Shrinking 7-Eleven Singapore turns to meals

7-Eleven Singapore is preparing to launch a range of ready to eat meals across its 500-strong store network, in what CEO David Goh says is the core pillar of its ‘change in direction’ business plan.

The Singapore convenience store network, operated by Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm International, has trialled a chicken and rice meal in two stores as the first step in what will eventually be a full scale roll-out of ready to eat foods.

About 100 stores will get the new range by the end of this month, the remainder by the end of November.

The company hopes a fresh meals focus will lead a turnaround in the business, which closed about 60 stores over the last two years. Squeezed by the tight labour market and tough new liquor sales laws, the company is searching for new categories to drive growth and restore profitability for franchisees.

“In the last few years, we have closed more stores than we (have) opened,” Goh said in an interview with Today.

“This has now stabilised. Having consolidated and redeployed resources, we may be opening as many, if not more, stores than we closed over the next couple of years.”

Goh said the chicken rice meal was developed after staff searched for and taste tested the best chicken rice dishes in the city. The goal was to create a meal which looked and tasted better than meals available at coffeeshops and hawker centres.

In Japan, ready to eat meals are a key category in 7-Eleven stores, which sell sushi, noodles and bento boxes to time-poor Japanese consumers.