Major Japanese convenience store operator Lawson Inc will enter the Indian market, planning to open its first store in Mumbai in 2027 and launch a total of 100 stores in the country by 2030, a company official said.
Starting with five directly operated stores in Mumbai in 2027, the company aims to eventually expand its presence in the South Asian country to 10,000 stores in 2050, the official said.
Lawson -- which already has about 7,800 stores overseas, mainly in China -- views India, the world's most populous country, as the next potential pillar of profit-making outside Japan.
Seeing India continue to build infrastructure that enables the transport of food products at low temperatures, the company has determined it can enter the market, according to the official.
Among Lawson's Japanese rivals, Seven & i Holdings Co opened its first 7-Eleven store in India in 2021. It had about 60 stores as of September last year.
© KYODO
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Speed
I'm sure Japanese store staff in Japan are going to be chomping at the bit to transfer to one of the Indian stores.
Hercolobus
What sanitary standards?
Sven Asai
In relation to the population there, this is not more than a micro-sized test balloon.
NCIS Reruns
A few years ago I shopped at a Lawson in Dalian, China. Virtually all of the merchandise was locally procured, but I enjoyed browsing. It also had tables and chairs where the customers could consume food and beverages.
It's interesting to see how some merchandise is adapted to local tastes. At a Family Mart in Taiwan I saw a sign in Chinese for Japanese oden that read "Guandong-zhu," using the Kansai term, "Kanto-daki" as opposed to oden.
HopeSpringsEternal
Companies invest where markets are growing and that's definitely India, while they consolidate in markets that are not growing, like Japan, and Lawson is no different.