FamilyMart and Uny Group Holdings have entered merger talks and will decide basic terms by August to form Japan’s second-largest convenience store chain by sales.
Uny will probably be merged into FamilyMart, the companies said in a joint statement. The two retailers aim to close the deal in September 2016, they said.
The deal comes as the industry faces declining sales amid a shrinking and aging population in Japan. FamilyMart’s biggest rivals Seven & I Holdings’s 7-Eleven, Japan’s largest convenience store network, and Lawson are adding stores and expanding to keep prices down by raising volume.
“There are a lot of issues to overcome in the domestic retail market,” FamilyMart president Isamu Nakayama said in joint briefing with Uny held in Tokyo, citing Japan’s falling population and increased competition.
The merger will combine the two company’s convenience stores as well as Uny’s supermarkets, “to create new model for those businesses”, Nakayama said. Tokyo-based FamilyMart has 11,271 convenience stores while Aichi, Japan-based Uny owns 6,328 stores in the Circle K and Sunkus chains, as well as supermarkets under the Apita and Piago brands.
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM
