Seven & I announces sale of Sogo flagship store in Osaka to J. Front

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TOKYO, Feb. 26 Kyodo -
Seven & I Holdings Co. said Thursday it will sell the Osaka flagship store of
its group department store operator Sogo Co. to Daimaru Inc., a unit of J.
Front Retailing Co., for 37.91 billion yen.
Seven & I said the struggling Sogo store in Osaka's Chuo Ward will close at the
end of August and will be transferred to J. Front's wholly owned department
store operator at the end of September.
More than 200 employees will be transferred to nearby outlets such as the Kobe
store.
The Sogo store is located in the busy shopping district of Shinsaibashi and has
a floor space of 40,000 square meters. The area will run up to 77,000 square
meters when Daimaru, which has an outlet next door, takes over the Sogo store
and combines the two outlets.
Daimaru will reopen the former Sogo store in November after refurbishment,
expecting more than 110 billion yen in combined first-year sales at the store
and adjacent Daimaru outlet, J. Front officials said.
Seven & I has under its wing Millennium Retailing Inc., the holding company of
Sogo and Seibu Department Stores Ltd. Under Millennium's oversight is a
nationwide network of 28 department stores, a large number by the standards of
any major Japanese retailer.
Seven & I decided to sell the flagship Sogo store as sales are unlikely to pick
up in light of intense competition with rival department stores which are
renovating their sales floors or opening new outlets in the city of Osaka.
J. Front oversees its department store operators Daimaru and Matsuzakaya Co. J.
Front said Thursday the two department store operators will merge on March 1
next year to speed up decision making and improve business efficiency.
==Kyodo
2009-02-26 22:29:31