Japan’s Seven & I Holdings said it would open the first 7-Eleven convenience store in Vietnam in 2017.

According to Nikkei, the firm’s U.S.-based subsidiary 7-Eleven, Inc. has signed a licensing agreement with IFB Holdings, which currently runs the Pizza Hut store chain and other eateries here in Vietnam, to open the first 7-Eleven store in this market.

HCMC would be home to this first outlet and Seven & I Holdings looks to open 100 stores in the first three years and 1,000 over a decade.

Seven-Eleven Japan will send four employees to Vietnam to help develop unique products for lunch and prepared food, and choose locations.

They will also share knowledge about Japan-style management and governance with Vietnamese employees.   

There are around 38,000 7-Eleven stores outside Japan, including those in ASEAN nations such as Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia. As 7-Eleven, Inc. manages stores in ASEAN, Japan-style management is not dominant at these regional stores.

The convenience store brands of Japan available in Vietnam are FamilyMart and Ministop. These store chains have had a hard time penetrating this market.

Ministop Co. Ltd., a member of AEON Group, partnered with G7 Service and Trading JSC (G7 Mart) under Trung Nguyen Corporation in late 2011 with an aim to develop 500 convenience stores. However, after nearly five years, just 17 stores were set up.

Ministop terminated the contract with G7 Mart in the first quarter of this year and clinched a new franchise contract with Japan’s Sojitz Corporation in an ambitious move to open 800 stores in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, FamilyMart and Phu Thai Group JSC parted in 2013 with the first developing its own convenience store chain here in the country.