Total sales rose 1.3% year-on-year, to 118,673 million yen, while existing store sales edged down 3.6%. Average daily sales per store were 471,000 yen and the average amount spent per customer was 569 yen, down 3.7%. The average number of customers per store per day rose 0.1%, to 826. Although year-on-year change in existing store markups-a vitally important business indicator-decreased, the percentage decline was more than two percentage points less than that of existing store sales. We attribute this result to strong sales of fast food and daily-use items, both of which have high markups, and to a sales strategy of reducing our dependence on items with low markups, such as advance ticket sales and other Loppi-related services.

The discontinuation of Highway Card sales accounted for a decrease of over 1% in monthly sales.

By area, stores in the Kanto and Chubu regions reported robust sales, contrasting with lackluster sales in stores in Hokkaido, Tohoku and Shikoku.

In the rice dishes category, new launches included the Gohantei boxed lunches Noko Tamago Tsuyudaku Oyako-don (a chicken and egg rice bowl with a rich egg sauce) (500 yen) and Shisen Mabo-don (a Szechuan-style bean curd rice bowl) (420 yen). Despite the introduction of such products, sales in this category failed to surpass those of a year earlier. In November, we will celebrate the third anniversary of the launch of our Onigiriya rice ball range and the first anniversary of Gohantei boxed lunches. During this period, we will implement aggressive sales strategies, utilizing promotional campaigns in various media. At the same time, we will enhance our mainstay products as part of efforts to develop a lineup best suited to customer needs.

Sales in the chilled beverages category remained brisk, supported by several product launches.

Sales in the fast food category continued to improve year-on-year, owing to solid sales of oden (a Japanese hotpot dish) and Chinese steamed buns, coupled with the launch of new products, including Okonomi Stick (a stick adapted from a traditional savory pancake) (120 yen) and Taiyaki (a fish-shaped Japanese-style waffle filled with sweet azuki bean paste) (100 yen).

As of October 31, in addition to our nationwide network of regular LAWSON stores, we had 33 NATURAL LAWSON stores and 14 LAWSON STORE100 stores. Data for October represents the results for 8,232 stores. This number does not include LAWSON STORE100-format stores.

LAWSON announced its interim results for the fiscal year ending February 28, 2006, on Wednesday, October 12, 2005. The earnings release and supplementary materials posted on this web site.