ENVALITH
株式会社アソインターナショナル logo

ASO INTERNATIONAL, INC.

9340・Standard Market・Services

Official website
株式会社アソインターナショナル logo
ASO INTERNATIONAL, INC.9340

Business

Aso International Co., Ltd. is a dental laboratory group specializing in orthodontic dental prosthetics, founded in 1982. The Group (comprising 6 companies in total, including 4 consolidated subsidiaries) provides more than 100 types of orthodontic dental prosthetics—including orthodontic appliances (expansion plates, retainers, etc.), AsoAligner DIGITAL (clear aligner orthodontic device), and I.D.B.S (Indirect Bonding System)—to approximately 26,000 dental institutions nationwide that offer orthodontic treatment. The company listed on the Standard Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 2022. It has a sales track record with all 29 dental universities in Japan, and the number of dental institutions it transacted with reached 6,425 in the fiscal year under review. The company has overseas bases in the Philippines, Hawaii, and the U.S. mainland, and is accelerating its global expansion.

Business Model

The company receives per-patient dental technician work orders from dental institutions and produces custom orthodontic appliances through a combination of in-house production (46 staff domestically and at its Philippine base) and outsourcing to 57 partner facilities. This structure allows flexible response to order fluctuations while keeping fixed costs low. In addition, the company sells digital products (intraoral scanners, LuxCreo 3D printers, etc.) through purchase-and-resale (product sales of ¥574 million), and is expanding revenue from ancillary services such as seminar contracting, materials sales, and license fees.

Company Strengths

The company has business relationships with 6,425 of the approximately 26,000 dental institutions in Japan that provide orthodontic treatment, and has a sales track record with all 29 dental universities in Japan. Long-term business relationships built through use in dental university practical training and research lead to continued use by newly opened practitioners, while word-of-mouth customer referrals support a stable increase in business partners.

Sales of digital orthodontic dental appliances, including AsoAligner DIGITAL and the HARMONY lingual system, expanded 9.5% year on year to ¥1,182 million. Sales of digital products also performed well, and process efficiency gains from manufacturing DX also contributed, resulting in an operating margin of 17.3% (up 1.9 percentage points year on year).

At the end of the consolidated fiscal year under review, the equity ratio stood at 88.0% (86.8% in the previous fiscal year), with cash and cash equivalents of ¥1,945 million. All investments, including capital expenditures of ¥29 million, were funded from internal funds, and management has explicitly stated there are no particular financial issues. This high level of financial soundness underpins the agility of growth investments, including overseas expansion.

ENVALITH's Perspective

Cumulative sales for the nine months of the third quarter of FY2026 (ending June 2026) came to ¥3,057 million, representing 76.2% of the full-year forecast of ¥4,013 million, while operating profit of ¥509 million reached 68.3% of the full-year forecast of ¥746 million. Compared to the same period last year, all indicators showed growth: sales +8.5%, operating profit +11.7%, ordinary profit +20.4%, and net profit +19.3%. There has been no revision to the full-year earnings forecast, and the current progress rate is judged to be generally within expectations.

Foreign exchange losses, which had amounted to ¥27,728 thousand in the same period last year, shrank substantially to ¥6,817 thousand in the current period, and this was the main factor behind the 20.4% year-on-year growth in ordinary profit (exceeding the 11.7% growth in operating profit). As an external factor, the easing of the yen's depreciation trend contributed to boosting profit, and there is a risk that future profit growth rates could fluctuate depending on exchange rate movements. Meanwhile, interest and dividend income also increased from ¥2,205 thousand to ¥8,588 thousand, with investment returns on financial assets also contributing to earnings.

Salaries and allowances within selling, general and administrative expenses increased by ¥24,173 thousand (+7.8%) year-on-year, reflecting continued upward pressure on labor costs related to technical personnel. The chronic shortage of dental technicians is a structural challenge across the industry, and while progress has been made in reducing labor requirements through manufacturing DX, expanding personnel and manufacturing capacity in line with growing order volumes has been explicitly stated as a priority issue in the medium-term management plan. The company's expansion into the U.S. market is still at an early stage, and the profit contribution from overseas sales appears limited at present.

Growth Strategy

Pursuing sustainable growth through three axes: deepening digitalization, expansion into the U.S. mainland market, and manufacturing DX

Strengthening proposals for digital products such as intraoral scanner-compatible products and 3D printer-molded items to drive higher order unit prices per client clinic. The steady performance of digital orthodontic dental appliances during the cumulative third quarter has driven sales growth, and the initiative is progressing steadily.

Aiming to expand overseas sales by continuing to provide high-quality, high-value-added products to major U.S. university hospitals such as UCSF, University of Texas, and Boston University. Steady growth in overseas sales driven by company-hosted seminars and sales channel expansion contributed to the increase in cumulative third-quarter sales.

Continuing to promote manufacturing DX within the group to improve profit margins through enhanced production efficiency. In the cumulative third quarter, depreciation expenses decreased year-on-year to ¥31,321 thousand (from ¥33,775 thousand in the prior year), reflecting progress in efficiency gains, while expanded orders for high-value-added products absorbed cost increase factors, improving the operating profit margin.

As a second-year initiative of the Medium-Term Management Plan 2025-2028, promoting the rebuilding of the online ordering system. Aiming to improve customer convenience and streamline order processing, thereby establishing a foundation to support the expansion of personnel and manufacturing capacity accompanying business growth.

Last updated: July 17, 2026