[Workman Co., Ltd.] Declaration of strengthening workpieces! ! Sales of heat protection products alone increased by 6 billion yen
Workman Co., Ltd. Press release: January 30, 2025 Declaration of stronger work! ! Sales of heat protection products alone increased by 6 billion yen 80% of developers working on products/Sales increased by 6 billion yen with the first heat protection product/World’s first external environment shielding material/Offensive in processing trade
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/13308/52/13308-52-4d6d926f36df4076c1507bb4ba4ea182-725×365.png Workman Co., Ltd. (Head office: Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture, President and CEO: Hideyuki Obama) operates a total of 1,037 stores, including 318 WORKMAN stores, 10 WORKMAN Pro stores, 615 WORKMAN Plus stores, 78 #Workman Girls stores*1, and 16 WORKMAN Plus II stores. There is a slight backlash from focusing our product development resources on products for general customers at Workman Joshi Store (hereinafter referred to as Joshi Store). Although we succeeded in launching a “new style” women’s store that does not carry work clothes, we are paying the price. *1 Including 11 WORKMAN Plus stores located in commercial facilities that do not handle work clothes WORKMAN and WORKMAN Plus, which mainly focus on work clothes, were lacking in development of work clothes for “existing stores.” As a result, our work uniform sales were sluggish. Expanding the sales area for general customers in existing stores = a slight reduction in the sales area for working customers. However, the lack of development personnel and delays in climate change countermeasures are more important than the sales floor area. Similarly, work supplies such as work shoes, gloves, and tools, which have a slightly smaller sales floor, are selling well. As a result of fully dedicating product development staff to the girls’ store and promoting the creation of exclusive products (previously, many of the products were common to existing stores), the store will now be able to expand We are entering a period of mass store openings. In the first stage, we opened 40 directly managed women’s stores in large urban malls, and they were a huge success. As the brand image originating from the city has penetrated into the preferred rural areas, as a second step, in the autumn of 2024, we launched an offensive to open street stores in regional cities with a population of 30,000 to 80,000 people. All stores have become more prosperous than our average. However, since it is necessary to attract a wider range of customers in regions with smaller populations, the store name will be changed to “Workman Colors,” which will help attract both female and male customers. In 2025, Workman Colors will open 40 new stores in local/street/franchise formats. In May 2015, the number of stores exceeded 100, and seven and a half years later, the number reached 400. As the business format of our women’s stores solidified and we entered the period of
full-fledged store openings, our company shifted its development focus to strengthening workwear, which is our main business, from the latter half of 2014. 80% of our in-house product development resources are dedicated to existing store products, which are work clothes, to roughly reflect the sales composition. The remaining 20% are development staff at women’s stores that do not sell work clothes. Work clothes are our core specialty, so if we can secure enough development personnel, we will be on a growth track in a short period of time. In fact, starting in the spring of 2025, new products designed to strengthen the work force will be released one after another, shaking up the workwear industry. The increase in sales of the five new toughening products introduced in this release alone will amount to 5 billion yen. If we add the 1 billion yen increase in production for the 2025 new model of wear with fans for extreme heat, we will achieve a work toughening effect of 6 billion yen from heat protection products alone. Even though products to protect against the extreme heat caused by global warming and year-round work clothes can be made and sold, there has been a lack of new products. Our same-store business has undergone a transformation since the opening of the WORKMAN Plus store in 2018. At existing stores, in addition to our mainstay work clothes/work supplies, we have increased the proportion of outdoor and active wear for general customers. Recently, up to 40% of the products at WORKMAN Plus stores are for general customers. However, more than 40% of the products sold to general customers are purchased by work customers. Workers often wear somewhat flashy general customer outdoor wear and rainwear to work. Recently, the number of workers has been decreasing. There is a noticeable shift away from the construction industry among young people, and there is little inflow. Older workers are rapidly retiring due to harsher weather conditions. Many people quit their jobs due to the intense heat and back pain. In order to extend working life, our company’s Comfortable Work Research Institute develops innovative new products that involve R&D investment. The 2025 new models of air-conditioned clothing using a Peltier semiconductor system (19,800 yen including tax) and pants with a built-in back pain belt (1,900 yen including tax) developed by the research institute are also included in the work toughening plan. The reason for the sluggish sales of work clothes at existing WORKMAN and WORKMAN Plus stores is: 1. Weak organizational response to work clothes ・Due to the huge boom in