| Partner Agent, Inc. (6181) |
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Company |
Partner Agent, Inc. |
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Code No. |
6181 |
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Exchange |
TSE Mothers |
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Industry |
Service industry |
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President |
Shigeru Sato |
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Address |
Imasu Osaki Building, 1-20-3 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo |
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Year-end |
End of March |
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URL |
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* The share price is the closing price on December 9. The number of shares issued was taken from the brief financial report for the latest period.
ROE and BPS are those for the previous term. |
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* The forecasted values were provided by the company.
* From the term ended Mar. 2016, net income is profit attributable to owners of the parent. Hereinafter the same apply. We would like to report an overview of the financial statement of the second quarter of the fiscal year (FY) March 2017 of Partner Agent, Inc. |
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| Key Points |
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| Company Overview |
 1-1 Corporate history Later, when the business of T&G slowed down and continuous investment became difficult, President Sato, the executive staff and the employees collaboratively purchased the shares of Partner Agent, Inc., and the Company became independent from the T&G Group in May 2008. The customers highly regard the Company's high marriage rate, which is the result of "pursuing customers' goals" and the Company's business has been growing steadily. It was listed on the TSE Mothers in October 2015. 1-2 Corporate ethos, etc. 1-3 Market environment<Situations of unmarried people>  Growing percentage of unmarried peopleAccording to the national census conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the percentage of unmarried people between 25 and 34 years of age has been increasing for both men and women in Japan.   Intention to marry among unmarried people: "Intention to marry" remains at a high level.  Reasons for being single: It is hard to meet an appropriate person for marriage after 25 years of age <Other companies in the industry>
There are about 3,000 marriage hunting agencies in Japan. 90% of them are operated by individual business owners. There are only a few agencies including the Company that runs the businesses across Japan. Following are the companies listed on the stock exchange in the marriage hunting industry, including Partner Agent.  1-4 Business contentsA. Partner Agent Business
The Partner Agent Business provides information to the members, introduces potential partners and provides opportunities to meet. Each member has a concierge who is exclusively assigned to the member to support their marriage hunting activities, develop plans for actions and supports the customers professionally. Also, in order to provide opportunities to meet, the Company plans and hosts events for the members. There are more female members, with the member composition ratio of male to female being between 4:6 and 3:7.  (Characteristics of services)
A concierge with high coaching skills works with a "customer who wants to find a marriage partner within 1 year". The concierge responds to the needs of the customer who desires cost-effective services without wasting time and effort. The activities are designed based on the PDCA cycle.The concierges are mostly women who are done raising children, willing to help others through marriage hunting support and share joys. As of the end of June 2016, there are 171 concierges. As for the concierge's activities, the Company has the motto of "pursuing customers' goals" and the concierges are evaluated based on the "customers' satisfaction" including the engagement rate and early withdrawal rate. <Image of support based on the PDCA cycle>
(1) Before becoming a member: Clearly show service contents and fee structures
A customer who is considering to be a member and comes to the store for the first time is greeted by an account executive whose role is to encourage him/her to become a member. The account executive explains the service contents and fee structures in details so that the customer can accurately understand them.
If it seems difficult to continue introducing partners to the customers based on certain criteria, the customer may be declined to be a member. This is to avoid the situations where the customers are not satisfied with the services such as they cannot reach a contact (meeting) or go steady with a partner, even though they pay monthly membership fees. (2) After becoming a member: Support by a concierge who is exclusively assigned to a member.
Once a customer becomes a member, an interview is conducted by a designated concierge in charge of the customer to understand the customer's sense of value and expectations.
At this time, using the coaching skills, the concierge tries to have the customer's expectations and ideal model of marriage as clear as possible. This way, instead of helping the customers to find their partners abstractly, the concierges can help them find someone with specific criteria. In addition to the conventional matching mechanism through data, the Company offers concierge services. This has differentiated the Company's service from the others. With this system, the Company can offer cost-effective services without making a detour and wasting time and efforts of the customers. During the marriage hunting process, the designated concierges help the members to modify the path as needed using a PDCA cycle. This way, the members can proactively work on the marriage hunting activities, even if they fail in the process. Furthermore, the concierges ask for comments and impression after each contact meeting from the members, provide consultation to the members during dating period and provide follow-ups after engagement (*) to walk with the members until they reach engagement. The follow-up period after an engagement is 1 year. This way, they can support the members for a long time until they marry. (*) Engagement (Withdrawal from the membership)
This means that a member withdraws from the membership after both members expressed their intention of continuation of dating with the intent to marry the partners they are dating. (3) Setting up contact (marriage meeting) : Support by the staff other than concierges
As the process advances, the members have contacts (marriage meetings) with the matched members. The specialized team supports them to coordinate the date, time and place of these contacts so that they can set up the meetings effortlessly and efficiently.
