My name is CFO Yagi. Let me just touch on the numbers, and then after that, in terms of the progress with the medium-term plan, Mr. Ogawa will explain. First, in terms of numbers.
The second quarter highlights is what's shown here on this slide. Cumulative numbers, in terms of net sales, JPY 16.4 billion, 32.2% increase year on year. OP, JPY 3.2 billion, year-on-year growth of 80, close to 90%. We're maintaining high growth, and in terms of profit, there's a substantial increase on operating profit. In terms of KPI, the average take rate is 29%, fee rate is 86.2%. Again, continuing with a very high level. At the bottom, transaction volume, active client accounts, and transaction volume per active accounts are shown below. I will just comment on these portions. On this slide, second quarter standalone basis and also year-to-date second quarter numbers, details are shown there. Also on KPI for second quarter standalone, and outlook for the third quarter is also mentioned on this slide.
I will touch on this data, but for the second quarter standalone, sales was JPY 7.81 billion, 28% increase, and operating profit was JPY 1.85 billion, and that's up 60.8%. OP margin, 23.7%. It is the record high operating profit margins, and the profit has shown a substantial increase. Cumulative numbers, as mentioned earlier. For KPI, I will be touching on them later on. For the third quarter results, we're expecting JPY 8.4-8.55 billion range in terms of sales. The growth was 27.8-30%. Operating profit is expected to be around JPY 1.75 and 1.77. In terms of growth, 61-64%, and OP margin between 20.6-20.7. For the third quarter, a high growth rate will be maintained, and profit-wise, year-on-year increase expected.
For second quarter alone, this is on Q on Q basis, and there's actually the difference between the actual results and the forecast. In both sales and profit, but first sales, we've actually undershot the lower bound of the expectation. The main reason is because, as we've been explaining, the unauthorized use measures, and usually February to March, a lot of companies, the fiscal year end is the timing of the fiscal year end for many of the customers. Especially for the food and restaurant industries, because of that, the usage level tends to fall because they are tightening their cost. There was a sort of growth slowdown, but OP margin was actually exceeded the range by JPY 151 million.
This is because, despite the fact the sales range was below, but the cost-wise, because of the lower job offering, we've lowered the cost side so that, in addition to that, we have been carrying out disciplined investment and spending. Therefore, we were able to see the upshoot to our range numbers. This is for your reference, and for each of the items, we are showing the sort of flow chart for each of the items that I just explained. In terms of the outlook, as was in the summary, in terms of sales and OP, they will continue to grow, and profit is expected to grow substantially. Just on the details, this is the graph, as explained, in terms of the progress, 46.1% to the sales to the full year, and for the operating profit, it's growing to 89%.
In terms of the profit, first and second quarter, first quarter was a busy season for us, and cost increases because of that. The margin is weighted heavily on the second quarter. First half, as we finish, we are showing a very steady progress to the full year. This is something that I explained, so I will skip this slide. From this year, we are showing the trend by industry that we work on, and logistics, food, retail, and others. Logistics, relatively speaking, has been steady, and even in this quarter has been very strong, as explained here, because we are carrying out some of the from last year, we're starting to see that to lower the burden of onboarding.
With the trials going on, we're seeing the track record, and so that in the second half, we will have the better numbers coming through. Last year, take rate because of a decline because of the campaign for the volume discount, but that has been closed. Therefore, in the second quarter, it recovered. For the food industries, year-on-year growth was negative for the second quarter, and the reasons, as I explained. We will continue with the follow-ups, sales follow-up, and we're trying to expand more of the customer base. Food industry is being challenging. However, we are starting to see signs of recovery now, and we see a good trend going forward. In April, we released business alliances, WATAMI, the new business model. We are going to sort of expand the customer base.
