Daiei Inc. President Kunio Takagi pledged Thursday to bolster the supermarket chain's marketing capabilities by bringing in new types of goods and renovating sales outlets.
Speaking at a general shareholders' meeting, Takagi, who took charge of the retailing group following last year's resignation of Daiei founder Isao Nakauchi, apologized for the decision to skip the dividend payment for the year that ended Feb. 28.
Daiei incurred huge costs due to its downsizing program and posted unconsolidated net losses of 192.18 billion yen for the last business year, its first loss in six years, against profits of 1.11 billion yen the previous year.
At the two-hour meeting, the shareholders were briefed about a newly devised three-year improvement plan to eliminate 4,000 jobs from the Daiei group workforce by shutting down unprofitable sales outlets.