Q&As at the Financial Results Briefing for FY2023 of Lawson, Inc.
DateApril 11, 2024, Thursday, 16:30–17:30

Attendees

Sadanobu Takemasu, President and CEO, Representative Director,Chairman of the Board
Masayuki Itonaga, Member of the Board, Executive Managing Officer,
Chief Financial Officer
Tomoki Takanishi, Senior Vice President, Division Director of Financial
Administration Division

Q: How do you envisage the role of franchise owners, store crews, and the head office changing
going forward as you proceed to shift to digital-driven business over the long-term?
A: It will take a considerable amount of time to convert the major task in our stores to robotic
operation, but we hope to open trial tech-driven stores in time to celebrate our 50thanniversary in 2025. There will be some stores that do not require much customer service
depending on the nature of their location, but we feel we need to offer communication andother values that only people in the real world can provide in order to fully realize our Groupphilosophy of “creating happiness and harmony in our communities.” For that reason, however
advanced robotics might become, we will continue to create stores that offer the warmth ofhuman contact as a dedicated community partner. We also believe that the head office has akey leadership role to play in the injection of various management resources and in guiding
the use of data and technology in transforming our physical retail business. At the same time,
the head office will continue to work with our franchise owners and store crews to fully grasp
customer needs and help solve social issues.

Q: What kind of collaboration do you envisage between KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation goingforward?
A: If we want to effectively transform our physical retail business, it is important that it isconnected. KDDI are the ultimate professionals when it comes connecting different entities,
so we would like to work together on various initiatives. We have already received a
considerable amount of support from Mitsubishi Corporation, and we need their comprehensive
capabilities in order to fully grasp the needs of our customers, solve social issues, and provide
even great convenience.

Q: Following a solid performance in fiscal 2023, customer visits continued to increase strongly inMarch. What measures and pricing strategies do you intend to pursue going forward to further
increase customer numbers?
A: Fiscal 2023 was a difficult year to navigate and we believe that the recent depreciation of the1yen will prove a negative factor in terms of consumption. Pricing strategies have an importantrole to play. We implemented limited-period price reductions on lunch boxes and other items
in fall 2023 followed by our Morisugi (Bumper Volume) Challenge in February when we soldmuch larger portions at the same price to catch our customers’ attention. Going forward, wewill strive to develop further measures to delight our customers and to earn our customers’
trust by keeping the price of basic products low while also developing value-added productsthat our customers will appreciate.

Q: You stock price and corporate performance are currently strong, so what was the mostsignificant factor behind your decision to delist the company?
A: We have managed to generate strong results since the middle of fiscal 2023, but we need toevolve our stores by combining physical store qualities with the benefits of technology in order
to secure further growth. KDDI’s proposal and technical support will help Lawson achieve its
future vision with greater speed. We believe that KDDI is a reliable partner with a respectablecorporate culture, so we expressed our support for the takeover bid.

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