditional sales channels, including electrical appliance stores and general shops, it will open up new sales channels, including the apparel market, and markets related to fashion, such as bags.
Platform Business
In the platform business, the company will endeavor to increase the added value of platforms through system linkage, aiming to achieve the current goal of 5,000 user companies as early as possible. Furthermore, in the medium term, it will develop AI-, big data- and solution-based sales support using enormous amounts of data, such as orders placed and received, and stock, managed on "Next Engine" (which will serve as not only a back office platform but also a sales platform).
Improvement of Added Value of Platforms
The company released, in August, "Full Automation Apparel App" that enables data coordination of online apparel shopping websites and automatic linkage of stock through the API. In addition, it started in October to offer a financing service application for "Next Engine" users (e-commerce operators) only, called "Application for Coordination with GMO-PG Transaction Lending Service."
"Full Automation Apparel App"
Any online apparel shopping websites which have completed data coordination can automate relevant tasks using "Full Automation Apparel App" when they open and run stores. The company has already established collaboration with "ZOZOTOWN," and is conducting negotiations with "SHOPLIST" and "LOCONDO" over system coordination.The company's sales department that sells accessories for smartphones opened a store in ZOZOTOWN in August 2016; however, ZOZOTOWN has adopted a "consignment sales" system in which a company sells its products by depositing goods in stock with a designated warehouse. Taking this occasion, the company started to consider automating "consignment sales" operations using "Next Engine" (similar requests for automation were submitted by some Next Engine users who had decided to open shops in online apparel shopping websites). "App for Coordination with GMO-PG Transaction Lending"
"App for Coordination with GMO-PG Transaction Lending" connects data of "Next Engine" to the "GMO-PG Transaction Lending" service, a financing service targeting e-commerce operators that uses settlement data provided by GMO Payment Gateway, Inc. (3769, first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE); hereinafter referred to as GOM-PG). This app allows any e-commerce operators who use both "Next Engine" and the settlement service of GMO-PG (hereinafter referred to as GMO-PG member stores) to, by introducing "App for Coordination with GMO-PG Transaction Lending," undergo a speedy loan screening which requires no collateral or joint and several guarantee (money will be lent based on the data managed on "Next Engine," such as orders placed and received, and stock, and daily sales results that can be grasped through the GMO-PG's settlement service).In the past, Hamee Corp. itself had to take out loans for raising purchase funds and stock funds in order to deal with the rapidly increasing sales, encountering difficulty in preparing itself for loan screening, including complexity of necessary documents, while conducting daily businesses; therefore, it had held discussion many times with GMO-PG over the possibility of making the loan screening process simpler using IT. "App for Coordination with GMO-PG Transaction Lending" is a new Fintech service that realizes expeditious financing support by connecting data, such as orders placed and received, and stock, to daily sales results. The company will seek system coordination with financial institutions, nonbank financial institutions, and other similar organizations. The company provides OEM versions of "Next Engine" to GMO Solution Partner, Inc. and GMO Commerce, Inc., both, together with GMO-PG, are the group companies of the GMO Group (GMO Solution Partner and GMO Commerce offer services to their customers under the service name of "Stock Manager" and "Sugoi! Net Shop Kanri," respectively).   Business Expansion to Global Market
The company has expanded its e-commerce business to South Korea (hamee.co.kr), China (taobao; strapya.world.taobao.com), the U.S. (hamee.com), and Taiwan (Yahoo!; tw.mall.yahoo.com/store/hamee_taiwan), and the cumulative total number of "iFace Series" products shipped worldwide, which the company considers as its strategic product, has exceeded ten million. In China, business continues to be brisk thanks to the products developed locally targeting the Chinese market and the product enrichment effect through organization of the system of purchase from the Korean subsidiary. Sales volume considerably grew on November 11, a Single Day, and sales have been maintained at a high level thereafter. In addition, as the local versions of the system are getting on the right track, the company is preparing to offer the "Next Engine" users in Japan a local version of the system as an app for e-commerce business in China (for managing orders received and stock). Furthermore, in the United States, the company has successfully prospected for two leading electrical appliance stores, at which its products seem to be selling well although, at this moment, only part of the company's products were just started to be imported and sold on a trial basis.In order to expand its businesses to the global market, the company will (1) establish necessary systems in-house while propelling e-commerce localization, and later, (2) start the platform business after developing the system so created as a local version of "Next Engine." In the medium and long term, it plans to (3) make "Next Engine" a global platform which is essential to e-commerce business by networking the platforms of each country. At the present time, the company is in Phase (1), an investment stage, in each country; however, it is expected that the degree of sales and profit contribution will be greater for the term ending April 2018. (2) Growth image
The company will first steadily grow the commerce business by improving its brand power through stronger original products and improving productivity through intensified automation. And, based on this, it will accelerate its profit growth with the platform business as a growth engine. For the platform business, it will increase the varieties of applications, strengthen collaboration with external systems, obtain new customers, and, in the mid-term, develop solutions using AI and big data. Furthermore, it will expand the overseas commerce business, release Next Engine, and connect various countries' platforms via network. Through global expansion of the commerce and platform businesses, it aims to store more profits.