The support team helps the members to carry out the activities smoothly. For example, even if the members are lost on the way to the contact venue or cannot find the person that they are supposed to meet, the Company's staff provides support via phone or e-mail so that the members do not miss the chance to meet. Furthermore, when the customers seek second opinions, the Company provides third-party advice through a service desk.  (Additional services)
In addition to the introduction by a concierge, the Company develops and hosts various events such as marriage hunting parties. (1) Events for the members They are organized by the staff members who are specialized in organizing events to provide opportunities to meet among the members. Many members have met their partners through these events and reached engagement. The Company has event spaces within their own buildings. This makes the Company flexible in organizing the events without paying rent for the space. (2) Option services
 The Company offers photography (fee-based) for the members with extra charges. The first impression is crucial for marriage hunting. Therefore, in collaboration with professional camera operators and make-up artists, the Company offers photo sessions in their studios or within the Company's premises. Because the photography is specifically for marriage hunting, the Company can offer advices concerning appropriate clothing and facial expression based on their experiences. To provide the preliminary knowledge and information about marriage hunting to the members, the Company offers seminars (fee-based) on such as color coordination, fashion advisory and, communication for the members. B. Fast Marriage Hunting Business
The Fast Marriage Hunting Business is based on the concept of offering affordable marriage hunting services to enable the members to start using the service without hesitation. It consists of 3 types of services.
 (1) "OTOCON" marriage hunting parties
Marriage hunting parties for general members are called "OTOCON" and planned and operated under this business. Although these parties are targeting general members, some non-members show interest in the Company through these events and become members. Thus, OTOCON is also working as a venue to increase new members. Furthermore, similar to the event services for the members of the Partner Agent Business, there are staff members who are dedicated to event planning, and the events take place in the spaces within the Company's premises. The events promote efficient utilization of the Company facilities and also work as a channel to solicit new members. In other words, the OTOCON parties not only bring earnings to the Fast Marriage Hunting Business but also work in synergy with other services. (2) "OTOCON Members marriage hunting counter"
This affordable service began in May 2016 for single people who are interested in both marriage hunting parties and matching services. The service provision began at Shinjuku store (Tokyo) and Shinsaibashi store (Osaka) in May 2016, followed by Nagoya store (Aichi) in July and Funabashi store (Chiba) in October. Furthermore, because the party participants are approximately 1.4 times larger than the planned figures of this year (1.5-fold from the figures of the previous year), the Company opened one in Ikebukuro (Tokyo) and another Ginza (Tokyo) in October 2016. (3) Yahoo! Marriage hunting concierge plan
This is a marriage information service of the Company offered on the "Yahoo! Marriage Hunting Concierge" site, a marriage hunting portal site operated by Yahoo! Japan Corporation. The high-quality meeting opportunities supported by a marriage agency are offered for a reasonable price, and it is a collaborative business model.The characteristics of this plan are "Support from a designated concierge," "Highly accurate matching system," "On-line registration," "Credible members," and "Affordable cost (i.e. the initial cost is less than 10% of the general marriage agencies)." Announcement to the users and gathering customers are done online, which reduces the cost for operating stores. The service is provided only by the cost for customer support to achieve the low price. C. Solution Business
(1) Consultation services for business enterprises and local governments
As indicated below, under the Solution Business, the Company offers a wide range of services, including support for enterprises that are entering into the marriage hunting industry to start their business and support for local governments that are planning to offer marriage hunting support activities to the community people, from startup and introduction to operation. Depending on the needs and situation of the customers, the Company offers optimized solution services.
 The businesses include (1) direct marriage hunting businesses such as creating opportunities to meet or matchmaking, and (2) businesses to create a positive trend for marriage and environment to promote marriage. In the FY 2016, the national government financially subsidized local governments' marriage hunting support projects as part of the subsidy for promoting measures against the falling birthrate in local communities in a focused manner by Cabinet Office. As for the support for local governments, the Company often provides "parms," a marriage support system developed by the Company. The "parms" system offers basic functions such as member registration, member management and matching among the members, supports activities of the users (men and women who are looking for marriage partners) and streamlines the works of the project operation side. It can also be customized by needs of the operators.  (2) "CONNECT-ship", a platform for the members to introduce each other
The "CONNECT-ship" is a platform for marriage hunting support agencies to introduce the members each other. It will be launched in January 2017.
(Overview)
Initially, the following 5 agencies will be involved in the "CONNECT-ship."