As for the retail sector, like logistics, it's been very steady and strong. Convenience stores, supermarkets, in addition to that, there are other subsectors, and we are expanding the client base. For others, hotel, elderly care, they're very solid. Especially for elderly care, it doesn't have the seasonal fluctuations, so we are accumulating our sort of business record accordingly. In terms of the actual numbers, I will explain in the slides to come. In terms of the transaction volume, food sector was negative, but logistics and retail are a steady trend. On the take rate side, as explained, 29.1%. First quarter was below 29%, but now we are back up to above 29% level. Especially on the right-hand side, as you can see, the logistics side, we are seeing the sort of getting back to the previous level.
In terms of net sales, it is a trend the same as the transaction volume. I mentioned earlier for food that it was a negative growth, but the factors there, as we have been explaining, are that in fiscal year 2023, it was just a retrenchment in fiscal year 2024, and in the second half of this year, we have seen a sort of soft trend. The main reason is the cost has been high for them, and they are trying to contain the cost, and they sort of refrain from using our service. On the other hand, the second point, year-on-year growth, we are seeing the signs of recovery or reversal. The labor shortage is a chronic factor, so we have been following up and also giving proposals, and we are also trying to expand the customer base, and these are actually bearing fruit, is what we are seeing.
After lapping over a year, I think the growth slowdown has concluded. The sign of recovery is seen, and we hope that we will see the margin and the profit should sort of rebound in the food sector. The number of active client accounts as well, it is growing as well, especially in logistics and retail. They are the drivers in terms of the number of active client accounts. The situation remains unchanged. The transaction volume per AA, we are seeing good signs here. From a while ago, year-on-year negative trend was observed, and this time around, it is minus 4.1%, but the negative has been shrinking. The top right portion, as you can see with the orange chart, year-on-year growth ratio growth rate over the past 12 months, things are moving in improvement directions.
In order to increase the transaction volume per account, we'd like to continue implementing aggressive sales activities in order to deliver positive year-on-year growth in the transaction volumes. Changing a gear in terms of the core workers, on this front, there is no significant change in trend. 55% is the core worker ratio. This is a record high level. In addition to that, the fee rate, in terms of the fee rate as well, we are at the highest level, 87.9% is the fee rate we have reached. On a year-on-year basis, 0.4 percentage point improvement has been achieved. We are in good shape on this front as well. In terms of the cost, these are the split of the costs. The OP margin has improved significantly, and HR cost as well, on a year-on-year basis, 0.5 percentage point improved. Productivity gains have been achieved in a steady manner.
On the marketing front as well, overall, year-on-year improvement has been observed. In a steady manner, we have been continuing with the disciplined investments. In terms of the allocation, worker marketing has been shrunk, and client marketing as well, and has been reduced, considering the impact of the measures against unauthorized use. Last year, we spent higher cost on the trial efforts. We would like to make sure we are selective in what measures we will continue, and 0.3% point outsourcing cost improvement was achieved year-on-year basis. This is just for your reference regarding Timee business, Trump tariff impact, and when the economic slowdown actually happens, what could be the implications on our business. In conclusion, there is almost no impact from the tariff. There is no direct exposure.
Logistics, retail and logistics, they are basically domestic customers, and we are capturing the domestic demand mostly, so there is no direct impact on the profit and revenue. There could be some impact on the top line revenue side because of the macroeconomic slowdown. If there is a reduction in the restaurant demand, while people are eating inside the house, that means the retail business will go up. The negative impact will be partially compensated in the profit as well. Marketing may be reduced if the top line sales reduce. Even if there is a slight decline in the revenues or net sales, we will be able to hit the operating profit target in our view. That is all for the financials. Next, Ogawa will take you through the progress we have had against the mid-term plan.
I will take you through the strategies and actions we will take in a bit to hit the mid-term targets. We are focused on a non-linear growth, so we are expanding horizontally and vertically and diagonally. For the vertical expansion, we are expanding the working opportunities, and for the horizontal expansions, we are covering more industries, and we are expanding the usage with the existing clients as well. For the diagonal direction, it is important to secure the human resources to increase the fee rate. With these three as the pillars, we'd like to generate continuous growth, and leveraging the asset, we are creating new businesses. These are the pillars of our mid-term plan. Against the backdrop, there are competitors coming into this market.
