From 2025 through 2027, 7-Eleven plans to build 500 new convenience stores, the company said in an investor presentation posted Thursday by parent company Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd.
7-Eleven will do this by rolling out its “New Standard” stores, which were developed from what the company learned with its “Evolution” stores, which offer in-store restaurants, premium products like cigars, craft beers and wine cellars. The first Evolution store opened in Dallas in 2019.
“We plan to open 125 of these new stores in 2025, and we are ramping up and growing our pipeline with plans to open over 500 of these new stores by 2027,” Joe DePinto, 7-Eleven CEO, said on the call.
“In our Evolution stores, the feedback we received from our customers was pretty straightforward,” DePinto said, adding that customers wanted larger-format C-stores, stores that were food forward and that provided innovative digital offerings, personalized offerings and shopping experiences, and more fuel pumps.
“So, we built these stores with our customers’ sentiments in mind,” he said. “Our new store standard, and these new-format stores, are performing better than our existing portfolio in both merchandise sales and traffic, delivering 13% higher same-store sales in the first year of opening. We’re projecting that at full maturity, four years, that these new standard-store sales will further increase by 30% to $8,219 average per store day.”
The growth strategy of the convenience-store business has food at its core, Seven & i Holdings said in the presentation.
“Expand the business scale globally by leveraging strengths in food,” the company said.
7-Eleven has about 13,229 locations in the United States and Canada and a presence in 47 of the top 50 markets.
A look at 7-Eleven’s footprint and white space
“These 13,000 stores are within two miles of 51% of the U.S. population, allowing us to be where our customers are and providing us with an unmatched last-mile distribution network.” DePinto said. “And we are not done, as seen by the white space on this map [above], we have a significant amount of room to grow.”
The presentation also laid out the company’s four key pillars of growth:
- Grow proprietary products
- Accelerate digital products and delivery
- Improve efficiencies and cost leadership
- Grow and enhance store network
Regarding growing proprietary products, the company plans to focus on innovation, quality improvement and value—mentioning fresh food, restaurants, proprietary beverages and private brands.
Also mentioned were plans for food and beverage modernization with proprietary products including grab-and-go hot cases, self-serve roller grill, specialty beverages and in-store bakery items.
These plans also include investing in restaurants, such as the company’s quick-service Mexican restaurant Laredo Taco, Speedy Café and its Southern-inspired QSR Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits.
7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 83,000 convenience stores in 19 countries and regions, including more than 13,000 7-Eleven convenience stores in the United States. In addition to 7-Eleven C-stores, the company operates and franchises Speedway and Stripes C-stores and the Laredo Taco Company, and Raise the Roost Chicken and Biscuits restaurant brands.
This story was originally featured on CSP Daily News, a sister publication of Nation’s Restaurant News.
