Early Life
Hisao Nagata's journey began with his father, Oumi, who opened a thrift store named Asahiya in Fukuoka in 1974. In 1981, at the age of 25, Hisao took over the business.
Rise to Success
Three years later, Nagata rebranded the store as Trial Company and also started a software developer focusing on retail. The first Trial discount store opened in 1992. Trial has developed technology to decrease labor costs and increase efficiency, including self-checkout shopping carts and AI-powered cameras to gather shopper behavior data and monitor inventory. In March 2024, Trial was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Growth bourse.
Key Business Strategies
Trial Holdings operates over 300 supermarkets across Japan that sell food, clothing, and other household goods at low prices. Trial uses innovative IoT devices and tech-embedded 'Smart Stores'. Nagata has written books on retail AI and digitization. The company announced a collaboration with NEC Corp for an AI-powered facial recognition system.
Philanthropy
Specific philanthropy amounts for Hisao Nagata were not found in the search results.