FamilyMart Southeast Asian operations in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are under review after mounting losses.
“If we can get them to rally we will, but we cannot continue to pour in resources,” president Koji Takayanagi told Reuters in an interview.
The head of Japan’s second largest convenience store chain says the company wants to stay focused on domestic market opportunities after losses in several Southeast Asian economies: Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. In China and Taiwan, FamilyMart is profitable. And a strong home market is expected to help it achieve a doubling in operating profit to 1 trillion yen (US$8.79 billion) in four years.
In Thailand, the company says it is in talks with the Charoen Pokphand Group and Chinese private equity company Citic over joint venture opportunities outside the convenience store sector. It did not disclose further details but CP has a large portfolio of industries covering many categories, including food, industrial and retail.
FamilyMart Vietnam was launched in 2010 in a partnership with Phu Thai Group. But that ended after a couple of years with only about 40 stores of a planned 300 trading. They were turned into B’smart stores, operated by Thai-based Berli Jucker, which later bought Metro Vietnam. The Japanese company returned in mid 2013 and now has 130 stores in Ho Chi Minh City and nearby Vung Tau and Binh Duong provinces.