We are well aware of that, but continuously, we have been able to build a strong position and timing both high fee rate because people are registering on our platform, and the performance of the workers are highly evaluated. There are accumulated data, good and bad reviews that we have received, and based on those reviews, people are coming to our platform. In addition to that, we are providing thorough sales support. 677 sales representatives are providing thorough support to cater to the specific needs of each industry. As a result, we have been able to build an overwhelmingly strong position. As you may know, we have started collaborating with WATAMI, and this is a business alliance with WATAMI. In the Izakaya area, our service has been utilized by them, and Subway license was obtained by them. This is a trigger.
We have started the collaborations, and they are looking to expand the store footprint to 3,000 stores in the future. What we are doing, where we are supporting in Shimbashi, we have a restaurant, and based on the track record, we'd like to leverage our know-how further. The Akatsuchin is the restaurant, a single store we operate. All of the part-timers are spot workers. This is the concept encapsulated, and this model has been adopted for the past two years. Shimbashi is the area which is difficult to attract people, but there is no reduction in working hours and reduction in the number of customers because of the insufficient matching. Average fee rate is 94%, and repeat workers ratio is very high as well. The rate from spot workers is 99%, and onboarding manuals were successfully created.
Whenever the jobs are posted, the spot workers, 192 workers are in the Akatsuchin's favorite list. These are the key indicators that are the testament to the success stories we have had. Based on this success, there are three patterns: Pattern A, Pattern B, and Pattern C that we are employing. Let me elaborate on this. The ordinary timing usage is considered as Pattern C. The spot workers and long-time part-timers, they are directly hired by WATAMI. The head of the store is the employee of WATAMI. Pattern B, on the other hand, all of the workers are spot workers. As I mentioned earlier, this is the Akatsuchin model, all-time worker store management model. Except for the store manager, all the other workers are spot workers. Pattern A is the new pattern that we are introducing. Store manager and workers, all of them are timing workers.
The timing is the employer. This is what we call full timing, all-time store management model. Through these efforts and initiatives, stores will be managed by all-time workers. There were some concerns by the customers expressed on the social networking site with regard to this, but as a matter of fact, we have been involved in the training, programming, leveraging all the know-how that we have been able to accumulate with Akatsuchin. We would like to make sure we provide thorough training, and the workers who have acquired necessary skills will be matched and will be working. It is not that the first-time workers with no experiences are going into the store. How the timing will be leveraged, we have clarified that point, and those workers coming into the stores, the satisfaction level of the workers is exceeding 99%.
We believe that this model has been working quite well at this point in time. This type of model is increasing. I think hopefully that this will be a new model for the restaurant industry. We'll try to increase the number of people who want to work there. Those who cannot operate for 24 hours, there are so many lost sales opportunities by the restaurant operators. We hope that we as Timee can contribute to enhance such situations, to sort of alleviate such situations. When we want to sort of expand our business to other industries, let me touch on hotel and the elderly care industries. For hotel industries, this is the off-season. Year-on-year sales will look lower, but even then it's a 28.6% increase. It's a steady growth there for the hotel industry transaction volume.
As for the elderly care industry, they are no busy or off for peak seasons. Year-on-year, 165.5% increase. It is the fastest growing industry for us. We have changed the unit price. It will be the fourth pillar after retail and logistics and food industries. Our mission is to expand into this area and to expand to other industries that we plan to engage in, hoping for us to expand further. In terms of the area strategy, the alliance with the municipal government, with the 23 prefectures over a lot of companies, a lot of sort of municipalities for Okinawa, we have announced alliance with a local company there in Okinawa to make sure we are rooted in that community and industries. That is the essence of sort of alliance and partnership with local government and trying to expand our sort of smaller customer base.
We are trying to sort of intense rollout in certain areas so that the whole town can use, will be using Timee. Not only acquisitions, but also for following the existing customers. Over 90% of SMEs, that accounts for 90% of Japanese companies, we would like to sort of start basically penetrate these areas as well. In terms of the involvement of the product, product development-wise, one example is a shared list within the company, within the customers. When you had store A, B, C, were using Timee. If there are workers who work more than once, there is a pool of workers. If it is a chain operator, then there are stores that have not used Timee's workers.