women’s stores, development personnel focused too much attention on women’s stores, and as a result, their main business was neglected Like children’s soccer, almost everyone chased after the ball at women’s stores. ・Women’s stores that mainly sell women’s products, which lacked knowledge, were established by intensive investment of development resources, but it was an excessive investment 2. Delay in responding to climate change due to excessive inventory ・We were slow to respond to the shortening of the sales period for cold-weather work clothes, which was our overwhelming strength. There was an over-reliance on cold-weather clothes, and even though the climate was changing, we were too slow to respond to the shortening of the sales period for cold-weather work clothes. Waited.” ・There was an excess inventory of cold protection products at stores and headquarters. It was difficult to introduce new products Since there was a large inventory of heavy cold protection products, the shift to light winter protection products and year-round products due to global warming was delayed. ・The heat continues, but summer and winter products are not selling well. September-October was the slow season, and sales decreased compared to the previous year In 2024, in order to sell out inventory, heavy cold protection products were put on the shelves in September, when the intense heat continued, but the response was weak.On the other hand, it would be better to develop summer clothes, heat stroke prevention products, and year-round work clothes. It sold well, but lacked momentum due to lack of resources. Although Peltier
semiconductor type air-conditioning clothing was the first, it lacked the power to quickly dominate the market ・As a result, summer and year-round items were not able to sufficiently offset the decline in cold-protection items /td> 3. Late response after the outdoor boom has subsided ・Outdoor wear is sometimes worn by workers at work, so it has become a priority field because it is close to the main business ・The outdoor boom during the coronavirus period was tremendous, and the supply continued to be unable to keep up Outdoor wear was at its peak Sales of clothing and gear reached 5% of the total. Even after the outdoor boom subsided, the company was unable to change its
positioning or adjust its scale to meet demand. Outdoor wear will become a broader range of active wear, with products emphasizing functionality and athleticism As mentioned above, our company achieves low prices by placing large orders one year in advance through planned production, which has the disadvantage of not being flexible in the one-year product development cycle. Even so, I regret that we were too slow to respond to climate change. Basic policy of “Work Resilience” Plan: 1. Separate the work clothes/work supplies and Workman Colors store product development organizations to concentrate resources on work clothes ・The development organization was divided into two, one for existing stores that mainly sell work clothes and one for new stores that do not handle work clothes. ・The allocation of development resources to existing stores and new stores was 1:1. However, the ratio was changed to 8 to 2 depending on the sales scale. By strengthening the development system, it is expected that half of the resilience target will be achieved in the first year of 2025 2. Achieving a seasonal assortment of products We have completed inventory optimization of cold-weather items at our stores and headquarters, so we can now shift to a seasonal product lineup.・We will be stocking summer items (March to September), summer/autumn items There will be three seasons: autumn (September to November) and winter (mid-October to February). The most notable feature is that the sales period for summer items has been extended to seven months, while the sales period for winter items has been shortened. The transition period from winter to summer is short, so omit spring items (summer items from March) ・Summer items and products for dealing with extreme heat, whose sales period is more than half of the year, should be given top priority as development items = growth engines. ・Year-round work clothes, which have sales peaks in April and October, are key products that can compensate for the decrease in winter clothing. ・This is the off-season. From September to October, we will create a new product category for summer/autumn/autumn items. Basically, we will make up for the decreased sales of winter items with summer/autumn/autumn items and year-round items. Summer/Autumn items are new categories for us, so we will spend multiple years cultivating popular products Introducing the first new products of this spring’s “work toughening” plan: We are confident that we have features and prices that only we can offer, which pose a major threat to our competitors. 1. “XShelter” series that keeps you cool while wearing it. 1,900 yen to 2,900 yen including tax, 470,000 pieces of 12 size produced. XShelter is a new material that changes common sense in the clothing industry and is the world’s first, developed jointly by our company with an overseas material manufacturer. state” XShelter has three types of uses:
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/13308/52/13308-52-678fd240a8d8d229e883cd4fcc79d68d-736×186.png 1. The definitive clothing for protection against extreme heat packed with alleviation functions 4 times the insulation power of window glass / same shielding rate as a parasol / same UV shielding effect as curtains / 3 times faster drying performance than synthetic fibers
