Total sales for November 2005 fell 0.4% year-on-year, to 111,764 million yen, while existing store sales edged down 4.9%. Average daily sales per store were 459,000 yen, and the average amount spent per customer was 570 yen, down 3.0%. The average number of customers per store per day declined 2.0%, to 803.

Although year-on-year change in existing store markups-an important indicator for LAWSON-decreased, the percentage decline was less than that of existing store sales. We believe this reflects our shift to a better, profit-oriented sales system that is not dependent on sales campaigns.

The discontinuation of Highway Card sales accounted for a decrease of over 1.0% in monthly sales.

Ticket sales fell by approximately 1.0%, owing to strong sales in November 2004.

By area, stores in the Kanto region continued to report brisk sales, while stores in Hokkaido and Shikoku struggled.

In the rice dishes category, we celebrated the third anniversary of the debut of Onigiriya rice balls and the first anniversary of the introduction of Gohantei boxed lunches. We therefore enhanced mainstay Onigiriya items and introduced limited-time Gohantei boxed lunches. Despite continued support from customers, category sales weakened, reflecting the success of Onigiriya campaigns the previous year. In December, we will remain focused on launching attractive products and providing guidance to stores about product lineups.

In the beverages category, robust sales of chilled drinks contrasted with flagging sales of soft drinks, which benefited from the warm weather a year earlier.

The fast foods category continued to generate strong sales, buoyed by launches of new products, including fried chicken items. We will enhance counter displays and drawing customers' attention to these products in the run up to the year-end/new-year period.

As of November 30, 2005, in addition to our nationwide network of regular LAWSON stores, we had 34 NATURAL LAWSON stores and 15 STORE100 stores. Data for November represents the results of 8,257 stores, excluding STORE100 stores.

LAWSON will announce its third quarter earnings for the year ending February 28, 2006, on January 6, 2006.