Bic Camera, a major consumer electronics retailer, has a six-month financial results up to February, which shows the profits of its main business because the demand for so-called nesting has increased due to the influence of the new coronavirus and sales of air purifiers have been strong. Operating income increased by about 30% over the same period of the previous year.
BicCamera announced that the interim results for the entire group for the six months to February were 421.2 billion yen, a 3.5% decrease from the same period of the previous year.
Operating income, which indicates the profit of the main business, increased by 33.8% to 10.2 billion yen.
Demand for foreign tourists dropped sharply due to the impact of the new coronavirus, and sales declined due to sluggish sales at stores in urban areas. Profit increased due to strong sales of high-margin home appliances.
In addition, the outlook for operating income for the year ending August is 17.7 billion yen, which is 46.7% higher than the same period of the previous year.
President Kazuyoshi Kimura of BicCamera said at a press conference, "Due to the influence of the new coronavirus, the light and darkness of real stores was divided between urban areas and suburbs. Even if priority measures such as prevention of spread are taken, measures have already been taken to accelerate the closing time. So I don't expect the business to drop sharply in the future. "