Nousouken Corporation

Nogyo Sogo Kenkyusho Co., Ltd., founded in 2007 in Wakayama City under the vision of "realizing a sustainable agricultural industry and enriching people's lives," operates a unique distribution platform for its Farmers' Direct Sales Outlet Business. Through 78 collection centers nationwide, the company gathers agricultural produce from 10,419 registered producers and sells it the next day at Sanchoku corners in 2,246 supermarkets and other retail locations. In its Sanchoku Business, the company purchases directly from producers and operates Branding Wholesale. It functions as an agricultural produce distribution infrastructure that achieves a win-win-win outcome for producers, supermarkets, and consumers, with net sales reaching ¥8,359 million in FY2025 (ended August 2025).

The Farmers' Direct Sales Outlet Business is centered on a high-margin Consignment Sales System, under which fees are collected from producers—shipping fees, barcode issuance fees, sales-linked commissions, registration fees, and annual membership fees. A key feature of this structure is that neither the company nor the supermarkets bear inventory risk. The Sanchoku Business also operates a purchase-and-sale model, in which products are bought directly from producers for Branding Wholesale. In FY2025 (ending August 2025), the Farmers' Direct Sales Outlet Business segment maintained a high segment profit margin of 14.6%, whereas the Sanchoku Business had thin margins, with segment profit of ¥30 million on sales of ¥2,696 million.

Revenue grew for five consecutive periods, from ¥4,738 million in FY2021 to ¥8,359 million in FY2025. Operating profit turned positive in FY2023 and continued improving, reaching ¥94 million in FY2024 and ¥182 million in FY2025. However, in the first half (interim period) of FY2026 (ending August 2026), the company posted revenue of ¥4,644 million (up 12.4% year on year) but fell into an operating loss of ¥17 million. The main cause was a ¥295 million year-on-year increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, with upfront costs such as human capital investment and development of an AI demand forecasting system weighing on results. As an external factor, produce prices trended somewhat higher due to unfavorable weather including low rainfall, but supermarket produce sales trends underperformed overall food sales, with growth in total distribution value limited to 3.7%. The full-year forecast remains unchanged at revenue of ¥8,500-9,500 million and operating profit of ¥300-350 million, which presupposes a recovery in profitability in the second half.