Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is Pachinko World?Mr. Lee: Pachinko World is the first-ever pachinko operator to be publicly listed in the US or on any public exchange, for that matter. Pachinko World was originally incorporated as Kisorin Co. Ltd. in Japan back in 1969, and originally operated in the lodging and food business. The company subsequently entered into the pachinko business as an operator of pachinko parlors. They established a parlor that offered both pachinko and pachislo, which is something like a slot machine. Today, the company operates seven parlors, all in Japan. Pachinko World is effectively the holding company for the Japanese operations, which are under the name 'EXAM' (for 'exciting amusement') USA.
TWST: What is the company's agenda for the next 12 months? What would
make that time frame a success?
Mr. Lee: The agenda for the company is essentially to expand its
operations through the launch of new stores. Pachinko World has opened a
new store in each of the last two years. The industry is very
fragmented. There are something like 8,000 operators operating about
16,000 parlors, which gives you a sense of how fragmented the industry
really is. However, there is a trend toward consolidation in the
industry and the number of operators is declining significantly. The
majority of the operators in Japan are small mom-and-pop operations that
launched a long time ago. So they have maybe one or two shops, each of
these much smaller than the store layouts characterized by Pachinko
World's parlors. The older mom-and-pop operations have fewer, outdated
machines, as well as rundown facilities. As a result, they are getting
crowded out by the larger operators like ourselves, with newer
facilities and a larger selection of the latest machines. So the game
plan for Pachinko World is to take advantage of this consolidation
trend, go into new strategic locations, launch our big-box format stores
and capture market share in our territories.
Tickers included in this excerpt: PCHW
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