7-Eleven, Inc. is expected to have an excellent 2012 after breaking international and domestic store growth records in 2011. Considered the world's largest "retailer by units", 7-eleven has opened over 4,600 stores worldwide in 2011 and planning to continue that growth in 2012.

Around 600 additional stores have be constructed, acquired or changed from another business to the 7-Eleven® in just the U.S. and Canada during 2011. This year, 7-Eleven's expects to surpass that amount by opening around 630 new shops by the end of 2012.

Starting in 2003, 7-Eleven has just about doubled its global store count, from 25,000 to over 46,000. It is estimated that today, a new 7-Eleven store opens somewhere in the world about every two hours. 

According to Joe DePinto, President and CEO of 7-Eleven, the company's "U.S. growth strategy includes building greater market presence and adding quality locations in metropolitan areas where the company already has stores as a means to increase efficiencies and leverage the company's scale and daily-delivery infrastructure."          

He added that the "financial strength of 7-Eleven has enabled us to grow aggressively, even in what has been a challenging economic environment for many companies in the past four years."

7-Eleven Real Estate Vice President Dan Porter said that "In the world of real estate and development, it has been a buyer's market, and we have been in the enviable position to capitalize on property and space availability plus 7-Eleven's strong credit rating."

Around 56 percent of 7-Eleven's growth in the U.S. last year was due to many acquisitions that increased store numbers in New York, Florida, Illinois, Colorado and the Northwest. The most notable involved the 2011 purchase of Wilson Farms Inc., a Buffalo-based convenience store chain with over 188 outlets in New York state.

7-Eleven is also going back into two markets, namely Jacksonville, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C., where it had functioning stores until the 1980s. The company also intends to double its 20-store presence in Manhattan in the next year and increase its locations to135 units by 2017.

According to Mr. Porter, they have "successfully increased 7-Eleven's store footprint in several of our most dynamic markets," He admitted that "Year to date, 7-Eleven already has added more than 200 new locations, in North America. We believe we are adding more new locations this year around the world than any other company and are the second fastest-growing food retailer in the U.S., based on new store openings"