Tsuruha Holdings' interim period for the fiscal year ending February 2027 saw operating profit rise 90% year on year, while sales increased significantly through integration benefits from the consolidation of Welcia and its relationship with Aeon. The performance of 3 drugstore chains is compared alongside minimum investment amounts.
Tsuruha Holdings' interim period for the fiscal year ending February 2027 saw sales rise 128.7% year on year to ¥1.2755 trillion and operating profit increase 92.6% to ¥54.7 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.5% overall, while integration synergies for the first half reached ¥8.5 billion, exceeding the plan. Tsuruha Holdings became a company with 5,652 stores across all 47 prefectures in Japan after making Welcia Holdings a wholly owned subsidiary in December 2025 and becoming a consolidated subsidiary of Aeon in January 2026. Its full-year forecasts are sales of ¥2.555 trillion and operating profit of ¥99.4 billion.
MatsukiyoCocokara & Co.'s first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2027 saw sales rise 5.7% year on year to ¥289.3 billion and operating profit increase 8.5% to ¥21.4 billion. The company is strong in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and private-label products, and its operating margin was approximately 7.4%. During the same period, SUNDRUG's sales rose 3.7% year on year to ¥215.3 billion, while operating profit fell 1.5% to ¥12.1 billion. Although the company is known for its low-cost operations, higher selling, general and administrative expenses put downward pressure on profit.
Tsuruha Holdings' operating margin for the interim period was approximately 4.3%, below those of MatsukiyoCocokara and SUNDRUG. However, caution is required when making a simple comparison because of differences in the reporting periods. Going forward, further margin improvement through the integration of procurement, logistics and systems will be a key focus. Profitability in the drugstore industry is driven by the combination of the customer traffic generated by food and daily necessities and the high-margin pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and dispensing pharmacy businesses.
Overall, the comparison of the 3 companies shows that Tsuruha Holdings benefits from sales expansion driven by integration effects, while MatsukiyoCocokara & Co. and SUNDRUG have periods of relative strength in operating margins and dividends. The sustainability of the integration benefits will be a key focus going forward.