Those who receive the high good rating can be used, sort of function that you can use only have like the one with a good rating. For the first time matching, we're trying to avoid mismatching or the cancellation or turnout. If it's a chain operator, we can basically, because they have the pool of all these stores and these stores that haven't used can actually use Timee workers. This is the function that we're providing for them. Because we have accumulated worker data, that allows us to be able to do so going forward within the company or within the industry, sharing human resource is something that we would like to try to set up. For the logistics industries, which is growing nicely for us, as we've been discussing, trying to reduce the burden of the onboarding. It's been working well.
In one location, if they're accepting job offering of 100, you can't accept all 100 people to basically explain where the toilets are, try to explain the work descriptions. The fee rate wasn't increasing. Recently, because of the project to lessen the burden of worker onboarding, we would have these leader employees we actually dispatch from our side. This person will actually handle the onboarding of Timee workers. I'm doing so to reduce the burden of that particular location. That's been working quite well for us. Not only utilizing our spot workers or the repeater workers' productivity, and because someone, that leader employee, someone who can help with the onboarding, that penetration of Timee will be enhanced even further. In fact, as we try on this, we are starting to see the results.
For example, for the major logistics company, year-on-year, per location, job offering has increased by 3.3 times. In the past, it used to be that who's going to handle the onboarding responsibility, but because of the service, now they're allowed to be able to accept more. Even for the others, the year-on-year total job opening increased by two times, even if it's off-peak period. Because of the project that the program we are offering, they are willing to actually put on more job openings. This is a success of this burden of worker onboarding reduction, but it's likely to go on to other areas. Forty locations, we've got an agreement, and on that 20 locations, really want to start this project to reduce the burden of worker onboarding. It will actually contribute to actually enhance our business as well as theirs.
Some new findings for us. That is the progress we have for the medium-term plan. Number-wise and in terms of business update, if there are any questions, I would take your question. Thank you. We would like to move on to Q&A sessions. We'd appreciate it if you could put your company name first and your name. Please click the raise hand button to ask a question. Because we have simultaneous translation ongoing, we'd appreciate your question be concise, please. Anyone with questions, please raise your hand. David, please. Hi, it's David Gibson from MST Financial. Thanks very much for the opportunity. Two questions. The number of corporate or HR employees jumped by 51 people. It's about a 50% increase Q1Q. Could you explain why that is, and is there some impact to that in the future?
The second question is on the active accounts, this declined Q1Q across most of your segments, most of the areas. Do you think it would have grown if you were not doing the unauthorized usage measures? Do you think the active accounts will be back growing again in Q3, Q1Q? Thank you. In the second quarter, HR corporate growth. A big increase, increase of 51. The reason of the increase was the question, as I understand the question. This is an irregular thing. In the second quarter, in April, we actually hired 41 new college graduates. 41 new college graduates as of April. They are belonging to the HR department as of April. That is why HR corporate increased significantly. On the other hand, these 41 employees, new employees, they will be reassigned to different departments in the future. Most of them will be assigned to sales.
Going forward, you will see a big jump in sales division. In terms of the number of employees, we'd like to be aggressive continuously in hiring in order to build further customer base. That policy remains unchanged. The second part of your question regarding the growth of number of AA, without the impact of the measures of unauthorized use, would that have grown? The answer is yes. Because of the impact of the unauthorized use measures, we have had a slowdown in terms of capturing the small-scale, mid-sized corporate clients. Without the measures implemented, the growth in the number of active accounts would have been bigger. That's my view. Can you clarify if Q3 will see that growth return, please? In the third quarter, the logistics steady growth will continue. Also, the food industry will see recovery.
