TOKYO – Seven & i Holdings said freshly-brewed drip coffee at its convenience stores in Japan helped it to rack up record profits, while its North American operations benefited from the yen’s depreciation, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The company said Tuesday it logged a record-high group net profit of 128.02 billion yen (US$1.2 billion) for the March-November period, up 32.0 percent from a year earlier, as consumer spending picked up on the back of the economic recovery and its convenience store business expanded.
Group sales for the nine-month period totaled 4.19 trillion yen (US$39.9 billion), up 13.8 percent.
Sales of its private brand Seven Premium products surged 34.0 percent to 497.0 billion yen as more people bought high-quality breads and deli products, contributing to the increase in profits.
Operating profit of its convenience store business swelled to 197.5 billion yen, up 14.6 percent, as group firm Seven – Eleven Japan Co. opened 1,158 new stores during the period.
Its supermarket business through the Ito-Yokado chain was also strong, with its operating profit jumping 32.5 percent to 17.0 billion yen, helped by cost-cutting efforts and robust sales of private brand clothing, it said.
Its Sogo & Seibu department store business logged an operating loss of 1.6 billion yen.
Source: [via]
