COTA CO., LTD.

COTA CO., LTD. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Kumiyama-cho, Kyoto Prefecture, operating as a manufacturer of products sold exclusively to beauty salons. The company manufactures and sells toiletries such as shampoo and treatment (flagship brand "COTA I CARE"), styling products, hair color, hair growth treatments, and permanent wave solutions. Products are not sold through retail channels such as supermarkets or drugstores, with beauty salons nationwide serving as the sole sales channel. Sales are conducted through two routes—the agency route and the direct sales route—with the Sales Department No. 2, operating across 12 branches nationwide, handling direct sales. Net sales for FY2025 (ended March 2025) reached ¥9,376 million, marking 27 consecutive years of sales growth (an all-time high). The company is listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In addition to selling products, the company operates consulting and sales activities centered on its "Junpoten System (Consulting & Sales)", which collects and analyzes client salons' business data (sales, customer visits, etc.) and provides management improvement measures free of charge. Through counseling with visiting customers, hairdressers sell toiletries and other items directly at the salon (in-salon retail sales), which raises the salons' average customer spend and repeat visit rate, forming a virtuous cycle that leads to continued purchases of the company's products. The ordinary income margin remained at a high level of 19.6% (FY2025, ended March 2025).

For the nine months ended cumulative Q3 of FY2026 (ending March 2026), net sales were ¥7,626 million (up 2.6% year on year), operating profit was ¥1,789 million (up 5.3%), ordinary profit was ¥1,850 million (up 9.3%), and quarterly net profit was ¥1,271 million (up 8.8%). Strong sales of the core brand COTA I CARE and favorable results from the "COTA National Store Sales Contest" drove the revenue increase. The fact that ordinary profit growth exceeded operating profit growth was due to a substantial increase in non-operating income, including interest income (¥16 million, approximately 5.7 times the same period of the previous year) and dividend income (¥32 million, approximately 12.6 times the same period of the previous year). There is no change to the full-year earnings forecast (net sales of ¥9,668 million, operating profit of ¥1,916 million). Looking at full-year results over the past five periods, while net sales have maintained a growth trend, operating profit had declined for four consecutive periods after peaking at ¥2,151 million in FY2022 (ending March 2022); however, this period has turned to a year-on-year profit increase, confirming signs of profitability improvement.