Global convenience-store conglomerate Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., the parent company of 7-Eleven Inc., said in a strategy update and action plan that it intends to spin off its Ito-Yokado supermarket core business to focus more sharply on convenience retailing.
“The board seriously considered our optimal group structure through cooperation with group subsidiaries, focusing on how to maximize value of each of our businesses including CVS [convenience store], align employee interests and create long-term shareholder value,” Tokyo-based Seven & i said. “As a result, we will create a globally integrated CVS management structure, including Japan and North America, with a unified leadership.”
The company will also:
• Accelerate the pace of acquisitions for the North American CVS business to capitalize on the fragmented market with a more assertive approach to financing.
• Develop more aggressive business plans and targets for the global CVS business and pursue a more proactive approach to investment, particularly M&A.
• Centralize investment and planning for group-wide technology and digital strategies to ensure we capture and leverage opportunities and capabilities across the entire group.
To help refocus, the company said that it is considering an initial public offering (IPO) of what it calls the Superstore (SST) business, “targeting to list as soon as reasonably practicable as one workable option, on the basis that certain capital alliances and shareholdings among these businesses will continue to allow the food related collaboration between CVS and SST to be maintained.”
SST “will aim to establish a refined management/business structure to provide employees with autonomy to pursue re-growth, and to have independence financially in strategic decision-making, while continuing to aim towards a successful business transformation,” Seven & i said.
Seven & i was founded in 1920 as Ito-Yokado, a department store and supermarket chain. In 1991, Ito-Yokado acquired majority control of 7-Eleven in the United States and internationally. It established Seven & i in 2005 as part of a corporate restructuring to serve as the holding company of Ito-Yokado, Seven-Eleven Japan, Denny’s Japan and other businesses.
- 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Based in Irving, Texas, 7-Eleven Inc. operates, franchises or licenses more than 83,000 convenience stores in 19 countries and regions, including more than 13,000 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States and Canada. In addition, it operates and franchises Speedway, Stripes, Laredo Taco Company and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits locations in the United States.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.