7-Eleven Malaysia's marketing drives up revenue amid rapid expansion

7-Eleven Malaysia's revenue jumped 9% in the first quarter of 2019 to RM583.7 million due to better consumer promotion activity, as well as growth in new stores and higher average spend per customer. Higher marketing income, favourable sales mix, and improved logistics expenses recovery also attributed to a 9.1% increase in gross profit to RM210.7 million as compared to the previous quarter.The convenience store chain, which has brought its total network to 2,311 stores through continued expansion, has seen an improvement in customer spend, with a same store sales growth of 6.1%. The company's food service segment, in particular, grew more than 30.0% against the corresponding quarter in revenue, contributing above 3.5% of its total revenue.The company plans to refresh the 7-Eleven brand in the mind of customers moving forward though refreshed stores, innovations in pricing, promotions, and developing new products."We see opportunities for improvement and confident that our strategy roadmap of strengthening the key areas of assortment, supply chain, operational excellence, store base and digitally enabling the organisation will bear fruit in terms of financial performance and overall customer experience," added 7-Eleven Malaysia chief executive officer Colin Harvey.The increase in revenue and higher marketing income also resulted in the group’s profit after tax of RM11.2 million, an increase of 24.9% as compared to the corresponding quarter. However, 7-Eleven board of directors is expecting challenging trading conditions for the next quarter.In March, 7-Eleven Malaysia collaborated with Disney to roll out a campaign to promote Disney’s Mickey Go Local Mini Tins, which are aimed at invoking feelings of nostalgia among consumers and allowing them to experience Malaysian local culture.Read more: 7-Eleven marketer: Winning with great content and right context 7-Eleven Malaysia names new CEO with 26 years of retail industry experience 7-Eleven MY subsidiary looks to acquire 60% of food supplier Cafe Decoral Tan Sri Vincent Tan buys extra 1.41% stake in 7-Eleven MY