章節 1264: Chapter 1264: When Qin loses its deer, the world will chase it together
The competition between Ito Yokado convenience stores and 7-Eleven convenience stores has attracted the attention of the entire convenience store industry on the island country.
The former is actually the leading convenience store chain with the most stores. Apart from a change of brand, the operating system and management system are the same, and its fighting power remains strong.
Although the latter currently only has 100 convenience stores and is not even in the top ten in the island country's convenience store industry, and its operating and management systems are still being fine-tuned, it has the most famous brand in the island country.
For first-class convenience store chains such as Lawson, FamilyMart, Ministop, Daily, New Day, Popular and Seicomart, these two companies pose a huge threat.
Especially in Tokyo and its surrounding areas, the fierce competition between the two has put other convenience store companies under direct pressure.
Tokyo, Lawson Convenience Store Co., Ltd.
President Aoki Go, originally the vice president of the island's largest retail group, the Daiei Group, accepted the group's appointment as president of the newly formed subsidiary Lawson Convenience Store Co., Ltd. in April 1975, and it has been eight years since then.
Thanks to his efforts, Lawson Convenience Store is not as strong as the original 7-Eleven Convenience Store, but it has successfully entered the top three in the island's convenience store sector, ranking behind 7-Eleven Convenience Store and FamilyMart.
The base of operations for Lawson Convenience Stores is actually in the Kansai region of the island, and it was only in the past three years, after the base was considered to be stable, that it expanded to the Kanto region.
As Tokyo is the most central city in the Kanto region, it is only natural that Aoki has made Tokyo a key strategic point for the company's expansion.
For this reason, after obtaining the approval of the parent company, Daiei Group, Aoki also moved the headquarters of Lawson Convenience Stores Co., Ltd. to Tokyo.
After a few years, there were a total of 75 Lawson convenience stores in and around Tokyo, which was not much different in terms of quantity from FamilyMart, and the gap with the original 7-Eleven (later unified as Ito-Yokado Convenience Store) was also very small.
However, Lawson has only entered the market in recent years and has only managed to gain a foothold. There is still a certain gap between it and the top two in terms of customer flow and revenue.
For this reason, Aoki has repeatedly called on senior management and think tanks to discuss various methods of improving the figures.
However, in the past few days, Ito-Yokado convenience stores have been competing with 7-Eleven convenience stores, and there are an additional 100 convenience stores in Tokyo, which has increased the overall market competition.
The population of Tokyo fluctuates within that range, and consumer demand is also more or less fixed. With an additional 100 convenience stores and the two companies heavily engaging in marketing, the negative impact on companies like Lawson that have not engaged in marketing is self-evident.
'During the three days from 11th to 13th September, the average daily turnover per store in our 75 stores in the Tokyo area fell by more than 20%. On the 14th, our turnover rebounded somewhat, but compared to normal times, there was still a 11.3% decline...'
'We must take action!'
'First, solve the crisis we are currently facing.'
'Second, find opportunities from this crisis to lead the company to a new level.'
At the senior management meeting, Aoki Hiro gave a grim account of the recent operating data and emphasised the theme of the meeting.
'President, the stores in the Tokyo area, our turnover has fallen, but in other areas, our operating data has generally increased. These customers must have switched from Ito-Yokado convenience stores.'
'I believe that Ito-Yokado has not only lost customers to us, but also to other convenience store brands.'
'It is conceivable that Ito-Yokado's losses will definitely not be small.'
'Over the years, people like Toshifumi Suzuki have been putting pressure on us. I feel that we must not give up this opportunity. We must focus on Ito-Yokado and use this opportunity to take the top spot.'
The only female executive in the meeting rose and proposed.
But as soon as she sat down, another executive stood up and expressed a different opinion: 'Ito Yokado convenience stores need to be suppressed, but I think we need to suppress 7-Eleven first. This is the best opportunity we've ever had. We must definitely make a big effort to suppress them, and it would be best if the 7-Eleven brand disappeared in the country.'
'I have investigated the operations of 7-Eleven convenience stores on site. This convenience store chain from Hong Kong has been able to achieve the same level of customer traffic per store as we have only been able to achieve in the past six to seven years simply by relying on the 7-Eleven brand. This is undoubtedly very frightening, and shows that consumers recognise the 7-Eleven brand very highly.'
'Now that 7-Eleven has not yet gained a firm foothold, Suzuki Toshifumi will definitely target 7-Eleven. If we also suppress it, then 7-Eleven has a high possibility of falling. Even if it doesn't fall, it will be impossible for them to expand quickly. The customers that flow out are the cake that we can compete for.'
