Skylark Holdings, which runs family-restaurant and specialty-dining chains across Japan, raised its full-year profit forecast on August 13, telling investors that customers kept eating out and spending more per visit even as the company faces a bigger inflation bill than it had planned for in February.
The company now expects revenue of ¥500.0bn for the year to December 2026, up from ¥490.0bn, and net profit attributable to shareholders of ¥20.5bn, a 5.1% increase from its earlier guidance of ¥19.5bn.
| Metric | Previous forecast | Revised forecast | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ¥490.0bn | ¥500.0bn | +2.0% |
| Business profit | ¥36.0bn | ¥37.0bn | +2.8% |
| Operating profit | ¥33.5bn | ¥35.0bn | +4.5% |
| Pre-tax profit | ¥29.7bn | ¥30.0bn | +1.0% |
| Net profit (parent) | ¥19.5bn | ¥20.5bn | +5.1% |
Skylark said the upgrade reflects existing-store sales that ran ahead of plan in the first half, as menus aimed at both frugal diners and those willing to pay for an experience helped push customer counts and average spending higher together. In its half-year results, the same-store sales figure came in at 106.5% of the year-earlier period, with customer counts up 1.6% and average per-visit spending up 4.8%.
For the six months to June, consolidated revenue rose 9.7% to ¥242.5bn, operating profit climbed 20.9% to ¥16.9bn and net profit attributable to owners of the parent jumped 29.2% to ¥10.2bn. Basic earnings per share for the half rose to ¥44.77 from ¥34.64 a year earlier.
The profit beat comes despite rising input costs. Skylark now expects inflation to add ¥14.5bn to its costs this year, up from the ¥13.0bn it assumed in February. Within that total, food-ingredient inflation is running higher than planned, at an estimated ¥7.1bn against an original ¥5.9bn assumption, while labor-cost inflation has eased to roughly ¥5.2bn from a planned ¥5.6bn. The company said it offset ¥1.7bn of costs in the first half through a group-wide cost-reduction programme, against a full-year target of ¥2.4bn.
Store expansion also helped. Skylark opened 21 new locations, converted 26 stores to other formats and renovated 113 outlets in the first half. The group's total store count reached 3,214 by the end of June, after the April 2026 acquisition of another casual-dining chain added roughly 109 stores to the group. A regional udon chain Skylark bought in October 2024 has grown to 110 domestic locations from 74 at the time of purchase, and opened its first Taiwan store in June, with a target of three Taiwan locations by year-end and more than 100 eventually.
The dividend rose alongside guidance. Skylark raised its year-end dividend forecast to ¥17.00 per share from a previously planned ¥16.00, lifting the total annual payout to ¥27.00 per share from ¥26.00, and up from ¥22.00 paid for the year to December 2025. The company targets paying out 30% of adjusted net profit.