A coined word combining the German word "glanz" (shining) and the English word "challenge" (taking on a new challenge). This is the origin of the company name "Grancha Co.

Each and every one of us will challenge various things with bright eyes and interests! Our company name reflects this desire.

It has been more than 15 years since I started my own business at the age of 35 and founded Grancha. In the early days of the company, I was worried about what kind of business I would run alone.

The first thing I started working on was the Yahoo! At the time, Yahoo! Auctions was in its heyday. We handed out flyers, drove light trucks, and bought anything we could find that would sell. （We bought used clothes, commercial refrigerators, even carved wooden bear dolls...)

By the third term, sales had grown to nearly 500 million yen, and the company had rented a large warehouse and even owned a 2-ton truck. However, market conditions were becoming increasingly competitive with other buyers, and business performance had reached a plateau.

One day when all I could think about was, 'How can I make my company bigger? While assembling a glass dining table in a warehouse late at night, he lost his balance and the top of the glass table fell on his head.

At that moment, I asked myself, 'Did I leave my job to do this?' I cried.

After the next day, we decided that there was no bright future for us if we continued as we were, and we quickly changed direction to the purchase of brand-name goods and alcohol, which is now the foundation of Grancha.

Key words are [shift to smaller, more expensive items that don't require trucks and warehouses!

The company outgrew the warehouse, sold its trucks, and relocated its headquarters office in front of the station for a fresh start.

With little competition at first, the business grew steadily, expanding to a total of 18 directly managed and franchise stores nationwide.

However, competition quickly increased and price competition intensified. In addition, C-to-C businesses began to emerge, led by flea market apps, and the number of purchases declined at all stores.

Here, I took a step back and analyzed the business dispassionately.

Our competitor is a specialized "purchase" store. We and our competitors are all doing the same thing: checking the market price and buying below the market price. There is no particular point of differentiation.

→Conclusion: The end of the purchase specialty store business is near.

So what to do then? Next, we shifted all the way to buyers & sellers.

In addition to gross profit from purchases, we should be able to earn gross profit from sales as well. We decided to discontinue the franchise and have a sales channel other than auctions.

A sales store was also opened in Akasaka, Tokyo, and five directly managed stores were opened for purchase and sales.

It was good for a few years, but when we analyzed our customers, 70% of them were foreigners. I keenly felt that Japanese people were moving away from brand-name products.

A single store carries tens of millions of yen in inventory, but brand-name products are luxury items. Since they are not daily necessities, repeat customers do not increase, and local stores are gradually losing ground.

Here again, I took a step back and analyzed the business dispassionately.

Japanese people are leaving brands. Customers are all foreigners. Absolute number of sales is declining.

→Conclusion: Let's sell our products to foreign countries where there are foreigners!

From there, I went to various countries such as Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan, China, Thailand, and Sri Lanka to conduct new business development sales.

Especially in Hong Kong, the monthly "Watch Show" and "Jewelry Show" have enabled us to do business with suppliers from all over the world.

Since then, the company's policy has been to "Break away from Japan! Establish overseas sales channels for luxury watches!

There is no sales tax in Hong Kong. We learned that vendors' sales and purchases are mostly made in Hong Kong, where there is no sales tax.

A local subsidiary is established in Hong Kong, an office is set up, and full-scale efforts are launched. By this time, sales had grown to around 1.5 billion yen.

But just as they began to expand overseas in earnest, there were demonstrations in Hong Kong against Chineseization, and then Corona...

The main auction house where we purchase from was closed, and even if we sold through international mail order, the international EMS service was also stopped, so we were completely helpless.

Sales were less than half, while monthly expenses remained the same and savings were not that great, so if this situation continued for six months, bankruptcy would be a certainty.

Again, we took a step back and analyzed the business dispassionately.

→Conclusion: The Corona excess is the reason why a great business opportunity has arrived.

If you can't purchase the product due to the auction closing, the seller must have the product. Since they will be having trouble selling, we will ask them to sell directly to us.

For products purchased at the store, find a vendor who might be willing to buy them and guide them to the store.

If EMS, the international mail service, is stopped, we pack more goods and send them less frequently to DHL, the international courier service, even if it costs more.

Furthermore, we hired foreign staff and started live commerce using SNS. In any case, all employees came up with ideas and implemented them.

After some time, Corona contacted suppliers around the world and found that many countries were closed to the rest of the world, making it impossible to go to Hong Kong and other foreign countries to buy.

In Japan, vendor auctions have shifted from real face-to-face auctions to non-face-to-face Internet bidding methods.

There, he checked online auctions daily and conducted product announcements to vendors around the world.

They bought from us starting with small unit price products and steadily won our trust.

As a result, in the 15th fiscal year, we were able to achieve sales of 5.3 billion yen and a record-high increase in both sales and operating income.

It has been 15 years since I established my company, and through the twists and turns, I have come to understand that [No business lasts forever! No business lasts forever!

Market expansion, emergence of rivals and market decline. Sales and gross profit decrease due to changing customer needs.

That is why, as a manager, I felt it necessary to always look ahead, keep a sharp eye on the future, take a step back, calmly analyze the situation of my company, and immediately take action.

If everyone in the company takes it seriously, most of the issues can be managed.

Currently in Japan, more and more companies are going bankrupt because they took out corona loans from banks but were unable to get back on their feet.

My family has had a short life span for generations and I will probably die at the end of my life at the age of 65.

Of course, we are careful about physical checkups, diet, and exercise to prevent this from happening, but in a few years, we will pass the baton to the next generation, so we are taking action to create the next president.

The life of a company must be eternal, even if the president or employees change.

What must we do to become a company that will last 50 or 100 years?

What kind of company is needed in the world?

The company must be able to create stable employment, pay various types of and taxes, and benefit Japan and the community.

First, there are our customers, our employees, and their families.

Furthermore, if we consider our business partners, subcontractors, and financial institutions, as well as their employees and families, the number of people involved in our company (our associates) is in the thousands or tens of thousands.

Even if we cannot make the whole world happy, we can at least make everyone involved with our company, including our customers, happy with a smile.

We want to be a company that people are happy to have Grancha [Kikura].

I hope so, and I would like to [grunt = shine] and [challenge = try] every day.

The entire staff looks forward to your continued patronage.