In terms of the number of slides, this is the slide. There are signs of recovery for the food industry. We believe that we are making the utmost efforts to deliver strong growth. At this point in time, based on what's happening, we are not anticipating a decline in the future. Sorry, just to clarify, as per page 15, you are expecting the total number of active client accounts to increase sequentially in Q3. Yes, in terms of the number, it will grow. In the second quarter, there was an off-season, but starting third quarter and fourth quarter as well, there is going to be busy seasons. On the Q1Q basis, basically, this will go up. Noguchi-san, please go ahead. Am I coming through? Yes. This is Noguchi from BofA Securities. I have a couple of questions. First one is regarding the third quarter forecast.
The qualitative explanations were given earlier. Based on what you have said, the range of 30% top-line growth is what's anticipated. Based on what's happening in the industry, the stronger expectation may be possible. The numbers you are showing and the qualitative explanations on top of the slide, if there is further linkage between the two you can provide, that would be very much appreciated. Let me explain. To your point, we have been working on the project to reduce the worker onboarding burden in the logistics, and also there is a recovery of the food industry. We could expect higher growth. On the other hand, in the second half, we are expecting further growth. Right now, we are in the middle of June. Basically, the fourth quarter, from August to October, we are expecting further growth.
Just looking at the third quarter, this is what we expect. Towards the fourth quarter and next fiscal year, we are working to re-accelerate. In a way, third quarter is a transitional period. Understood. The upside could be expected for the fourth quarter. As of the end of third quarter, you may deliver upside against the full-year guidance in the fourth quarter. In terms of the progress rate, the top-line net sales, we have had solid progress. The question of whether we are generating big upside based on the restaurant, excuse me, food industry and how much growth we can expect from the logistics industry, there are no perfect visibilities. On the other hand, in terms of the operating profit in the first and second quarters, we exceeded the upper end of the range significantly.
As we can control the cost in a disciplined manner, because we are having very good progress at this point in time, in the middle of the second half of the fiscal year, if there is a big gap we anticipate, we'd like to make appropriate actions. Thank you very much. The recent performance of the services in each industry, there are good aspects and bad aspects. When we look at the fee rate, the situation is rather favorable. The number of active accounts, although there is a decline, the top-line growth is strong at 30%. The service itself, how it's rated and how it's utilized, I believe the usage and the rating of the services are good. Is that a fair assumption? Yes. In Japan, with labor shortage, we have been able to increase the fee rate.
This is a testament to a high satisfaction level of our customers. On top of that, in terms of the take rate, as the competition intensifies, we have been able to improve the take rate. That means that we believe we have been able to establish a solid position. A follow-up question. Based on the strong, favorable situations, how you are spending costs, this time around, you haven't spent the cost as anticipated. You are providing quality services, so you don't need to spend much costs. Even if you spend costs, the macro waves are bigger. Spending additional costs may deteriorate the cost efficiency. Is that how you are looking at the industry? Right. We need to spend the cost where we need to spend the cost. For instance, the strategic commercial area, we believe there is growth potential, significant growth potential.
Of course, we have reduced the outsourcing costs. For the areas where we can expect high returns, like the strategic commercial areas, we'd like to intensify and spend strategic investments. The elderly care as well, there is a growth potential, so we'd like to allocate the sales reps. By doing so, we can grow this business. We'd like to allocate human resources in the high-growth areas and cover the wide regions in Japan. I believe this is going to be very effective, so that's what we are focused on right now. Understood. Thank you very much. Hayashisan, please go ahead. Am I coming through? Yes, we can hear you. This is Ari from Morgan Stanley. There are several questions. First question is on page 14, the food industry. Hitting the bottom, number two.
As was explained earlier, would you be able to provide further details where you are seeing the recovery and the sustainability of the recovery? Would you be able to provide more details around that? I'll take that question. I can't give you the individual company names. However, the restaurants also are actually refraining from the usage, but there are stores that started to use our services because they want to expand the top line. There are many companies as such. We want to provide more of the sales proposal to this side where they are turning more sort of optimistic in terms of outlook. This is a major restaurant chain. Basically, the horizontal expansion to these existing major players and non-restaurant subsectors categories, like the food catering business, and these are like new subsectors we are trying to expand the customer sales.