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/13308/52/13308-52-d9d9bb85914285ebfe097b21bbe7ff47-889×661.png 2. It has moisture permeability and moisture release functions, and can release 3 liters of sweat per hour, so you won’t get stuffy. 2. Introducing new products in the workwear field that needs to be strengthened 1) “Wonder Stretch” series year-round work clothes Top and bottom 3,400 yen including tax, type 3 500,000 piecesSold We are bullish about producing 500,000 clothes for 3 million skilled construction workers, but we are confident that we will sell them “absolutely” based on the following reasons: ・While the market for cold-weather work clothes is shrinking, the demand for year-round work clothes is increasing as the sales period becomes longer ・Highly designed and 1/3 of other companies’ list price ・Our equivalent basic design product (cumulative sales of 3.7 million pieces) costs 4,400 yen including tax for the top and bottom. ・“Processed trade goods” where we rent out the production line of an overseas factory, supply the fabric and auxiliary materials, and pay only the processing fee ◇Our processing trade includes material supply planning and production planning to avoid idle production lines; ordering, purchasing, inspection, and storage from Chinese material manufacturers; trilateral transportation of materials to overseas factories; Bonded import procedures/ Attending manufacturing guidance and
inspection/Export procedures to Japan/Securing shipping space between China and the country where the factory is located, between the country where the factory is located and Japan, and paying sea freight and holding costs/Payment of import/export charges/All processes (full Instead of incurring a huge amount of effort and long-term financial burden, such as insurance (which cannot be covered by insurance), we achieve the lowest price by far. ◇If there is a delay in even one item of the materials we supply, we will not be able to produce.We guarantee the operation of the production line, so we will pay labor even if it is not in operation.On the other hand, if we have too much safety stock, the financial burden will be heavy. Therefore, the operational difficulty is extremely high As the second part of the processing trade, a high-end model “year-round work uniform top and bottom priced at 4,800 yen” will be released in the fall of 2025. From now on, we will replace our popular PB work clothes withprocessed trade goodsevery year. Although our workload is heavier, we can achieve a different dimension of work toughness with processed trade goods.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/13308/52/13308-52-ad9ff38291234201875942f81aeb12a4-892×667.png 2) “ZERO-STAGE” Work Clothes Series for Extreme Heat Measures – 6,800 yen (excl. tax) for top and bottom set, 260,000 pieces of type 5 on sale A product that is fully equipped with our company’s special features and realizes comfortable work during intense heat br>Although we have achieved the ultimate cost performance in processing trade, this product pursues the ultimate in safety and life-saving functions in extreme heat ・As the culmination of our 44 years of know-how in summer workwear, we have introduced nothing better than this ・Using Teijin Frontier’s high-quality sports materials, in addition to corporate ECO and JIS electrostatic compatibility, it is equipped with 10 additional functions ・This will be our company’s top-of-the-line work uniform, and we will expand our work-related customer base through large-scale events and promotional media filling both inside and outside the store ・Collaboration products with famous artistsSold 260,000 items (casual collaboration products also available) 3. 25th year new model of air-conditioning clothes equipped with Peltier semiconductors, 19,800 yen including tax, 100,000 pieces of type 2 sold ・Buying on the global warming bandwagonProducts that can be made and sold have made significant progress this year as well ・Increased cooling points from 3 to 5, equipped with the world’s smallest battery, and kept the price unchanged ・Although other companies will enter the market this year, we will widen the gap between us and the second best with our first-mover advantage and new features by far. ・You can change from “cooling” mode to “heating” mode with a single switch, so it can be worn in winter.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/13308/52/13308-52-5565eb71f185f6e642648be489c8ab75-889×664.png As the new products related to global warming mentioned above are gaining momentum, we are aiming for strong sales of 5 billion yen. If we add to this the increased production of the 25th year new model of wear with fans, which is in excellent condition, we will have made considerable progress in making work tougher as a countermeasure against extreme heat. From now on, our biggest challenge is to deal with the slow season from September to October. First of all, we will launch new categories for summer and fall clothing, and strengthen our year-round workwear to a different level through processing trade. Through these efforts, we will achieve stronger workwear in 2026 and put workwear on a trajectory of further growth. Company name: Workman Co., Ltd. Address: Tokyo Headquarters: 4-8-1 Higashiueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo / Kanto-Shinetsu Headquarters: 1732 Shiba-cho, Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture Industry: Franchise A specialty store chain that sells work clothes, work supplies, and outdoor sportswear through the system Listing: TSE Standard Market (7564)

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