 The platform (system) to achieve mutual introduction among members was developed by the Company. The other agencies will use the "CONNECT-ship" service which is being operated and maintained by the Company. The Company is also in charge of operating the executive secretariat of the "CONNECT-ship." Although the "CONNECT-ship" will be launched by 5 agencies, it will increase its scale by including other companies that have the same vision (i.e. to maximize the marriage opportunities), which is the ultimate goal of the customers. Each participating agency can offer its unique services and operations without being interfered by other participating agencies including the executive secretariat (the Company). The revenue sources of the Company which provides and operates the system are 1) monthly usage fees per member and 2) marriage meeting fee when a marriage meeting is established from each participating company. For FY March 2017, there is no impact on the business results because the system fees are provided for free as a trial period (the cost is included in the business estimates during this FY). The revenue will be generated from FY March 2018. (Purposes)
The purposes of the "CONNECT-ship" for the Company are to develop the industry by facilitating sales competition among the participating companies and by learning from each other in an effort to promote marriage among the members to raise customer satisfaction, within a new framework. At the same time, the Company is aiming to bring about changes in the industry so that healthy service quality competition is created.
D. Quality of Life (QOL) Business
To the customers who become members through the Partner Agency Businesses, the Company offers various services at their major life transition by maintaining relationship with the members even after they withdraw from the membership after their engagement. This is to enhance customer satisfaction and increase revenue opportunities. The members of the "Anniversary Club" are the ones who withdrew from the membership after their engagement. To those members, the following services are provided.   1-5 Characteristics and strengthsHigh engagement rate as a result of "pursuing customers' goal". The engagement rate for FY March 2016 was 27.2%. From the figure less than 20% (19.6%) in FY March 2012, the engagement rate is steadily increasing every year.  The "engagement rate" shows a rate of members who withdrew from the membership after their engagement during a specific period. Because the rate may also raise a question about the need for marriage hunting companies, many companies in the marriage hunting industry prefer not to use the engagement rate as an indicator. However, President Sato has been focusing on the idea of "pursuing customers' goals" as a corporate strategy and philosophy from the foundation of the Company. He believes that the goal that the customers want to reach through the Company's services is the "marriage." Thus, making efforts to reach the highest rate of "getting married" is the social value of the Company. In order to achieve this purpose, the Company carries out all activities including employment, education, development, training, knowledge sharing, management, and evaluation system based on the philosophy of "pursuing customers' goals". This corporate behavior is leading the Company to achieve by far the highest "engagement rate" in the industry. |
| 2Q of Fiscal Year March 2017 Earnings Results |
 Sales and profits increased, despite a decrease in the number of new members
Sales were 1,991 million yen, up 10.5% YoY. Although the number of new members through the Partner Agent Business decreased by 7.2% YoY, the total number of members increased by 5.4% from the same month (September) of last year. The marriage rate hovers at a high rate, exceeding the previous year (27.2%). Operating income was 234 million yen, up 2.4% YoY. As a result of streamlining merchandize expenses and controlling new employment by increasing the productivity of concierges, the increase in SG&A expenses was offset by increased sales. The sales fell short of the forecast at the beginning of the term by 0.7% due to a temporary decrease in the number of members due to expulsion from Institution Bridal Japan (IBJ), but operating income exceeded the forecast as a result of cost control. (Partner Agent Business)
The number of new members decreased by 7.2% YoY. On the other hand, the existing members increased by 5.3% YoY, despite the fact that the number of members who withdrew from the membership after their engagement increased. The primary cause of decreasing new members is the Company's expulsion from IBJ. In order to enhance customers' satisfaction, the Company shares the information about the number of members who can be introduced as potential marriage partners with the prospective members when they consider becoming a member. However, because of expulsion from IBJ, the number of members who can be introduced became smaller. This has made some people in specific areas or age group decide not to become members. In the future, through the CONNECT-ship service, the Company is expected to increase the number of mutually introducing members, which will attract more prospective members. Major reasons for decrease in the number of members from April to September are (1) temporary decrease of the number of new members, (2) increase in the number of members who left the membership after engagement (up 370 members YoY), and (3) withdrawal of about 120 members from the service after expulsion from IBJ. The Company believed that the CONNECT-ship is not a competing business against IBJ, because IBJ is consisted of many individual marriage agencies, while the CONNECT-ship is for medium- and large marriage agencies to facilitate mutual introduction of members. IBJ thought otherwise, and it suddenly expelled the Company from the association as of the end of June 2016. The Company is planning to recover from this damage through launch and improvement of the CONNECT-ship. The Company opened a new store in Takasaki (Gunma) in November 2016 and is planning to open another one in Mito (Ibaraki) in January 2017. (Fast Marriage Hunting Business)
The total number of participants in marriage hunting parties called "OTOCON" from April to September was 57,745, which was 106.1% of the same period last year. The number of participants in the "OTOCON" parties has been about 1.4 times larger than the estimates. The Company additionally opened Ginza (October) an Ikebokuro (November) stores, in addition to Funabashi store (October), which was in the original plan. The number of members through the Fast Marriage Hunting Business is about 1,400 as of the end of September 2016. It shows steady growth including "OTOCON MEMBERS marriage hunting counter", which was launched in May 2016. (Solution Business)
As was introduced in the previous report, the Company concluded an agreement on the "Promotion of Women's Participation and Improvement of Marriage Environment" with Kawakami village of Minamisaku district, Nagano prefecture, in August 2016. In September 2016, it also received a contract to comprehensively support the marriage hunting project of Fukushima prefecture. The "CONNECT-ship" service will be launched in January 2017. (QOL Business)
As a new attempt, the Company established the "Mebae Day Care Room Mitakadai", a corporation-led day care facility, in July 2016. This facility also functions as a social welfare facility for the Company's employees.
