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By JUNICHI MIYAGAWA/ Staff Writer

More offices have the Work Pod telework booth, which is soundproof to allow for better teleconferences. (Provided by Kokuyo Co.)

Office furniture makers are doing brisk business despite fewer people going to their companies in the age of teleworking.

Employers taking precautions against the novel coronavirus and reforming the working environment are helping furniture companies recover from the blow dealt when many companies scaled down their office spaces.

Current demand “is obviously not temporary,” said Hidekuni Kuroda, president of Kokuyo Co., during a news conference about the firm’s financial results for the year ending in December 2021.

Kokuyo posted sales of 320.1 billion yen ($2.49 billion), 6.5 percent higher than the previous year. The figure is on par with the 2019 level, before the pandemic.

Its operating profit rose 35.1 percent year on year to 20 billion yen, owing to cost-slashing efforts.

The outcome marked a sharp contrast to the previous year, when Kokuyo reported year-on-year declines in both its sales and profit.

Office furniture sales and profits hit a record high in the latest earnings report. The Work Pod box-shaped booth greatly contributed to the improved sales.

Fitted with a desk, chair and socket, the personal space for teleworking is 1 meter wide and 2.5 meters tall. Corporations often use the cubes in workplaces to protect their staff from infections.

The cube is soundproof and ventilated with a fan. Modified versions with a sofa or standing-style desk are also available.

Work Pod, which hit the market in July 2020, saw its sales soar 2.2-fold between January and March this year from the same period the previous year.

Companies’ improving working conditions for their employees also helped with earnings, Kokuyo said.

As more people work from home, more emphasis is being put on communications at brick-and-mortar offices.

There is a stable, strong demand for a shared-desk system, for example, where there are no specific seats allocated to anyone.

Larger tables to be shared and easy-to-move desks with wheels are selling well, too.

Okamura Corp. logged 182.7 billion yen in sales for the period from April through December 2021. The operating profit and net profit also reached record highs.

Self-checkout cash registers for use at supermarkets and drugstores proved popular. The Telecube personal telework space has been introduced at 200 locations at train stations and elsewhere nationwide.

Telecube “sales will continue rising from here on as it currently takes six months to several years for offices to install the booth after they order one,” said a public relations official of Okamura.

Uchida Yoko Co. posted sales of 21.2 billion yen for the half year ending in January 2022, up 6.6 percent year on year, for its office-related business. The company offered sought-after items to prevent infections, such as a personal working space with simple walls.

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