In April 2003, the Company shifted its system to a pure holding company under the name of VIA Holdings Inc.
Since then, the VIA Group has been promoting efficient and effective management, with the Restaurant Business and the Printing and Distribution Business as its core businesses.
Furthermore, the Group has been achieving steady growth while expanding its businesses through active M&A activities.
From now on, we will implement management strategies centering on “expansion and growth” in the Restaurant Business, our main business domain, and “reorganization and reconstruction” in the Printing and Distribution Business.

In the fiscal year under review, the business environment of the Restaurant Business, the Group’s core operation, was being influenced by increasing pressure on costs, such as raw materials and personnel expenses, while the market size remained almost unchanged. On top of this, restaurant operators are facing a severe business climate, reflecting several negative factors including rekindled worries about foods after a series of food scandals among consumers; a decrease in the number of drinkers; and a trend in which individual consumers refrained from eating out.

Under such circumstances, the Restaurant Business of the Group expanded at a steady pace, through active business evolutions of our existing operations, product strategies, and acquisition of new type of restaurants. During the period under review, we acquired shares of Ichigen Inc., which operates a chain of Japanese-style pub restaurants (izakaya) named “Shokusaiya Ichigen” nationwide, and NBK Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of VIA Holdings, acquired restaurant operations such as Kitanokazoku, an izakaya chain. As a result, the total number of outlets of the Group reached nearly 600 from the preceding year of 500, making a remarkable breakthrough. With regard to the Printing and Distribution Business, the publishing industry remained sluggish.  Against this backdrop, however, the Group expanded its business fields steadily by launching the digital undertaking business under the keywords of “an information processing corporation,” with focusing on creation of new added values to contribute to solving clients’ problems.

We expect that the economy in Japan will steadily recover supported by a pickup in corporate earnings, despite such an unfavorable factor as rising prices of raw materials. The Group will reconstruct and expand its existing businesses, and improve values of businesses that were newly acquired through M&A and reorganize them, aiming to create new values that are less susceptible to social conditions, pursue employees’ great pleasure, and enhance the value of the entire Group in early stages.

We hope that you will extend even greater support to the Company.