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FamilyMart lines up plans for more stores

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-29 08:08

Japan's third largest convenience store chain FamilyMart Co Ltd said yesterday it plans aggressive store openings in China and South Korea in its next financial year as it increasingly looks to overseas markets for growth.

It also said it would decide the future of its loss-making US business by the end of the year.

While convenience stores in Japan have been weathering the economic downturn better than other retailers, they face weak growth prospects as more than 42,000 stores vie for survival in the face of an aging population.

This has prompted Japanese retailers to step up expansion overseas, and FamilyMart is among the most aggressive in such efforts.

"The net store increase in China is likely to be much bigger next financial year than this year," said FamilyMart President Junji Ueda.

"In South Korea, a net store increase of 400-500 (annually) will continue for the next three to four years," he said.

It will have added about 130 new stores in China and 450 in South Korea by the end of the current business year in February, bringing the total to about 330 and 4,600 respectively.

It sees a net increase of about 220 stores in Japan.

The company has about 7,600 stores in Japan and 7,900 overseas.

It also opened its first store in Vietnam last week.

Compared with its strong expansion in Asia, its business in the United States has been struggling to take off as it has yet to find a viable business model. It has about ten stores in the country.

Ueda said the chain has started moving its stores to city center areas, where it expects more customer traffic.

It will wait a year to see how this works before making a decision on its future.

"In the next year, we will decide the next step (for the US business) from the following options - to make further expansion, to freeze at the current size or to pull out," he said.