In September 2021, the number of new cases of COVID-19 showed a decreasing trend from early to late September, and the fifth wave came to an end.
The sales result of the LAWSON Business (LAWSON and NATURAL LAWSON) in September is as follows*1.
Existing-store sales (excluding ticket and gift card sales etc.) increased 0.7% year on year over the same period and the average number of customers per store decreased 4.4% and the average customer spend rose 5.3% year on year.

The Lawson Group operated 14,672 convenience stores in Japan at the end of September 2021, including 137 NATURAL LAWSON stores and 671 LAWSON STORE 100 stores.

＜Sales situation＞
・Sales of fresh foods, frozen foods, daily foods, Japanese and Western sweets, and alcohol, the five categories in which we are working to strengthen our product lineup, continued to increase as we succeeded in capturing demand in customers' daily lives.
・In the cooked noodle category, sales were driven by a series of ramen noodles supervised by popular restaurants in various parts of Japan, as well as the "Choi-men" series of easy-to-consume, convenient-sized noodles.
・At the in-store kitchen “Machikado Chubo”, received favorable reviews for items such as boxed lunches tailored to the needs of each region and thick-cut Sangenton pork cutlet sandwich.
・In desserts, "GATEAU CHOCOLAT", a sweet that pursues "Superior taste" and was launched on September 27, is selling well.
・In toys and books, sales of products related to the popular anime titles "Demon slayer" and "Jujutsu Kaisen " contributed to sales.

Cigarette sales were a factor that pushed up existing-store sales in September by about 1.0 point year-on-year.

＜Major Promotions＞
・" Demon slayer " Collect Stamp Campaign (August 31 - November 29, 2012)
・" Jujutsu Kaisen " Campaign (September 14 - September 27)

＜Topics＞ * for details, please refer to the news release.
・The number of stores in China surpassed 4,000.
Among Japanese convenience stores in mainland China, Lawson has the largest number of stores.
・Delivery service "menu" started at some Lawson stores in Tokyo and Osaka.
As a result, the number of delivery services that Lawson has partnered with has increased to five.
・The number of stores introducing the "Machikado Chubo" in-store kitchens, which is expanding in line with the growing needs of customers, reached approximately 7,200.

Note 1: Sales of the LAWSON Business include sales generated by LAWSON stores (excluding Lawson Okinawa, Inc., Lawson Minami-Kyushu, Inc., and Lawson Kochi, Inc.), NATURAL LAWSON stores.