Total sales for October 2006 were 121,833 million yen, up 2.7% year on year. However, existing store sales edged down 0.4%, and average daily sales per store were 475,000 yen. The average amount spent per customer was 578 yen, up 1.5%, and the average number of customers per store per day was 820, down 1.9%.

Operations in the three main urban areas drove results, with sales up year on year in the Kanto and Chubu areas, for example.

In the rice dishes category, LAWSON actively introduced products developed in conjunction with NATURAL LAWSON. While failing to match the previous year's level, sales are recovering.

The cooked noodles category performed strongly on the back of continued robust sales of pasta following a renewal last month, and launches of hot noodles.

Sales were higher year on year in the bakery category, where LAWSON is running a picture plate campaign. The campaign runs until November 13.

Sales also remained strong in the fast food category, where LAWSON ran a campaign from October 10 through October 16 offering a 70-yen on purchases of oden (a Japanese hotpot dish). Sales were also driven by Karaage-kun, crispy Japanese-style fried chicken, which is sold with different flavor area by area.

The dessert category continued to record brisk sales due to the aggressive launch of new products and the success of initiatives timed to capitalize on Halloween.

Beverages category sales were almost the same as October 2005, helped by good weather.

On October 3, LAWSON began accepting orders for Christmas cakes and printed New Year's greeting cards.

As of October 31, 2006, we had 71 NATURAL LAWSON and 70 LAWSON STORE100 stores, in addition to our nationwide network of regular LAWSON stores.

LAWSON announced its interim results for the fiscal year ending February 28, 2007 on October 11. Please check our website for the flash report and supplementary information.

Last month, we reported that we closed 10 stores and relocated 29 stores. The figures should in fact be reversed. We apologize for this mistake and have corrected the figures on our website.