FamilyMart Philippines convenience-store chain, partly owned by the Ayala and Tantoco groups, is up for auction.

With about 70 stores, the Japanese chain has been offered to prospective investors in the past few months, reports the Business Inquirer.

Ayala Land and the Rustan’s group, via their equally owned JV firm Sial CVS Retailers, in 2012 signed a deal with FamilyMart and Itochu Corporation to develop and run FamilyMart convenience stores in the Philippines.
FamilyMart has been closing unprofitable stores over the past 12 months.

In the convenience store market in past six years, new brands have been challenging 7-Eleven and MiniStop, respectively run by Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC) and Robinsons Retail Holdings.

Aside from FamilyMart, the Puregold group also brought Japan’s Lawson into the market while the SM group introduced Indonesian brand Alfamart. Meanwhile, real-estate magnate Manuel Villar has also built his own convenience-store network, All Day.

To date, the two original brands still lead the market, with 7-Eleven surpassing 2000 outlets while Mini-Stop has at least 500 stores.