The retail group that owns Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan expects profits in the year to February 2007 to rise by 71 per cent in anticipation of a turnaround in consumer spending. Seven & I Holdings president Noritoshi Murata said Japan’s broader retail market will eventually benefit from the growth that is currently limited to the department store sector.

The group expects net profit to reach ¥150 billion in the year ending February 2007 as it benefits from consumer spending and the acquisition of department store group Millennium Retailing Inc. Seven & I posted a net profit of ¥87.9 billion for the year ended February 28. It owns Ito-Yokado, Japan's second-largest supermarket store operator, and Seven-Eleven Japan, the largest Japanese C-store chain, and the restaurant chain Denny's Japan.

 

“Only limited retail segments, such as department stores, have been benefiting from a turnaround in consumer spending. But we think that it is expected to be felt gradually in a broader retail segment, such as the supermarket business,” Murata said in an AFX report. For the current year to February 2007, Seven & I expects overall operating profit to reach ¥300 billion, compared to the ¥244.9 billion in the year just ended.