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| Conclusions |
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| <Reference: Regarding corporate governance> |
 ◎ Corporate Governance Report Updated on July 27, 2017
The Hamee group set the corporate philosophy: We Create the Best "e" for the Better "e" World, and recognizes that its primary missions are to strengthen its corporate governance systems and promote the corporate philosophy in order to achieve sustainable growth and improve shareholder value. The company also strives to boost the supervision function of the board of directors and secure the soundness and transparency of business administration by hiring two outsider directors and three external auditors. The directors and all employees of Hamee will observe laws, regulations, and the articles of incorporation, fulfill their duties under sound social norms, strive to enhance risk control and supervision functions, and improve the soundness and transparency of business administration.
<Basic policy> <Reasons for Non-compliance with the Principles of the Corporate Governance Code (Excerpts)>
Principle 5-2In the EC market surrounding Hamee, technological innovations and industrial changes are frequent, and it is very difficult to predict future earnings. Accordingly, it is considered that medium to long-term quantitative earnings forecasts does not always contribute to the appropriate judgments of stakeholders, and so the company does not disclose the numerical goals in its medium-term managerial plan. <Disclosure Based on the Principles of the Corporate Governance Code (Excerpts)>
Principle 1-4The basic policy of Hamee is not to have so-called strategically held shares (e.g. cross-held shares). As of now, the company does not have such shares. Principle 1-7Hamee basically does not make transactions with related parties, unless it is guaranteed that it is reasonable to make the transactions and the conditions for the transactions are appropriate and they would not reduce the profit of the Hamee's group. When starting any transactions with related parties, the company will carefully judge whether the above items are guaranteed, and wait for a resolution of the board of directors, etc. in accordance with the Companies Act, Hamee's rules for internal approval and regulations for authority of management. In addition, the company regularly confirms with executives whether they have any transactions with related parties, and discloses facts through securities reports. Principle 5-1Hamee puts importance on constructive dialogues with shareholders and others, in order to contribute to the sustainable growth of the company and the mid to long-term improvement of corporate value, and makes efforts to increase opportunities for the president, directors in charge of IR, and staff of the IR and communication section to communicate with shareholders and investors. The IR and communication section holds a weekly meeting with the accounting and general affairs departments, to keep organic cooperation. As of now, the company holds a session for briefing financial results that is attended by the president twice a year, meetings with domestic and overseas institutional investors when necessary, telephone interviews, a briefing session for individual investors several times a year, and so on. The results of these events are reported to the board of directors. At the time of dialogue with shareholders, the company takes rigorous measures for preventing the leak of insider information. Disclaimer
This report is intended solely for information purposes, and is not intended as a solicitation to invest in the shares of this company. The information and opinions contained within this report are based on data made publicly available by the Company, and comes from sources that we judge to be reliable. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the data. This report is not a guarantee of the accuracy, completeness or validity of said information and or opinions, nor do we bear any responsibility for the same. All rights pertaining to this report belong to Investment Bridge Co., Ltd., which may change the contents thereof at any time without prior notice. All investment decisions are the responsibility of the individual and should be made only after proper consideration.Copyright(C) 2018, Investment Bridge Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. |
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