Making Dough

Japanese convenience stores take on the donut competition.

April 20, 2015

TOKYO – Doughnuts are big business in Japan, and convenience stores are horning in on the action, the Japan Times reports. Major retailers, including Seven-Eleven Japan Co. and Lawson Inc., have recently started stocking the yeasty sweet bread and are seeing brisk sales. Convenience retailers are pairing doughnuts with coffee, another expanding market for the industry.

Last fall, 7-Eleven Japan launched doughnuts in its stores by positioning the sweet treat as snacks. “We sell an average 120 doughnuts daily per store in Tokyo,” said someone speaking for 7-Eleven, part of parent company Seven & I Holdings Co. In a few short months, the retailer’s original doughnuts will be sold in nearly all of the 17,000 Japanese locations.

Meanwhile, Lawson’s debut of donuts at 600 Japanese stores has proved popular with customers. The company will increase the number of stores selling doughnuts to around 8,000 sometime this summer. In addition, FamilyMart Co. has begun putting doughnuts in the bread aisle of its convenience stores.

Doughnut stores have expressed little concern over the proliferation of the treats at convenience stores. “We have no immediate plan to make any major change” because of more convenience retailers carrying doughnuts, said Tetsuya Wada, head of Mister Donut operations at Duskin Co.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement