Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart plans to open 300 stores each in Indonesia and the Philippines by 2015 to take advantage of countries' young and expanding markets

Cindy Allen

LOS ANGELES , January 19, 2012 (Industry Intelligence) – Masaaki Kosaka, the director of overseas operations at Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart Co., said that the company plans to open 300 stores each in Indonesia and the Philippines by 2015 in order to take advantage of their young and expanding markets, Bloomberg reported Jan. 19.

According to a prediction by the International Monetary Fund, Southeast Asia’s growth rate this year will likely be 5.6%, which is nearly double Japan’s projected growth rate of 2.3%.

In 2010, 7.3% of Family Mart’s operating income, or 3.2 billion yen, came from ventures in Taiwan and Thailand as well as FamilyMart stores located outside of Japan in Asia.

By 2015, FamilyMart aims to increase the overseas portion of its profits to 20%.

By 2020, FamilyMart aims to almost triple the number of stores outside of Japan to 29,000. By this time, to have 70% of its stores located outside of Japan and have 11,000 stores in Japan.

For the fiscal year that ends on Feb. 28, Family Mart predicts that its operating income will increase 10% to 42.1 billion yen (US$549 million).

Mikihiko Yamato, an analyst at JI Asia Pte. Ltd., predicted that FamilyMart’s planned expansion in Indonesia and the Philippines will be visible on the company’s “bottom lines in about eight years.”

According to population estimates by the International Monetary Fund, Japan’s population will probably decrease 1.1% to 127 million by 2016. During this same period, the combined population of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam will most likely expand roughly 6.6% to 553 million.

As of the three-month period that ended on Nov. 30, FamilyMart had 8,697 stores in Japan, FamilyMart Chief Executive Officer Junji Ueda wrote on the company’s website.

He added that, in addition to FamilyMart’s Japanese stores, it has 10,782 franchisers in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

FamilyMart estimates that it controls approximately 17% of Japan’s convenience store market, which is worth 8.3 trillion yen annually.

The primary source of this article is Bloomberg, New York, New York, on Jan. 19, 2012.

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