TOKYO -- Lawson Inc., Japan's No. 2 convenience store retailer, will use the opening of up to 50 c-stores in Hawaii as a springboard to expand onto the U.S. mainland, according to a report by Just-Food.com.
The retailer plans to open its first two stores in Hawaii in late June or early July and has longer-term aims for Hawaii and for the United States. "We eventually aim to open between 30 and 50 outlets in Hawaii," a spokesperson told the food industry news and information outlet without providing a timetable.
The first two outlets in Honolulu will be tenants of the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel and the Moana Surfrider Westin Resort & Spa, said the report, and will be directly managed by a local Lawson subsidiary formed in January.
The company is aiming to gather knowledge of local consumers for a future launch onto the U.S. mainland, the report said. The Hawaii outlets will acquaint U.S. tourists with the chain.
The spokesperson said the U.S. market was a priority for Lawson CEO Takeshi Niinami.
"Niinami views the U.S. market as second only to the Asian market in Lawson's strategy," the spokesperson told Just-Food.
The spokesperson declined to reveal details on when and where Lawson's first mainland U.S. outlets will be opened; however, he confirmed the company will open a data centre in Silicon Valley in California to analyze data garnered from Ponta, a customer loyalty card introduced in Japan in 2010, which help assess what prospects it has in the United States.
Japan's retailers are looking at overseas expansion amid a falling and aging domestic population, said the report. Japan's three major convenience store operators--Seven & i Holdings (parent to 7-Eleven), Lawson and FamilyMart (parent to Famima!)--said that there is leeway for only 5,000 new c-stores in Japan, so overseas expansion is needed.
Tokyo-based Lawson has 9,853 c-stores in Japan and 319 in China. It has total net sales of 16,828 billion yen ($207.24 billion U.S.).
Click here for Lawson's full-year 2011 financial presentation, which provides insight into the company's offering and strategy.
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