Famima Celebrates First American Anniversary With Store Opening
TORRANCE, Calif. -- Famima Corp. here, a subsidiary of FamilyMart Co., Ltd., plans to mark the first anniversary of its inaugural American location by opening a new store in Hollywood July 14. The Hollywood store will be the sixth American location in the Japanese-owned specialty food chain, which plans to expand in the U.S. market with fresh-meal oriented, small footprint stores.
Since its first American store debuted last year in West Hollywood, Famima has opened locations in Westwood, Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Torrance, Calif. Additional stores are planned for downtown Los Angeles, Glendale, Long Beach, and Pasadena, Calif., for a total of more than 20 stores by the year's end and a total of 250 stores by 2009.
"When we first opened our West Hollywood store, many people did not know what type of business we were," said Famima Corp.'s president and c.e.o., Shiro Inoue, in a statement. "From our modern store design, some people mistook us for a bookstore or cell phone store. We understand the need to build our brand awareness, and this will take time. We believe we can increase awareness by expanding to new locations and continuing to provide satisfying products and services to our customers.
"As with our parent company in Japan, FamilyMart, customer trust and satisfaction has come from continual efforts to improve our products and services based on our customers' needs," Inoue said. "Famima is still a small chain, but it is our commitment to continue to improve our business and to provide the highest-quality products and service to our customers."
Famima's product line includes fresh gourmet sandwiches, salads, sushi, deli, dim sum, soup, and freshly baked desserts; packaged specialty foods; organic gourmet coffee; and a variety of hot and cold drinks and gourmet meals. In addition, it offers such convenience store items as aspirin, travel necessities, batteries, stationery, and local and foreign magazines and newspapers, as well as ATM and copy machines in many of its stores.
Famima is the American brand name for one of Asia's leading convenience store chains, FamilyMart Company, Ltd. With over 12,320 stores operating in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and China and net sales of about $8.7 billion, FamilyMart is one of Asia's top three convenience store franchises.
Since its first American store debuted last year in West Hollywood, Famima has opened locations in Westwood, Santa Monica, Pasadena, and Torrance, Calif. Additional stores are planned for downtown Los Angeles, Glendale, Long Beach, and Pasadena, Calif., for a total of more than 20 stores by the year's end and a total of 250 stores by 2009.
"When we first opened our West Hollywood store, many people did not know what type of business we were," said Famima Corp.'s president and c.e.o., Shiro Inoue, in a statement. "From our modern store design, some people mistook us for a bookstore or cell phone store. We understand the need to build our brand awareness, and this will take time. We believe we can increase awareness by expanding to new locations and continuing to provide satisfying products and services to our customers.
"As with our parent company in Japan, FamilyMart, customer trust and satisfaction has come from continual efforts to improve our products and services based on our customers' needs," Inoue said. "Famima is still a small chain, but it is our commitment to continue to improve our business and to provide the highest-quality products and service to our customers."
Famima's product line includes fresh gourmet sandwiches, salads, sushi, deli, dim sum, soup, and freshly baked desserts; packaged specialty foods; organic gourmet coffee; and a variety of hot and cold drinks and gourmet meals. In addition, it offers such convenience store items as aspirin, travel necessities, batteries, stationery, and local and foreign magazines and newspapers, as well as ATM and copy machines in many of its stores.
Famima is the American brand name for one of Asia's leading convenience store chains, FamilyMart Company, Ltd. With over 12,320 stores operating in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and China and net sales of about $8.7 billion, FamilyMart is one of Asia's top three convenience store franchises.