Nishimatsuya Chain, the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime-listed baby and children's goods retailer, said preliminary September sales rose 12.4% year on year at existing stores and 15.2% at all stores, in a sales flash dated September 24. That is a sharp acceleration from the six months through August, when existing-store sales rose a cumulative 1.9% and all-store sales rose 5.4%.
| Metric | September | First-Half Cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| All-store sales | +15.2% | +5.4% |
| All-store customer count | +12.5% | +7.4% |
| All-store spend per customer | +2.4% | -1.8% |
| Existing-store sales | +12.4% | +1.9% |
| Existing-store customer count | +8.7% | +3.3% |
| Existing-store spend per customer | +3.3% | -1.4% |
The company said customer traffic rose sharply during the month. Separately, it said falling temperatures made for what it called extremely strong sales of autumn clothing, with baby-care goods and fashion accessories also selling well. Existing-store customer counts rose 8.7% year on year in September, up from a 3.3% cumulative gain over the first half, while average spend per customer rose 3.3% in September against a 1.4% decline over the same six-month period.
The store network barely moved. Nishimatsuya opened three stores during the month, in Nagano, Shizuoka and Fukuoka prefectures, taking period-to-date openings to 32, and closed three, in Nara, Fukuoka and Hokkaido, for 20 closures so far this period. The chain ended September with 1,193 stores nationwide.
The figures are preliminary and subject to revision, the company said. They arrive a week before Nishimatsuya reports interim results for the six months through August, scheduled for October 1.