  (3) Topics
Japan Bridal Association (JBA) (Head Office: Osaka) which has the largest number of marriage agencies in West Japan joined the "CONNECT-ship". ◎ Japan Bridal Association, the largest association of marriage agencies in West Japan, will join the "CONNECT-ship". As a result, the CONNECT-ship will be used by 5 companies, 6 services, and the maximum number of members will be about 50,000. ◎ Launch of "ichie", an on-line based marriage hunting support service
In January 2017, the Company will launch "ichie", a marriage hunting support service, targeting 7.8 million members of "Benefit Station", operated by Benefit One Inc. Benefit One Inc. is a major social welfare service provision company.
(Overview of the service)
Prospective members can register on-line via benefit station. Once membership is attained, the members can view the pages designed only for the "ichie" members. The members can look for their partners on the "ichie" system. Designated concierges who have gained unique skills and knowledge on marriage hunting support through the work of Partner Agent will provide integrated support services from the introduction of potential partners, arrangement of contacts (marriage meetings), dating and till the engagement. This service is easy to start for potential users who are "feeling awkward to use marriage agency". Additional attractive feature for 'ichie" members is that they receive 2,000 to 3,000 yen worth of benefit points (Benepo) every month. The points are unique to the Benefit Station. By combining with the "CONNECT-ship" service, which is a platform to enable mutual introduction among the members, from January 2017, the Company can create many opportunities for the users to meet with their potential partners. |
| Fiscal Year March 2017 Earnings Estimates |
 No change in earnings estimates. Increase in sales and profits is expected.
There is no change in earnings estimates at this point. Sales will be 4,188 million yen, up 14.9% YoY. Although the Solution Business will have smaller earnings, the remaining 3 businesses, especially key Partner Agent Business, will be strong. The Fast Marriage Hunting Business is expected to grow by twofold. Operating income is estimated to be 486 million yen, up 9.2% YoY. Operating income margin will decrease by 0.6% due to the launch of 3 new stores, system investment, and investment for new businesses. Currently, no dividend is distributed because investment for future growth is prioritized.  (Partner Agent Business)
The engagement rate, which indicates the achievement of the customers' goals, is transiting at a pace exceeding last year's 27.2%. The estimated engagement rate for the FY March 2017 based on the results from April to September (cumulative) is about 29%. Although the number of members has decreased due to (a) temporary slow down of the number of new members and (b) increase in the number of members who withdrew from membership after engagement (as a result of better service quality), in the mid- to long-term, the Company believes that improvement in service quality and customer satisfaction will eventually lead to more members. (Fast Marriage Hunting Business)
In addition to the revision and improvement of existing services, the Company is working on collaboration and joint enterprise with business operators in the other industries in order to increase the members.
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| Conclusions |
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| <Reference: Regarding corporate governance> |
 ◎ Corporate Governance Report
The company submitted the latest corporate governance report on Jul. 2, 2016.<Reasons for Non-compliance with the Principles of the Corporate Governance Code (Excerpts)> The Company states that it will carry out all basic principles of corporate governance code as a company listed on the TSE Mothers. |
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Disclaimer
This report is intended solely for information purposes, and is not intended as a solicitation to invest in the shares of this company. The information and opinions contained within this report are based on data made publicly available by the Company, and comes from sources that we judge to be reliable. However we cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the data. This report is not a guarantee of the accuracy, completeness or validity of said information and or opinions, nor do we bear any responsibility for the same. All rights pertaining to this report belong to Investment Bridge Co., Ltd., which may change the contents thereof at any time without prior notice. All investment decisions are the responsibility of the individual and should be made only after proper consideration.Copyright(C) 2017 Investment Bridge Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. |
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