Where the Timee service has a high affinity, we are trying to cultivate a new customer base. That is one of the reasons why we are seeing the sales recovering to this industry. I think the slowdown in growth is over one year. It is basically cycling out. Now we are in the new fiscal year, and they have a better outlook, and the labor shortage continues to be the case. They are willing to use our services. These sort of multiple factors are at work. I see. As a result of your sales effort, the active account number has increased, and the transaction volume per active account has also increased, also working well for this particular industry. Yes, we are seeing the recovery and improvement.
My second question is, as you mentioned about the business alliance with WATAMI, and I think it's a very interesting initiative and effort. Can you try to roll it out with other companies? Is there any potential? Thank you for the questions. Once we are actually given this release, major restaurant chains have given many sort of inquiries. Which kind of industries or the business format is more possible for us to conduct a similar business model? This model just started. There are some that were in line, and there are some that were out of our expectation. It's a new initiative. We want to first make a business model so that we can actually roll it out to other brands. I think potentially we can roll it out to other companies as well. Thank you. Last question from me.
Last time, at the last briefing session, and for restaurant or food, if you have any update in your thinking about that. For that, we are preparing. Rather than trying to create sort of new pricing structure for the food industry, but by depending on the companies, the customers, we are actually trying to find out which will be the best way. We will come up to December this fiscal year. We would look at their response. From the second quarter and next year, that maybe we'll have some visibility in terms of what we exactly want to do in terms of pricing. It is really depending on each company's. If there's a good sign, we want to sort of share that with you. Thank you. That's all from me. Currently, the sales growth is slowing down.
On the medium term, there are a lot of sort of good sort of factors in terms of the outlook. The feeling you have, if the sales growth were to re-accelerate, or you mentioned about this non-linear growth. In fact, do you see that happening in terms of non-linear growth? What is that sort of timeframe? The image you have in terms of the timeframe of bringing on more of a non-linear growth. If we assume the macro environment remains the same, then internally, what are the sort of measures that you have? Where exactly what you're doing at these numbers will actually surface in terms of your financial numbers? It is a very sort of complicated, it's a combination of things. While it's a simple spot work, but by segment, it's very difficult. Let me explain by segment.
First, in the logistics segment, because of this project to lower the burden of worker onboarding, that's been working well. We start with 20, and then already we're receiving requests from 40. It will be increasing to 80 or even to 100 locations. Logistics and maybe food process manufacturing. We can expect sort of potential growth for these areas. Not only logistics, food manufacturing can also be put on this project for reducing the burden of worker onboarding. Our penetration number is low for those segments. We think there are two other sectors that can be potential to roll out this service. The second point is on the onboard. The other companies, convenience stores that has a job board and pricing model, reestablishment, redesigning. There are still a lot of uncertainties, but over 10 million workers.
We have a lot of them, 15%-20% of them use our services and use for the hiring purposes. That is also, we think we are going into a new phase where our service may start to change. Those who are already working on spot work, if half of them are willing to or wanting to work more of a longer timeframe. If we can come up with a product or the platform that also suffices the need for these people. Within this year, we would like to carry out the sort of considerations. In the second quarter, maybe in the second half of next year, we may be able to show you with numbers. The third point, non-linear growth, the project related to that. One is elderly care. It is the one we need to have licensed workers.
Even then, we have a very high fee rate. And other industries and new businesses. For example, we have a Career Plus business, and that is steadily expanding. So within Timee, so 30% growth, then 60 or 200% or 100% growth, third businesses. Therefore, increase can be even further. These can contribute to higher growth also. Thank you. Second question. Maybe my understanding may not be up to speed, but for the illegal usage, and I think the second quarter sales number was impacted, or active account, there was a negative impact in terms of active client account. In the second half of this year, the impact will be eliminated. Also, into the next fiscal year, the first quarter of next fiscal year. In terms of operational efficiency, can we expect the operational efficiency to increase?