As soon as he finished speaking, the manager in charge of the operations department put forward another opinion: 'I have a different opinion. I don't think there is any need to deliberately suppress 7-Eleven, because even if we don't do it, Ito-Yokado will do it anyway, and they will go all out. There is no need for us to focus our energy on this and also attract the hatred of 7-Eleven.'
'Both Ito-Yokado and 7-Eleven are backed by strong capital. It would be extremely difficult to make them both go out of business, and it would definitely take a long time.'
'I always believe that the most important thing for us to do is to do well ourselves. As long as we do well ourselves, customers from both Ito-Yokado and 7-Eleven, or customers from other convenience stores, are all our targets.'
'Right now, both Ito-Yokado and 7-Eleven have huge shortcomings. As long as we formulate a long-term effective marketing strategy, we will be able to attract new customers continuously.'
'In addition, I think now is the best time to expand. We should increase the pace of expansion...'
...
At this time of crisis and opportunity, everyone was very excited and enthusiastically expressed their own opinions.
However, in the end, the president, Aoki, had the final say, and after adding his own thoughts, several action goals were formed at this meeting.
The first was to conduct a month-long marketing campaign to attract new customers and expand brand awareness.
The second was to take the opportunity to expand, mainly by choosing locations where Lawson had not yet set foot, but where Ito-Yokado did, to attract customers lost to Ito-Yokado.
The third is to take advantage of the opportunity to suppress Ito-Yokado convenience stores, and carry out poaching operations against it. After poaching the talent, they will be fully integrated with the internal talent before assigning them to ensure the stability of the operating system.
The fourth, and pending action plan, is to combat 7-Eleven convenience stores.
The reason why the action plan to focus on suppressing 7-Eleven convenience stores is pending is to save resources and focus as much resources and energy as possible on self-growth.
After all, everyone agreed that Ito-Yokado would definitely suppress 7-Eleven, and even if Ito-Yokado itself suffered setbacks, it would still give priority to eliminating 7-Eleven.
Of course, if the analysis and judgment were wrong and Ito-Yokado did not suppress 7-Eleven later, then they would have to act accordingly.
At the end of the meeting, Aoki also mentioned an extremely important matter, which was the franchise period of the Lawson convenience store.
With the example of 7-Eleven, they could not help but worry, so they sent someone to the United States to negotiate some time ago. However, because the American company Consolidate Food also knew what had happened in the country and understood the urgency of Aoki and the others, they wanted to take this opportunity to take advantage of Lawson.
This, in turn, caused Aoki and the others to feel uneasy and suspicious.
Lawson, like 7-Eleven, is an imported product from the United States.
The parent company of the island country's Lawson convenience store is the Daiei Group, a company that started out as a husband-and-wife business in 1957 and grew rapidly, overtaking Mitsukoshi Department Store in 1972 to become the retailing powerhouse of the island country.
Seeing the bright future of the 7-Eleven convenience store, which Ito-Yokado Group had introduced from the United States, the Daiei Group also introduced the Lawson convenience store from the United States a year and a half after 7-Eleven entered the island country.
The predecessor of the American convenience store chain, Rosemond, was the Rosemond Milk Company. Like Southern Company, it started out by distributing milk, but the two companies had different distribution areas.
Southern Company rose to prominence in the southern state of Texas, while Rosemond Milk Company was based in the central and eastern US state of Ohio.
This sudden interruption of the contract renewal by Southern Company dealt a heavy blow to the Ito-Yokado Group. The brand that had been cultivated for ten years had become someone else's wedding dress. The Daiei Group from the island country was extremely nervous after receiving the news, so they immediately sent someone to the United States.
The purpose was only one: to obtain the permanent regional franchise rights!
The Daiei Group even made a backup plan: once things did not go well, they would immediately acquire the Lawson convenience store, and in special circumstances, they could even acquire the parent company of the Lawson convenience store, Consolidati Foods.
In any case, this time, the hidden dangers must be resolved!
...
The industry veteran, Lawson, had taken action, and FamilyMart, the industry second-place player, had also not missed this opportunity. After a meeting and discussion, the management had also come up with a similar action plan.
As for convenience stores of other brands, they also had plans more or less.
For a time, the convenience store industry in the island country was surging with hidden currents. Any company with ambitions was gearing up, quite like the atmosphere of 'when Qin lost its deer, the world chased after it together'.
7-Eleven, the first to rebel, had only just gained a foothold when it was met with a thunderous retaliation from the Ito-Yokado Group.
Fu Kai, who had just received good news and was still happy about it two days later, was overwhelmed by the bad news that came flying like paper.
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