7-Eleven Japan planning to become even more awesome by baking its own bread in-store

Convenience store chain planning major in-store cooking upgrades to thousands of branches in Japan.

The food selection at Japanese convenience stores is already pretty amazing, with all sorts of snacks and meals that make them viable to-go meal options that often rival the selection and quality available at fast food and casual restaurants. Walk into a branch of 7-Eleven, for example, and the tempting offerings include bento boxed lunches, pasta, noodles, steamed buns, sandwiches, and fried chicken…and now the chain is planning to add freshly baked bread to that list.

Currently, the baked goods that line the shelves of 7-Eleven’s bread aisle are prepared at central kitchens, then shipped by truck to individual branches. 7-Eleven’s owner Seven and i Holdings, though, wants to change that system. The company is planning a major investment to install and expand its in-store cooking equipment, according to a report from Japanese public broadcaster NHK citing a source involved with the project. The 10 billion-yen (US$67.7 million) project will affect roughly half of 7-Eleven’s 20,000 convenience stores in Japan, and among the planned upgrades are in-store ovens capable of baking bread to stock the branch with.

Actually, ovens capable of baking “breads” is probably the better description, since in Japan pan, the Japanese word for “bread,” also encompasses a variety of sweet and savory bread-based baked goods, such as buns filled with curry, sweet bean paste, custard cream, stir-fried noodles, or egg salad, as well as melon bread, a bun with a sweet cookie-like crust to its dome. As these are all popular Japanese convenience store staples, it’s a safe bet that 7-Eleven’s plan to start baking bread in-store encompasses these items, and isn’t limited to loaves of sandwich bread.

▼ Melon bread

There is precedent for convenience stores in Japan doing their own baking. Rival convenience store chain Daily Yamazaki, parleying the expertise of its parent company Yamazaki Baking Company, has in-store baking kitchens at some of its branches, and in-the-know shoppers will often seek those branches out since they provide the convenience of a conventional convenience store and a bakery all in one.

7-Eleven Japan’s baking initiative comes in the wake of a failed takeover bid by a Canadian party and a now-scrapped plan to take the company private, leading Seven and i Holdings looking for ways to boost its financial performance. An increased focus on bread and baked goods may also be a timely move, as currently skyrocketing prices for rice in Japan have led to similar increases in the price of convenience store onigiri (rice balls) and bento (boxed lunches, which include rice), making them much less attractive to shoppers. 7-Eleven branches won’t be getting their upgraded bread-baking kitchens, though, until February of next year.

Source: NHK (1, 2) via Kinisoku
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