FamilyMart

FamilyMart Co., Ltd.

Native name	株式会社ファミリーマート
Romanized name	Kabushiki-gaisha Famirīmāto
Type	Public KK
Traded as	TYO: 8028
Industry	Convenience stores
Founded	September 1973 (1973-09) in Sayama, Japan (incorporated September 1, 1981 (1981-09-01))
Founder	Seiyu Group
Headquarters	Toshima, Tokyo, Japan
Number of locations	17,065[1] (2015)
Areas served	Japan Taiwan Mainland China Philippines Thailand Vietnam Indonesia
Key people	Isamu Nakayama, President
Revenue	JPY 374.4 bn[2] (2014)
Operating income	JPY 40.4 bn (2014)
Profit	JPY 25.6 bn (2014)
Total assets	JPY 666.2 bn (2015)
Total equity	JPY 284.8 bn (2015)
Number of employees	3,896[3] (2015)
Parent	Itochu (35.84%)[4]
Subsidiaries	Famima!!
Slogans	Anata to Konbi ni.
Website	www.family.co.jp

FamilyMart (ファミリーマート, Famirīmāto) is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain first opened in Japan on September 1, 1981. FamilyMart is Japan's third largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven and Lawson, and used to be the largest chain store in South Korea (now renamed to CU). FamilyMart is owned and overseen by FamilyMart Company, Limited. The main shareholder is Itochu with a stake of 35.55%^[5] Its headquarters is on the 17th floor of the Sunshine60 Building in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo.^[6]

All of the usual Japanese convenience store goods such as basic grocery items, magazines, manga, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks like sake, nikuman, fried chicken, onigiri, and bento are available.

Growth and development

FamilyMart in Tokyo, Japan

The first FamilyMart opened its first shop in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture in 1973.^[7]

FamilyMart also has franchise stores in the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Mainland China (Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Suzhou), the United States and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City).^[8] In addition, South Korean franchisees operate two stores in North Korea for South Korean visitors and workers in the Kaesong Industrial Region and Mount Kumgang Tourist Region. As of August 31, 2009, there are 22,444 stores worldwide, with fast growth in Asia outside Japan. There are 9,641 stores in Japan, 7,964 stores in South Korea, 2,952 stores in Taiwan, 1,306 stores in Mainland China, 1,193 stores in Thailand, 71 stores in Vietnam, nine stores in the USA, 21 stores in Indonesia, and 91 stores in the Philippines.

Beginning in July 2005, FamilyMart began building and opening several stores in Los Angeles, California, the first of 250 planned for the United States by 2009. The North American brand name is "Famima!!".

On January 30, 2006, FamilyMart began trials of an automatic cashier station at one of its Tokyo locations in cooperation with Itochu and Toshiba. Special tags on items in the customer's shopping basket are remotely and instantly sensed at the register.

In November 2010, FamilyMart announced it would freeze the number of locations in the United States to 10 stores due to the difficult economic environment. However, operations in certain parts of Asia, especially Mainland China, continue to expand.^[9]

The highest located convenience store, a FamilyMart, is located in Taipei in the skyscraper Taipei 101. It gives employees a place to shop while working.

FamilyMart was launched in the Philippines on April 7, 2013^[10] under the ownership of Ayala Corporation, Rustan's Group and Itochu.^[11][12] Its first Philippine branch, opened on April 22, 2013, is located at the Glorietta 3 mall in Makati.

In October 2013, FamilyMart opened its 10,000th store in Japan.^[7][13]

Overseas operations

FamilyMart in Kaesong, North Korea

CU (South Korea)

In June 2012, FamilyMart of South Korea, which was being run by Family Mart Corporation and BGF Retail, was renamed 'CU' as a movement of an independent brand, and to show a distinct identity. With the order coming from BGF Retail, FamilyMart announced that they were forced to leave the South Korean market, and to cease operations there. However, BGF Retail indicated a flaw in its plan, and needed FamilyMart back to partially govern over CU Stores. Therefore, CU was renamed to 'CU with FamilyMart'.^[14] FamilyMart, however, has thoughts of making a return to the South Korean market in the future.^[15]

The CU (Former South Korean FamilyMart Stores) has a total of 7,950 stores nationwide.^[16] The motto is 'Convenience for You', which made the name 'CU'.

Taiwan

Convenience stores are extremely popular in Taiwan. In this picture, FamilyMart is on the right, while another convenience store is right across the street.

As of May 2012, there were around 9,255 convenience stores in Taiwan, which is equivalent of one store per 2,500 people. This is the highest number per capita in the world, and the number is still rising. 7-Eleven is the most popular convenience store in Taiwan, while FamilyMart is the second. In 2012, FamilyMart has a total of 2,851 stores in Taiwan, which accepts the highest bill payments of convenience stores in Taiwan, with over 100 million bills per year.^[17]

Solar power

FamilyMart has had solar power at some of its stores since at least 2004.^[18] As of 2012 it is hoping to increase its solar energy involvement in the near future.There are around 45,000 convenience stores in Japan. Lawson run just under 10,000, a market share just behind Seven Eleven, who have about 13,000 stores. Currently, only 20 of Lawson's stores are equipped with solar equipment but they plan to expand that number ahead of the July 1 introduction of a "feed in tariff system", which the government and electricity companies say guarantees purchases of electricity from renewable sources such as solar or wind generators. Surplus can only be taken, though, after in-store lighting and air-conditioning has been taken care of.^[19]

Sponsor

Sponsored the company Reggina football in the championship series to and always the team amaranth in Japanese land tour in 2002 and 2003.

Labor Commission Case by franchise owners

Seventeen convenience store owners of FamilyMart stores who had formed a union and requested collective bargaining with the company and were refused and sued. In April 2015 the Central Labor Commission found that FamilyMart had violated the Trade Union law by refusing to negotiate with the union. The franchise owners were recognized as employees under the trade union law, and the company was ordered to pledge to the union that it would not to repeat the offence.^[20][21]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to FamilyMart.

• Official website