Holey battle in doughnut war
7-Eleven has started selling its own fresh-baked doughnuts at all 17,800 of its Japanese convenience stores.
The land of sushi and tea ceremonies is embracing a decidedly less formal culinary treat: doughnuts.
The deep-fried snack has become so popular that convenience stores are marketing original creations. Doughnut specialty stores are responding by ratcheting up their efforts to attract and keep customers.
Major convenience stores entered the doughnut market last autumn. But the competition heightened this summer as Seven-Eleven Japan Co., operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, announced it would start selling Seven Cafe Doughnuts by the end of August at all 17,800 of its Japanese stores.
About six kinds of doughnuts will always be displayed next to the stores’ cash registers, including chocolate old-fashioned (100 yen, or about $1.10 Canadian, including tax) and two other standard flavours.
The company says it delivers the doughnuts from its own 24 bakeries across the country within three hours of production.
The domestic doughnut market is said to be worth 130 billion yen (more than $1.4 billion) annually. Seven-Eleven hopes to expand the doughnut market itself by aiming for 60 billion yen in sales in fiscal 2016.
Convenience store operator Lawson Inc. has increased the number of its stores selling doughnuts next to the stores’ cash registers to about 8,000, or 70 per cent of the company’s total.
Its Hawaiian doughnut (100 yen including tax) is deep-fried at the stores. The company tries to make the taste of doughnuts similar to “what mother would make at home,” according to a spokesman.
Doughnut specialty stores are not standing idly by while convenience stores eat their lunch.
At Mister Donut, a chain run by Duskin Co., each store makes doughnuts from scratch. By reducing the number of doughnuts made at one time, the company hopes by September to be selling fresh doughnuts within four hours of production at all its 1,300 stores, according to company executive Kenichi Miyajima.
In the case of Mister Donut’s standard old-fashioned doughnut, for example, stores usually make about 60 at once. That number will drop to 25.
Mister Donut, which will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the opening of its first Japanese store in April, is also trying to take advantage of its relatively long history. The company has held a “revival selection campaign” to sell doughnuts that were popular in the past by making them available for a limited time. Mister Donut has sold more than 1,000 kinds of doughnuts over the years.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc., which was launched in the United States in 1937 and entered the Japanese market in 2006, is promoting bulk doughnut purchases, urging customers to buy doughnuts by the dozen for home parties.
A dozen assorted doughnuts — the company sells approximately 20 varieties — costs 2,000 yen (about $21.90) including tax, a savings of 760 yen over purchasing 12 doughnuts individually.
This summer, the company also introduced a hybrid sweet called a “waffnut”: a doughnut crossed with a waffle.
The 240-yen waffnut ($2.60) comes in three flavours: strawberry, almond and, naturally, green tea.