Okura Holdings to close another pachinko parlour
Okura Holdings has announced it will close its BA Ofuna pachinko parlour due to low customer traffic and intense competition.
Japan.- Okura Holdings has announced the closure of another pachinko parlour. Its Big Apple, Ofuna Pachinko Hall, located in Kanagawa Prefecture, will definitely close on May 7.
The company said the decision was due to low customer traffic since early 2020, exacerbated by intense competition in the pachinko industry and from other forms of entertainment in Japan. In a filing on Tuesday, it noted that although BA Ofuna had regained customer traffic in the six months ended December 31, the recovery was at a slow pace compared to some of its other pachinko halls.
The company said it considered it more beneficial to focus its resources on other, more promising pachinko halls, enhancing the customer experience there and minimising further losses from weaker performance. Okura Holdings shut three pachinko venues in September 2021 and two in May 2021. It now has 11 pachinko venues, most of them located in Nagasaki Prefecture.
The company reported that revenue was up 13.6 per cent to JPY3.1bn (US$23m) in the second half of the year 2022. It reported an operating profit of JPY254m (US$1.88m), compared with an operating loss of JPY279m (US$2.06m) in the second half of 2021.
