Seven-Eleven, Toyota team up to build new stores

TOKYO, Dec 3, 2002; Reuters reported that Japan's top convenience store group, Seven-Eleven Japan Co Ltd, said on Tuesday it had formed an alliance with Toyota Motor Corp to build new outlets in areas near the automaker's headquarters in Nagoya.

The convenience store chain has aggressively expanded and now has over 9,300 stores throughout the country, but its presence remains relatively small in regions around Nagoya, central Japan.

"We realised that it would be a great help to team with Toyota in areas close to Nagoya," said Minoru Matsumoto, a spokesman for Seven-Eleven Japan.

"We are trying to hammer out the final details in how to proceed with this alliance."

Seven-Eleven said it would work with the housing division of Toyota to build the new stores.

Opening the stores around Nagoya is key to the convenience store chain's plan to open 1,000 new outlets next year.

The tie-up brings together two of Japan's most financially sound companies, although the co-operation seems limited in scale. Japan's convenience store chains -- which own neighbourhood shops that selling everything from rice balls to pantyhose -- have been rapidly opening new outlets to counteract falling sales at existing stores.