Decollte Holdings Corporation Q4 FY2026 earnings call

Company Overview

• Founded in 2001, headquartered in Kobe, Hyogo, with approximately 450 employees. After a TOB conducted by IBJ last December, IBJ now holds 50.1% of shares, and DECOLLTE is a consolidated subsidiary of IBJ.
• Photo wedding service covers two customer groups: couples who hold a wedding ceremony but book an additional separate pre-wedding/separate-date shoot, and couples who do not hold a ceremony and only book a wedding photo session. It offers access to professional photography, hair/makeup, and a range of wedding attire at a more affordable price point than a full wedding ceremony, which has been well received by customers.
• Anniversary photo service captures children's and family milestones such as Shichigosan and birthdays, with in-house trained professional photographers and makeup artists that focus on capturing natural, happy moments of children with flexible shooting setups.

Market Environment

• While long-term national marriage count has been declining, the photo wedding market has expanded compared to pre-COVID 2018 levels, driven by two core factors:
  1. The separate shoot adoption rate among couples that hold wedding ceremonies has risen from ~60% 10 years ago to over 70% currently, as couples seek dedicated time as the center of attention and customized photos that cannot be captured on the busy wedding day.
  2. Demand for photo-only weddings has grown sharply among couples that opt not to hold a formal ceremony; currently, over 40% of DECOLLTE's customers are couples that only book photos, up from ~20% pre-COVID.
• The top reasons non-ceremony couples select photo wedding are: wanting a keepsake of their marriage, wanting to wear a wedding dress and have professional photos of the experience, and creating a photo keepsake/gift for family. DECOLLTE offers the full bridal experience (hair, makeup, attire, album) at an affordable price point, which meets these needs.
• The 2023 national marriage count of 474,000 breaks down into: 88,000 couples that hold a ceremony and use a specialist third party for separate shooting (DECOLLTE's core current target), 72,000 that use their ceremony provider for shooting (DECOLLTE's next expansion target), and 154,000 that hold no ceremony and do no wedding photography (the large untapped market that is the key focus for future industry growth).

Core Competitive Strengths: Full In-House Operations

• In-house professional talent: All photographers and makeup artists are full-time employees that complete standardized company training to ensure consistent high quality across all shoots. Unlike traditional wedding services that have extreme peak demand on weekends/peak seasons, DECOLLTE has balanced demand across weekdays and weekends. To smooth seasonal volatility, the company relocates staff to seasonal resort locations (Okinawa, Hokkaido, Karuizawa) during off-peak periods for urban locations, enabling efficient utilization of in-house staff.
• In-house attire and dedicated studios: DECOLLTE produces or sources its own attire, cutting out middleman margins to offer high-end designs at affordable prices for customers. Dedicated in-house studios with permanent sets (including Japanese-style rooms and gardens) enable stable shooting in extreme weather and reduce turnaround time, boosting productivity.
• In-house Web marketing: Nearly 90% of bookings come through the company's website. An in-house marketing team continuously optimizes the website, executes SEO strategy, and supports professionals in sharing work on Instagram to drive organic engagement. This reduces reliance on expensive third-party ad platforms and lowers customer acquisition costs.

Growth Strategy

• The company's mid-term management plan targets 9 billion yen in revenue and a 10% operating profit margin (equal to 0.9 billion yen operating profit) by the 2028 September fiscal period, with a long-term goal of transitioning from a leading photo wedding provider to a "life photo company" that captures milestones across all customer life stages.

Photo Wedding Growth Initiatives

• Diversify referral channels through partnerships: Currently, 10%+ of customers come from partner referrals, up from a smaller share previously. The partnership with parent company IBJ (Japan's largest婚活 service provider) has already driven monthly referrals more than 10x higher than pre-partnership levels, with substantial remaining room to grow by expanding to IBJ's network of partner locations. IBJ introduces DECOLLTE's services to customers immediately after they get engaged, when they are still deciding whether to hold a ceremony, which is an ideal timing to expand awareness of photo wedding and grow the overall market. The company is also building partnerships with a range of other bridal-related businesses including ceremony providers and jewelry retailers to expand referral channels further.
• Increase value added and average unit price: The company is expanding its lineup of original and premium wedding attire, and launching new value-added services such as travel + photo wedding packages, family-inclusive photo weddings, and combined photo + small reception packages. Average unit price has grown to 1.5x-1.6x of pre-COVID 2019 levels, and the company expects continued growth as customers reallocate budget once spent on full weddings to higher-end photo wedding experiences.
• Expand store footprint to grow market share: Most existing stores are located in large metropolitan areas. The company will open new stores in untapped regional core cities and underserved areas of the Tokyo metropolitan area to capture unmet demand, using existing turnkey properties to limit capital expenditure. All new stores go through rigorous pre-opening analysis including confirming customer demand volume, checking transportation access, and verifying profitability before opening, and the company will share location data with IBJ to optimize site selection.
• Expand awareness to the untapped no-ceremony, no-photo segment: The company has launched new services such as "Maripiku!" targeted at couples that only register their marriage and are looking for a low-cost commemoration, to introduce them to the value of professional photography and convert them to full photo wedding bookings.

Anniversary Photo and Broader Life Stage Growth Initiatives

• Expand children's photography through multi-brand strategy: The company launched the new Ashery brand to complement its original HAPISTA brand, catering to customers that seek alternative styles to major mass-market children's photography chains. The company will continue to launch new brands in-house and actively pursue M&A of aligned photography studios to expand market share.
• Build customer funnels across life stages: The company is actively marketing anniversary photo to past photo wedding customers as their family grows, sending targeted email offers for 1-year anniversary photos and children's milestone shoots. It also aims to build an upstream funnel by expanding coming-of-age photography, introducing younger customers to professional photography early to convert them to DECOLLTE when they get married in the future. The long-term goal is to capture photography bookings across all life milestones of customers from their youth through older age.

DECOLLTE HOLDINGS operates two main segments for the 2025 September fiscal period: 1. Studio Business: accounts for 99% of total revenue. Of this, the photo wedding sub-segment contributes 94% of total company revenue, and anniversary photo (centered on children's family milestone photography) contributes 5% of total company revenue. The company holds the No.1 position in Japan for annual photo wedding shoot volume, with a combined total of 24,000 annual shoots across photo wedding and anniversary photo services. 2. Fitness Business: the remaining 1% of total revenue. The full-year 2025 September fiscal period revenue forecast is 6.481 billion yen.

• The current full-year 2025 September fiscal period revenue guidance is 6.481 billion yen, following steady revenue growth after a temporary COVID-related decline.
• The mid-term management plan (to 2028 September fiscal period) maintains its target of 9 billion yen in total revenue, 10% operating profit margin, and 0.9 billion yen in operating profit.
• Management expects continued photo wedding market growth, driven by increasing adoption rates (currently ~60% of marrying couples, with room to grow to 70-80%) and growing average unit price as customers shift wedding budget to photo services.
• Management expects continued growth in referral volumes from the IBJ partnership, with substantial upside remaining from expansion to IBJ's full network of partner locations.

No explicit discussion of operational risks or failures was included in the published transcript segment provided.

Q: Given the declining marriage count, is there still long-term growth potential for DECOLLTE's business?

A: Current combined photo wedding adoption (separate shoots + photo-only weddings) is around 60% in Japan, lower than adoption rates in other East/Southeast Asian markets where multiple wedding photoshoots are standard. There is clear room to raise adoption to 70-80% in Japan. Even with declining marriage counts, growing adoption and increasing uptake of more valuable location shooting alongside studio shooting will drive continued market expansion.

Q: What are the main reasons some couples opt for no wedding photography, and how does DECOLLTE address this?

A: The biggest barrier is low awareness: couples that only register their marriage often do not learn that affordable, accessible photo wedding services exist. DECOLLTE's core strategy going forward is to increase awareness of the category: photo wedding is far cheaper and less complex than a full wedding, and can be completed with just the couple, so we need to communicate this accessibility to potential customers.

Q: Can you update on current status and future expectations for the partnership with IBJ?

A: The formal partnership launched in June last year, and monthly referrals from IBJ have already increased more than 10x compared to the pre-partnership average. Currently, referrals come almost entirely from IBJ's direct stores, so there is large untapped potential in expanding to IBJ's network of partner加盟店. Beyond increasing referrals, the partnership helps grow the overall market: IBJ introduces DECOLLTE to engaged couples early when they are still deciding whether to hold a ceremony, which is the ideal time to build awareness of photo wedding as an option, so we have high expectations for this partnership.

Q: What key factors does DECOLLTE consider when opening new stores, and how do you optimize capital expenditure?

A: First we conduct rigorous pre-opening market research to confirm there is sufficient unmet demand in the area, analyzing historical marriage counts and the expected catchment area for the new store based on existing store performance. We also evaluate transportation access (public transit in urban areas, major road access in regional areas) before evaluating the specific property and setting the investment budget. We only open the store if we can confirm it will be profitable, and we use turnkey/secondhand properties where possible to keep investment low.

Q: Is there an opportunity to leverage IBJ's customer data for new store site selection?

A: Yes, having IBJ direct or partner locations in a target area is a big positive for DECOLLTE's customer acquisition, so we are working to share data and coordinate site selection with IBJ going forward.

Q: What specific initiatives is DECOLLTE implementing to drive repeat business and connect services across different customer life stages?

A: Currently, we run ongoing email marketing to past photo wedding customers: we send promotions for 1-year anniversary photos, and if a customer has a child, we introduce our anniversary photo studio for children's milestone shoots. We also directly promote our anniversary photo services to wedding customers before they leave the studio after their shoot. We plan to continue expanding these initiatives going forward.

Q: Can you restate DECOLLTE's long-term business direction?

A: Our core priority is growing share in the still-expanding photo wedding market, based on the four core strategic pillars we have outlined. Beyond that, we will expand into all types of photography including anniversary photo, to become a provider that captures photo memories across our customers' entire lifetimes, and drive long-term sustainable growth through this expansion.