OSAKA, Sep 28 (News On Japan) - FamilyMart has put Shohei Ohtani at the center of its latest push, casting the global baseball star in a nationwide TV campaign tied to a revamped onigiri line. During a two-hour shoot in Los Angeles in December, Ohtani—whom President Kensuke Hosomi describes as soft-spoken and “sun-bright”—sampled 19 rice balls and even asked to take the leftovers home.
The ads sparked an immediate “Ohtani effect,” lifting onigiri sales by about 20%, and the chain is now layering new products to sustain the momentum.
FamilyMart is doubling down on unconventional bets—from celebrity marketing to apparel and in-store media—as it pursues growth under President Kensuke Hosomi, an Osaka native who took the helm after the chain became a subsidiary of Itochu in 2021. The convenience store operator counts roughly 16,000 outlets nationwide and holds the top share in Osaka with 1,352 stores.
A recent television feature highlighted the chain’s push to refresh core categories and build new ones. The headline grabber has been the campaign featuring Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, tied to the launch of a new onigiri line. According to the program, onigiri sales rose about 20% following the ads. Hosomi attended the December shoot in Los Angeles and said Ohtani, described as soft-spoken in person, sampled 19 onigiri during the two-hour session and even took the leftovers home.
Beyond star power, FamilyMart is seeking to “make new culture” in convenience retailing. Its in-house apparel label, “Convenience Wear,” launched in 2021, has grown from an emergency-use idea into everyday basics prominently merchandised at store entrances to signal seasonality. The business, which began piloting in Osaka for frank customer feedback, is expected to reach about 20 billion yen in sales this fiscal year—roughly 1.5 times the prior year—on the back of hit items such as color-forward socks. Cumulative sock sales have reached 28 million pairs, with demand now extending beyond standard black and white to brighter hues.
Coffee is another pillar. After three years of development, FamilyMart rolled out a new machine—its first major refresh in seven years—under the guidance of barista Tetsu Haruya, an Asia-first world champion in his field. To approximate a hand-brewed cup, the chain reworked extraction logic and, for what it says is a convenience-store first, introduced nine grind settings to better match bean profile and menu. The lineup has doubled, and customers can buy a cup from 145 yen. Development teams are already trialing recipes more than a year ahead, adjusting parameters by season.
The company is also turning stores into media. “FamilyMart Vision,” a large digital screen above registers installed in more than 10,000 outlets, mixes entertainment clips, weather and news with product promotions and local information. With 15 million daily visitors, the network is positioned as a monetizable channel; the program cited about 5 billion yen in operating profit from media-related initiatives. Targeted distribution by region and time of day is intended to lift basket size when new store openings are harder to come by.
Operations experiments are being pushed by younger staff. At the Osaka-Kansai Expo venue store, a location staffed largely by second-year employees, daily Famichiki sales reportedly reached about 1,900 pieces, the highest in Japan for the brand, while onigiri sold at roughly eight times a typical outlet. The team refined crowd control and back-stocking routines to keep pace with four times normal customer volumes.
Hosomi’s management philosophy draws on his American football experience as a tight end and later captain at Kobe University: simplify to strengths, build “momentum,” and keep raising the bar through teamwork. His career at Itochu, mainly in textiles and later watches, reinforced a lesson that scale and collaboration beat solo wins. Personally, he keeps up a long-running habit of collecting movie posters and artwork gathered on overseas trips, a nod to global influences that he says help him reset between demands.
Marketing experiments continue to lean playful. The chain’s “Cat Day” campaign on February 22—branded “Family Nya-rt”—is now in its third year, shifting FamilyMart’s stance from fast follower to early mover in seasonal merchandising. Looking ahead to the chain’s 45th anniversary, FamilyMart plans to pilot a new-concept store format powered by young employees, extending learnings from the Expo outlet.
Asked what a leader needs most, Hosomi offered a simple maxim: “Go where nobody has gone; do what nobody has done.”
Source: Television OSAKA NEWS
