# Sogo & Seibu

Sogo & Seibu Co., Ltd. (株式会社そごう・西武, Kabushiki-gaisha Sogou & Seibu) is a Japanese retail company that operates two department stores: Sogo, and Seibu.The current number of stores is 4 Seibu brand department stores, 2 Seibu brand shopping centers, and 4 Sogo brand department stores in Japan. There are stores with the same name in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, but the trademark rights are lent to local capital, and the company does not participate in the management.

## Early history

This department store is older than Sogo, and its original kimono store opened in Osaka in 1830 (Tenpo era of the Edo period). In 1918, the company began full-fledged department store business as Sogo Kimono Co., Ltd. After that, in line with Japan's modernization, the company expanded its stores one after another, and at its peak had 28 stores.
The Seibu Department Store opened in 1930 as Musashino Department Store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. In 1949, the name was changed to its current name. Later, the Seibu Department Store established the Saison Group (Seibu Ryutsu Group). The Saison Group established "Parco'', which later became a subsidiary of J.Front Retailing, "Seiyu'', which became a subsidiary of Walmart( and buyout to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts at May 12, 2023), ''Family Mart", which later became a subsidiary of Itochu, and "Loft'', which became a subsidiary of Seven and i Holdings.
In addition, companies such as "Muji'', which operates its own retail business, were also affiliates of the Saison Group.
Through this expansion route, at its peak, the company managed 32 stores across Japan.
However, these expansion plans rapidly deteriorated profits as the deflationary economy progressed, resulting in huge amounts of non-performing loans.

## History

The birth of Sogo & Seibu stemmed from the problem of bad loans. On June 1, 2003, Sogo Co., Ltd. and Seibu Department Store Co., Ltd. were merged to form a holding company, Millennium Retailing inc., and company restructuring began.
On December 26, 2005, Seven & i Holdings received a stock transfer from Nomura Principal Finance, Millennium Retailing' largest shareholder, and became a subsidiary of Seven & i Holdings.
Established on September 1, 2009 by reorganizing Millennium Retailing, which owns Seibu Department Stores and Sogo.
In 2009, the Sogo & Seibu stores became the first worldwide to sell robots humanoids (actually actroids) with the face of their buyers (at $255,000 a piece).

## Sale to Fortress

When it was announced that Seven & I Holdings Co. would sell Sogo & Seibu to the company in November 2022, Fortress Investment Group (FIG) said the Seibu & Sogo locations will now rely on Yodobashi Camera's tenancy within the department store to boost sales. Seven & I Holdings Co. was pressured by its shareholders (namely ValueAct Capital) to divest Sogo & Seibu to focus on 7-Eleven's development. On August 31, 2023, it was reported that the company would be sold to Fortress in a deal valued at JP ¥220 billion (1,495,937,080 US$, March 10, 2024). According to subsequent reports, Fortress sold the acquired real estate to Yodobashi Holdings for JP ¥300 billion.
The announcement of the sale led to around 900 employees striking and the closure of the Seibu Ikebukuro flagship on August 31. The strike was the first major department store strike in Japan since the 1960s. Seven & I Holdings Co. finally decided to keep Sogo & Seibu's workers after the buyout.
On September 1, 2023, Seven & i Holdings announced that the sale of Sogo & Seibu has been completed. The actual sale price was said to be JP ¥85 million. Later, it was reported that the basis for the sale price of JP ¥85 million was that Sogo & Seibu paid Seibu Holdings a sales approval fee of JP ¥10.8 billion, which was then reimbursed by Seven & i Holdings. This is because the Seibu Group (Seibu Railway) owns half of the real estate at the Seibu Ikebukuro store and also shares some of the trademark rights.
The root cause of this turmoil involving employees is that sales from the Seibu Ikebukuro store account for more than 1/3 of Sogo & Seibu's profits, and there is a sense of crisis over the survival of the store and the company. This has been analyzed in Toyo Keizai Magazine and other publications.

## After belonging to Fortress

After receiving the stock transfer from Seven & i holdings, Fortress immediately sold the real estate held by Sogo & Seibu to Yodobashi Holdings. Along with this, renovations of the Seibu Ikebukuro store are scheduled to begin in August 2024.
The Sogo & Seibu, which became part of Fortress, immediately began considering the sale of real estate in which it had surface rights and building management rights. Accordingly, on September 12, 2023, Sogo Chiba Junnukan was sold to Yodobashi Holdings, and Sogo Kawaguchi was sold to Mitsui Fudosan.
Due to the renovation of the Seibu Ikebukuro store, "The Garden Jiyugaoka Ikebukuro store", a store owned by Shell Garden, closed on January 31, 2024.
According to an article in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun dated February 26, 2024, the company announced that it will stop publishing the monthly sales of department stores for the time being from March 1, 2024.

## Businesses other than department stores

* Commercial Department - Service business for corporations, schools, and public organizations. Unlike retail, it conduct BtoB contract sales.
* Yatsugatake Highland Lodge (八ヶ岳高原ロッジ) - Operates villa sales, villa management, operation hotels, and management music halls in Nagano Prefecture, Minamimaki Village.
* Gottsu-o-bin (ごっつお便) - EC sales and catalog sales of high-quality ingredients.
* e.Department store marketing (e.デパートマーケティング) - EC sales and website management and operation. Also, Seven Bank card payment company. Seven Bank is a payment bank owned by Seven & i Holdings.