Human Focus: 7-Eleven knows when sales will be hot

"Among the 19 countries where 7-Eleven operates, Asia tops the list for most number of 7-Eleven stores. Because of the hot weather. Weather is a factor. In Thailand, the best sales seasons are around March and April while sales drop in the rainy and cold seasons."

Japan tops the list with 12,000 outlets, followed by the US - where the headquarters of 7-Eleven are situated - with more than 6,000 stores. Taiwan comes third with more than 5,000, followed by Thailand, which has over 4,000 stores, and Hong Kong, which has about 1,000-2,000 outlets, he said.

"In some European countries, there are less than 100 outlets. It failed in England," added Piyawat.

In Thailand, the temperature at 7-Eleven stores is set at 25 degrees Celsius since it has been found that customers feel most comfortable at that level of coolness.

Piyawat said 7-Eleven would keep shifting to sell less grocery products while emphasising more on food and beverages: for instance, it is putting up baking equipment at the store sites. Although, foods offer a higher profit margin, they require intelligent management as foods had very limited shelf life.

top SCb exec makes on

Arkom Siroratanarungsi, a former senior vice president of Siam Commercial Bank, has moved to join Living Land Capital, a listed property company as chief financial officer.

'Mr Genes' coming to Bangkok

Juan Enriquez, renowned guru who is also known as Mr Genes in the US media, will be in Bangkok this week to attend BioAsia 2008.

Prof Pornchai Matangkasom-but, president of the Board of Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (TCELS) has invited the public to hear the analysis of the US economy, Enriquez's recommendations to the next US president, and the possibility of Asians being world leaders in life sciences.

The first international biotechnology conference in Asia will be held from during today to Wednesday, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

Another not-to-be-missed speaker in BioAsia is Prof Harald zur Hausen. He is an emeritus professor and a former chairman and scientific director of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg and won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

pichaya@nationgroup.com