Fast Retailing's business outside Japan is no longer a supporting act to Uniqlo's home market. It is now the group's main profit engine, and the scale of that shift pushed the retailer to raise its full-year forecast for a second time this fiscal year.
For the nine months to May 31, 2026, the Uniqlo and GU parent reported group revenue of ¥3.07tn, up 17.1% year-on-year, and operating profit of ¥614.4bn, up 36.2%. Business profit, the company's preferred measure that strips out certain one-off items, rose 33.6% to ¥592.7bn, and net profit attributable to shareholders climbed 25.6% to ¥426.1bn. Gross margin improved 1.1 percentage points to 54.9%, and the ratio of selling, general and administrative costs to revenue fell 1.3 points to 35.6%, evidence that the group is scaling overseas stores without letting costs grow as fast as sales.
The geography behind those numbers is lopsided. International Uniqlo revenue rose 25.9% to ¥1.83tn over the nine months, and business profit jumped 45.4% to ¥345.3bn, with double-digit revenue and profit growth reported in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, South Korea, Southeast Asia/India/Australia, North America and Europe. Domestic Uniqlo grew far more slowly: revenue rose 8.3% to ¥867.6bn and profit rose 15.1% to ¥172.9bn, helped by a 9.9% rise in third-quarter comparable-store sales on UV-cut and lightweight seasonal items and a strong Golden Week selling period.
The overseas push showed up in store openings, too. In the third quarter alone, Fast Retailing opened six large-format stores in North America, including a flagship in Chicago plus locations in New York and Boston, four stores in Europe including new-market openings in Bristol, UK, and Utrecht, Netherlands, and a global flagship in Seoul's Myeongdong district.
Not every brand under the group is riding the same wave. GU, the lower-priced sister brand, grew revenue 3.7% to ¥265.6bn and profit 28.0% to ¥32.1bn on cost reductions and leaner store operations. The Global Brands segment, which includes Theory, PLST and Comptoir des Cotonniers/Princesse tam.tam, moved the other way: revenue fell 4.2% to ¥96.3bn and profit dropped 33.4% to ¥1.9bn, hurt by weaker wholesale sales and soft early-season demand for summer items. The Comptoir des Cotonniers business narrowed its losses after cutting its store count to 77 locations from 144 a year earlier.
Against that backdrop, Fast Retailing revised upward the full-year forecast it had issued alongside second-quarter results on April 9, 2026, citing June's actual performance and updated foreign-exchange assumptions for the final quarter.
| Metric | Previous forecast | Revised forecast | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥3.9tn | ¥3.97tn | +1.8% |
| Operating profit | ¥700bn | ¥730bn | +4.3% |
| Profit before tax | ¥740bn | ¥780bn | +5.4% |
| Net profit attributable to owners | ¥480bn | ¥500bn | +4.2% |
The dividend forecast is unchanged at an annual ¥640 per share, split evenly between the ¥320 interim payment already made and a ¥320 year-end dividend set months ago. Net financial income of ¥43.8bn, made up of ¥37.8bn in net interest and ¥5.9bn in foreign-exchange gains on foreign-currency assets, added further support to the bottom line.
The filing does not separate how much of the guidance increase reflects revised exchange-rate assumptions versus underlying demand; it cites both factors together without a breakdown. What the nine-month numbers do make clear is that overseas Uniqlo now sells more than double the domestic business's growth rate and has become the segment investors need to watch, not the one that gets top billing in the company's own name.