Over the past 39 years, Toshifumi Suzuki has expanded 7-Eleven to 50,000 outlets, more than any other retail chain. Now, at the age of 80, he says he has no interest in retiring. He's got too much work to do.
"I'm not thinking about it at all yet," said Suzuki, chief executive of Japan's Seven & I Holdings Co., global owner of the home of the Slurpee.
High on Suzuki's to-do list is a renewed focus on the U.S., where the chain was founded 86 years ago when a Dallas ice maker began selling eggs, bread and milk. Suzuki opened Japan's first 7-Eleven in Tokyo's bayside Toyosu district in 1974 and built the brand into Japan's biggest convenience store chain. Then in 1991, after 7-Eleven brand owner Southland Corp. filed for bankruptcy, he turned around and bought the mother company.