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QB Net operates QB House which is probably a familiar sight. It is quite common to see people queuing for haircuts in their outlets throughout the various shopping malls here.

Haircuts(despite the competition) shd be a stable, defensive play and may be attractive if the valuation falls further. I think the difficulty is most of the literature is in Jap.

https://www.reuters.com/companies/6571.T/key-metrics : P/E : 19.4, P/B 2.37, NPM : 6.1, ROE :13.7

Main website(in Jap) : http://www.qbnet.jp/
Research report(Eng ver) : https://sharedresearch.jp/en/6571

Looks like dreamybear is hard at work!

Incidentally, I saw a recent piece written on QB by The Edge.

Again, the investment merits are so obvious that the shares are selling at a rather high valuation. It was mentioned in the Edge article that QB is trading at 12x EV/EBITDA.

Another of my favourite (and unsurprisingly expensive) Japanese stock is Matsuya Foods. I probably eat there once everyday whenever I'm in Japan.

I read the QB article on this week The Edge too. While the author is waxing lyrical on QB recession proof haircutting business, he has not mentioned that this is a low barrier to entry business. QB model can be easily replicated. It does not has an economic moat to protect itself (and margins) against competitors. While I am no expert in this haircutting field, I can already think of two copycats competitors (must be a lot more), namely EC House and K-Cuts, that have smiliar business model. I have always get my hair cut among these three salons in Jurong Point with zero preferences. I will just go to the one with no queue. Very little to differentiate among these three.