Nishio’s events rental taking a hit

While reporting a good first half to the financial year, Japan-based Nishio Rent All sees its events rental activities being hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with group profits forecast to drop by 31%.

Kazuo Yotsumoto, Managing Director of the company’s Administrative Divisions, said, “The first half of the financial year (ending 31 March) was largely as planned.

“However, as for the event sector, the influence of Covid-19 began to appear in March and there were many cancellations of events.”

The company’s net sales for the first half of the financial year were up 6% year-on-year to JPY83.6 billion.

Operating profit also increased, by 2.9%, compared to the same period in the previous year, reaching just under JPY10 billion.

Looking ahead to the full financial year, Nishio Rent All has forecast that net sales will be down 2.2% to JPY150.5 billion and operating profit will drop 31% to JPY10.8 billion, compared to the previous year.

Yotsumoto said, “The construction machinery sector has not been greatly affected. However, Nishio is closely watching the situation as some private construction projects may be postponed.

“Regarding the event sector, the Olympics and Paralympic Games will be postponed, and the situation will remain severe until autumn. However, Nishio expects the demand for events in response to new situations will gradually recover from this fall.”

Nishio Rent All ranked 9th in this year’s IRN100 listing of the world’s largest rental companies according to their 2019 reveneus, which will be published in the June issue of IRN.