The Lawson Group Sweeping Transformation Executive Committee entered its third year of operation in FY2022. The Committee was launched to realize our Challenge 2025 medium-term vision and mark our 50th anniversary in 2025. We are working to increase the degree of execution of each Committee project, resolve medium- to long-term issues to help ensure sustainable growth for the Lawson Group as a whole, secure new earnings opportunities, and improve job satisfaction. In addition, we have set a strategic concept for “community-based × individual customer and individual store-focused operations” and introduced a company system in some areas to strengthen frameworks for actively creating customer value in frontline locations, which are much closer to customers. We have been promoting measures to strengthen each individual area.

In the first half of FY2022, while the number of people infected with COVID-19 increased in July and August, the absence of any restrictions on movement following the lifting of priority measures to prevent infection in March has resulted in a gradual recovery in people flows.

In domestic convenience store business, we have been expanding the range of products for everyday use, such as frozen foods, renovating stores, and establishing frameworks to enable us to better satisfy customer demand. We had planned to renovate 3,500 stores in FY2022. We renovated 1,240 stores in the first half from March to August, bringing the total number of renovated stores to 5,545 stores at the end of August 2022. Along with those renovations, we have also continued to introduce Machikado Chubo in-store kitchen services. As a result, the number of stores equipped with a Machikado Chubo kitchen had risen to 8,853 as of the end of August. We also began handling MUJI products in earnest from May, bringing the total number of stores that offer MUJI products, including experimental stores from the previous fiscal year, to a total of 3,780 stores at the end of August. We also increased the number of stores offering food delivery services to 3,498 stores as of the end of August.

We launched our HAPPY LAWSON PROJECT on our founding day of June 14 to inform as many customers as possible about these changes in our stores and product ranges, and we have developed various measures to illustrate how dedicated we are to fulfilling needs from the perspective of both our customers and the SDGs. The HAPPY LAWSON PROJECT seeks to realize the vision we have set to mark our 50th anniversary in 2025 of turning LAWSON stores into new community-rooted “New hubs of refreshment in every community.”
As a result of the above initiatives, existing-store sales in Japan rose 2.4% year on year in the first half of FY2022.

With regard to our Seijo Ishii Business, sales growth slackened compared to the previous year’s strong stay-home demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, sales of Seijo Ishi’s own deli items held steady as we opened our third in-house Central Kitchen and enhanced the items on offer.

In our Entertainment-related Business, ticket handling volumes in the first half of FY2022 exceeded that of the same period of FY 2019 before COVID, thanks to the enthusiastic holding of more concerts and live events primarily during the Golden Week holiday in April/May and the traditional Obon holiday in August, which were both celebrated without any restriction on movement for the first time in three years.

As for our Financial Services Business, we are working to expand the Lawson Bank ATM network and offer a wider range of ATM services. We are also working to increase the number of collaborating operators and financial institutions.

Regarding our Overseas Business, the business environment proved severe as our operations were adversely impacted by the lockdown in Shanghai and large-scale restrictions on movement across China from April. Despite the difficult situation, we worked hard to strengthen food delivery services that are expected to generate greater demand and to expand our store network. As a result, in July, we became the first Japanese convenience store chain in China to achieve a network of over 5,000 stores.

Furthermore, we filed an application in September to list our consolidated subsidiary Seijo Ishii Co., Ltd. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as part of our business portfolio strategy designed to help realize Challenge 2025 by maximizing the growth of the Lawson Group as a whole and maximizing the value of the Lawson brand.

Our ultimate aim is to ensure Lawson enjoys the loyal support of all customers. To that aim, the entire Group is uniting together to swiftly grasp social issues and diversifying values and to respond to customer demands, while also contributing to the happiness of the local “machi” community by following through on our three promises: Superior Taste, Human Kindness, and Environmental "Machi" Friendliness.
We ask for the continued understanding and support of our shareholders and investors.