Yamada Holdings and Edion agree to integrate operations, creating a retail chain with combined annual sales of roughly ¥2.5 trillion ($15.6 billion)

Yamada Holdings and Edion reached an agreement to integrate their operations. The combined entity will have annual sales of roughly ¥2.5 trillion ($15.6 billion), making it far larger than the second-biggest competitor, Nojima.

The two companies aim to leverage economies of scale to reduce procurement costs and to expand beyond discount retail of consumer electronics by developing their own products and businesses.

Yamada Holdings, whose core subsidiary is Yamada Denki, is already the industry's top player; the integration will reinforce that position.