Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has entered into an agreement to acquire a 22% stake of Agrigate Co., Ltd. ("AG", Head Office: Tokyo, President: Yoshinori Sakon), the operator of 'Shunpachi Greengrocer' retail stores, which produce and sell pre-prepared dishes and lunchboxes alongside seasonal fruit and vegetables across 15 store locations in the Tokyo area, based on the concept of "Fresh, Delicious, and Reasonably Priced." Mitsui acquired new shares issued by AG via third-party allotment on September 28.

AG's "Shunpachi" possesses strong brand power, and carries out procurement based on its own independent standards directly from fruit and vegetable producers from a variety of regions. Additionally, the company is working on the expansion of a new fruit and vegetable distribution and retail business within Japan, building an SPF* model that connects production and sales seamlessly, including some in-house production of pre-prepared dishes and lunchboxes.

Leveraging its understanding of consumers, Mitsui & Co. will provide retail solutions and various other functions cultivated through both its logistics and digital businesses, and will work to transform the Shunpachi brand into a franchise to promote further growth and strengthening of the fruit and vegetable distribution and retail businesses together with AG.

*SPF (Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Food) is a model used in the apparel industry with the acronym SPA (Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel) which has been adapted to the food business, especially for fruit and vegetable distribution.