LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. Forms Strategic Alliance with HR Produce, Leveraging Its Network of Over 10,000 Preschools to Accelerate Expansion into Japan's Preschool Market

Partnership Provides Access to an Extensive Childcare Facility Network to Scale Leifras' EdTech Solutions and Multi-Sport School Programs

TOKYO, July 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: LFS) (the "Company" or "Leifras"), a sports and social business company dedicated to youth sports and community engagement and Japan's leading operator of children's sports schools and school club activity support businesses, today announced that, in June 2026, it entered into an outsourcing agreement (the "Agreement") with HR Produce Co., Ltd. ("HR Produce"), a human resources and organizational consulting firm specializing in the childcare sector, to promote Leifras' sports schools and proprietary non-cognitive skill assessment system, Milabo. By leveraging HR Produce's extensive childcare network of over three thousand corporate entities and over ten thousand facilities, the alliance marks an important step in Leifras' strategy to expand its presence in Japan's preschool market, while creating new revenue growth opportunities.

Pursuant to the Agreement, HR Produce agrees to provide information about Leifras' sports school service and Milabo measurement service to corporations and daycare centers with which HR Produce has a partnership. Through the alliance, Leifras intends to leverage HR Produce's network to deploy Leifras' Milabo system and comprehensive multi-sport school programs across childcare facilities nationwide. The partnership is also designed to help address key management issues facing the childcare industry while solidifying Leifras' presence in the strategically critical preschool consumer market.

Strategic Background: Addressing Retention, Recruitment, and Differentiation Competition

The Japanese childcare sector is facing persistent structural challenges, characterized by a high industry turnover rate and soaring recruitment costs. Addressing these issues requires a shift from reactive hiring to human capital optimization. Meanwhile, a declining birthrate has intensified competition among childcare facilities, increasing the need to enhance brand value. This alliance combines Leifras' expertise in sports-based non-cognitive education with HR Produce's organizational consulting capabilities to enhance childcare operations.

Service Deployment and Institutional Benefits

Through this alliance, Leifras expects to deliver high-quality services that provide mutual benefits to childcare management, frontline staff, and parents.

1. Integrating Milabo to Visualize Early Childhood Development

Milabo is Leifras' proprietary Education X Technology platform that quantifies children's non-cognitive life skills, such as leadership, cooperation, and manners, backed by data analytics from over 200,000 profiles.

• Empowering Staff & Improving Retention: The platform provides intuitive, radar-charted individual and collective developmental profiles, enabling nursery teachers to communicate children's progress with parents using objective data. By mitigating the communication burden of parent-teacher communication, the platform can improve the work environment, potentially boosting employee retention and recruitment competitiveness.
• Elevating Childcare Brand Equity: Childcare facilities in HR Produce's network can actively utilize the tool to brand their facilities as innovative institutions that cultivate life skills through data-driven education, laying a foundation for parents' organic, word-of-mouth referrals.

2. Launching On-Site "Leifras Sports Schools" Utilizing Existing Facilities

Leifras plans to deploy professional coaches to establish tailored sports academies directly within the nursery yards, halls, or classrooms in HR Produce's network, requiring as little as half a basketball court.

• 13 Specialized Sports Schools: Childcare facilities can select optimal programs aligned with their needs, from Leifras' 13 sports schools, such as soccer, basketball, dance, karate, and "JJMIX"—a specialized multi-sport program engineered for preschool-aged children.
• Transportation Convenience for Dual-Income Parents: With the rise of dual-income households, weekday transportation to extracurricular activities has become a significant challenge for parents. By receiving sports instruction directly at childcare facilities, children can participate in structured athletic programs with familiar peers without requiring additional travel or scheduling commitments from families.

Future Outlook: Building a Sustainable Education Ecosystem

This alliance is designed to further facilitate Leifras' expansion in the preschool sector. By combining both companies' specialty, Leifras aims to structurally support childcare providers while expanding its baseline infrastructure to help young children cultivate "Fitness for the Mind and Heart" from infancy.

The Company anticipates that the roll-out of this sales partnership will expand its high-quality business-to-business-to-consumer revenues and support its long-term growth objectives.

About HR Produce Co., Ltd.

HR Produce Co., Ltd. is a Japan-based human resources and organizational consulting firm specializing in the childcare sector, headquartered at 2F No. 8 SY Bldg., 6-23-2 Jingumae, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Mr. Kimitaka Kitamura serves as Representative Director of HR Produce. Formerly known as Women's Active Participation Company, the company provides recruitment and organizational consulting services to childcare operators nationwide. HR Produce is certified as an "Excellent Employment Agency" under a program commissioned by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The company is also backed by growth capital from a fund co-managed by WM Partners and the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ). Through its consultative, hands-on approach to organizational development, HR Produce has built strong, long-term relationships with childcare facilities across Japan.

About LEIFRAS Co., Ltd.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Leifras is a sports and social business company dedicated to youth sports and community engagement. The Company primarily provides services related to the organization and operations of sports schools and sports events for children. As of December 31, 2025, Leifras was recognized as one of Japan's largest operators of children's sports schools in terms of both membership and facilities by Tokyo Shoko Research. The Company's approach to sports education emphasizes the development of non-cognitive skills, following the teaching principle "acknowledge, praise, encourage, and motivate." The holistic approach that integrates physical and mental development sets Leifras apart in the industry. Building upon deep experience and know-how in sports education, Leifras also operates a robust social business sector, dispatching sports coaches to meet various community needs with the aim to promote physical health, social inclusion, and community well-being across different demographics.

For more information, please visit the Company's website: https://ir.leifras.co.jp/.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on the Company's current expectations and projections about future events that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. Investors can find many (but not all) of these statements by the use of words such as "approximates," "believes," "hopes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "projects," "intends," "plans," "will," "would," "should," "could," "may," or other similar expressions in this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to, the uncertainties related to market conditions, and other factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of the annual report on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the annual report and other filings with the SEC. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov.

For more information, please contact:

LEIFRAS Co., Ltd.
Investor Relations Department
Email: [email protected]

Ascent Investor Relations LLC
Tina Xiao
Phone: +1-646-932-7242
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE LEIFRAS Co., Ltd.