Kicking it up a notch; competition with the convenience store industry enters new level.

Convenience store chain Lawson will soon start an in-store fresh food service across Japan, in an effort to showcase Fresh and goes beyond prepared food.

"By offering freshly made food, we want to attract not only young customers but also those who are reluctant to buy prepared food at convenience stores, such as housewives and elderly people," Lawson President Takeshi Niinami said.

This will be “the first time for a major convenience store chain in Japan to equip its stores with full-scale cooking equipment. Lawson plans to introduce the new service to some 200 stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Kansai area by fiscal 2010, and expand it to 1,000 stores by fiscal 2015 and 3,000 stores -- one-third the number of Lawson outlets nationwide -- in the future.”

Competition in the retail food space continues to heat up!

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