(July 7): York Holdings Co, the Japanese supermarket and stores business that Bain Capital LP bought from Seven & i Holdings Co last year, may consider potential mergers and acquisitions if attractive targets emerge, said Naofumi Nishi, a director at the retailer.
The 7-Eleven operator sold off the business as it sought to revamp itself and focus on convenience stores following an unsolicited takeover proposal from Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc, which later abandoned the effort. York’s 30 supermarket and related retail outlets are fending for themselves at a time when prices are climbing and major supermarket operators pursue cost cuts by seeking scale.
Opportunities are “likely to come up” over the next two and a half years and the company is in talks with supermarket operators in eastern Japan, including the Kanto and Tohoku regions, Nishi, who is also a Bain partner, said in an interview. Under the US$5.37 billion deal, Bain owns 60% of York Holdings while Seven & i and the founding Ito family control the rest.
Ito-Yokado, the operation that originally made up the core of the group before it found success with the 7-Eleven model, had long struggled due to a deteriorating market environment. After pushing ahead with structural reforms, its operating profit for the fiscal year through February has more than tripled from the prior period to ¥50.3 billion.
If York eventually buys a rival supermarket operator, it could accelerate industry consolidation. In 2025, Trial Holdings Inc acquired the Seiyu grocery chain from KKR & Co, marking another step toward consolidation in the sector.
Nishi said that the company is considering increasing the density of its store network in Kanto and Tohoku and filling gaps in regions where it does not yet have stores.
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With soaring construction-material prices and labour costs making new store openings more difficult, mergers and acquisitions have become an attractive option for expansion. The company plans to invest ¥150 billion through the fiscal year ending February 2029, mainly in store renovations but that figure does not include acquisition costs.
Nishi also raised the possibility of divesting other parts of the business, such as the non-supermarket retailers such as Loft, so they can expand into shopping malls run by competitors. “We’re currently discussing whether it might actually be possible that they could reach their full potential by becoming independent,” he said.
Preparations for an initial public offering of York Holdings are proceeding on schedule, Nishi said. The company set up an IPO office in July and, while market conditions and external factors could affect the timing, it is building a structure toward a listing in the fiscal year ending February 2028.
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“Whether before or after going public, we want to keep working on building an interesting group of supermarkets,” Nishi said.
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