TKP Rental Conference Rooms Achieves V-shaped Recovery after 2.5 Billion Loss after the Pandemic
“When the state of emergency was declared in April 2020, I was prepared to hibernate for a while until the catastrophe passed. However, even after six months or a year, it had not subsided. The sense of crisis only grew. So I decided to go directly to the prime minister, whom I had never met.”
Takateru Kawano, 49, president of TKP, a major rental meeting room company, said, “The “prime minister” as he describes him, is a man who has been in the position for a long time, but he has never met. The “prime minister” Kawano refers to is then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The direct talks with former Prime Minister Suga that marked the turning point in the company’s business will be discussed in detail later on.
The corporation was severely affected by the spread of the new coronavirus, and TKP recorded an operating loss of nearly 2.5 billion yen for the fiscal year ended February 2021, the first since its establishment. However, in the fiscal year ended February 2022, the deficit was significantly reduced to approximately 900 million yen. Management improvement is expected to continue. How was TKP able to achieve a V-shaped recovery even with the pandemic? Mr. Kawano looks back on the record of the company’s fierce struggle.
Mr. Kawano launched TKP in August 2005, when he was 32 years old.
“After graduating from university (Keio University, Faculty of Commerce), I joined ITOCHU Corporation and worked in the Exchange Securities Department. I was involved in the establishment of Japan Online Securities (now au kabu.com Securities) and felt the real thrill of a venture company from that time. It was during this time that I established eBank Bank (now Rakuten Bank, Ltd.) with my boss. As I supported growing companies, I strongly felt that I wanted to work as a president to nurture their potential in a big way.”
Mottainai Turns into a Business Opportunity
“The second and third floors were unoccupied. It would have been a waste of electricity until the building was demolished. So we asked the building owner if we could rent the second and third floors until the restaurant vacated the building. The owner was overjoyed because he could rent the unused space. We were able to rent the space for about one-third the market price and under very favorable terms, with no security deposit or eviction fee.”
Kawano turned the second floor into a rental conference room and rented out the third floor as temporary offices for a construction company. Since the bursting of the bubble economy, companies tended not to have large meeting rooms, so the rental meeting room business expanded steadily. In 2007, TKP acquired the Japanese subsidiary of Regus, which operates rental offices around the world, and TKP has grown significantly. The company’s operating income was a record ¥6.3 billion in FY 02/08.
However,
