Latest News

Food, FamilyMart drive Japan's Itochu's H1 revenue up 6%.

Japanese trading house Itochu on Wednesday published 438.4 billion yen ($ 2.9 billion) in net profit for the six months to endSeptember, up 6% from a year previously, on nonresource products consisting of food and the FamilyMart convenience store chain.

Itochu kept its net earnings forecast for the fiscal year the same at 880 billion yen, of which 24% or 213 billion yen is predicted from food, fabrics and the 8th department to where FamilyMart belongs, overtaking the profit's largest factor, the metals and minerals department with a 200 billion yen projection.

Over the previous number of years, Japanese trading homes have been expanding in the retail service, from food to fabrics and convenience stores, as varied portfolios help them to reduce risks from product costs changes.

From chicken utilized in crispy and juicy Famichiki fried chicken common to Itochu-run over 16,000 FamilyMart stores across Japan, the trading house also provides them bananas, eggs and socks, among other products of day-to-day use.

In the latest push in October, Marubeni began selling salmon from a farm operated near mount Fuji by its Norwegian partner, adding to the seafood service where its competitors Mitsubishi and Mitsui are also present.

Mitsubishi owns Norway-based Cermaq, one of the world's. leading salmon farmers, and is likewise exploring salmon land. farming in Japan, while Mitsui is an investor of the world's. leading shrimp farming and processing companies in Ecuador and Vietnam.

Mitsui owns a 2% stake in 7 and i Holdings,. parent of Japan's top corner store chain 7-Eleven and a. $ 47-billion acquisition target of Canada's Alimentation. Couche-Tard, and Mitsubishi co-owns third-ranked. Lawson.

Neither Itochu, nor Mitsubishi or Mitsui are sole suppliers. for corner store chains they are shareholders of but. around-the-corner stores iconic to Japan assist the trading homes. to monetise on their food and clothing businesses.

(source: Reuters)