In other words, for the first and second quarter of next year, can we take it that your comparison hurdle is low? That's my question. Thank you very much. With regard to the impact of the measures against unauthorized use, this is a summary slide of that impact. We have to make sure we check the identity documents and checking the job postings. With regard to what it could have an impact on the sales, while we are not allowing the illegal users to use our platform, and we are implementing a thorough check system, we are requesting submission of the identity confirmation documents. Because of these additional processes, somewhere in the middle of the funnel, they are dropping from the processes, and they are not leading to our sales. For the existing portion, I believe this is temporal.
For the new clients, going forward, we will always have the document checking process. The impact will continue. The question is whether the negative impact will continue for good. While at a company level, we are working to improve the final quality, so the impact will be minimized. We would like to standardize this process. Not only us, Timee, but the overall industry has been working on this with the labor shortage. They still have to secure labor. This should be the standard process. We believe that we can shrink the funnel, decrease. In the first quarter of next fiscal year, we'd like to make sure that there is no significant negative impact. We are doing everything we can within this fiscal year towards the end. For the existing part, the countermeasures will be completed within this year.
The impact was biggest in the first half. With regard to the new acquisition, the productivity has gone down slightly compared to what was in the past. But the improvements will be obtained in the next fiscal year. Is that the right way to understand what you have explained? Yes. Thank you very much. Okumura-san, please go ahead. Thank you. This is Okumura from Okasan Securities. Can you hear me? Yes. There are a couple of points. Just to confirm your response to the previous questions. First question is, second half onwards, how you're thinking about the marketing spend? In the first half, the OP margin improved and the fee rate improved. The marketing efficiency was improved. Based on this performance, in the third quarter, and especially in the fourth quarter, more than the original plan, are you discussing spending more on marketing?
In order to expand the industries you cover, you have been making investment. What specifically? What are the specific investments you are making on this front? Let me answer to the first part of your question. In the second half of this fiscal year, basically the margin. If you look at the margin in the third and fourth quarters of last year, starting the second quarter, it is slightly lower. The profits were generated in a steady manner. Marketing spend? It is about the middle range. Compared to the first quarter, we are not spending as much on marketing. In the first half, first and second quarters, in terms of the profits, we exceeded the plans. If we keep working on this, we should be able to end the year strongly.
On the other hand, we'd like to keep driving the sales to deliver non-linear growth, as Ogawa mentioned. We are looking to increase the sales reps, especially in the growth areas identified. We'd like to invest human resources. Also, we are investing on marketing as well. These are the two growth investments we are making rather dynamically. The second half profits and full year profits, we'd like to see the balance. In the areas where improvement is necessary, we'd like to be disciplined. In the growth areas, we'd like to be aggressive in making investments. Thank you very much. Thank you for the answer. The second question is, this is again to confirm what you have said.
The project to reduce the burden of worker onboarding in the busy season, in the fourth quarter this fiscal year and next fiscal year, logistics and manufacturing industries. This is the project to expect lower number of resources or what are the potentials? Should we expect from this project for this fiscal year as well as for next fiscal year? This is going well, but the number of locations is still small, limited. As we expand the number of locations towards the end of this fiscal year, in the fourth quarter or the first quarter of next fiscal year, there will be tangible outcomes. In terms of degree of impact, the impact may be minor. Already, this is what we have been proposing to the existing logistics customers. Churn rate will be lowered.
In the busy seasons, we'll be in a stronger position where customers can rely on us. We would like to keep making investments in this project as we deem necessary. Understood. Thank you very much. Any other questions? I would like to be brief. With three minutes remaining on your balance sheet, there is a provision for possible loan losses that has been decreasing and cash flow as well because of the reversal of the provision. It seems good, but can you comment on that? The provision for the possible loan losses, there was a one-time provision. We guarantee based on our model, and we will focus on the clients with good credit. Going forward, we are not seeing substantial risks on this front. As a company, we are closely monitoring the situation.
In terms of the cash flow from the previous fiscal year, while on a full year basis, last year, there was a positive number. We are not expecting the number to go in red. We believe that this solid, strong status will be maintained into the future. Thank you very much. Any other questions? We'd like to wrap up the Q&A session here. Now, we'd like to close the financial results briefing for the second quarter of the FY2025. Thank you very much for your participation.