Japan's Aeon Q1 down 62 pct on weak supermarket sales

TOKYO, July 7 (Reuters) - Japan's second-largest retailer Aeon Co Ltd (8267.T) on Tuesday booked a 62 percent fall in quarterly profit, as a slide in consumer spending hit its supermarkets and specialty apparel stores, and it kept its full-year outlook. The company, which runs 600 Jusco and other supermarkets as well as 1,200 grocery stores, said its operating profit fell to 8.72 billion yen ($91.5 million) during its first quarter ended in May.

Aeon, also the majority owner of U.S. women's apparel retailer Talbots Inc (TLB.N) has been aggressively cutting prices and expanding its offerings of own-brand items to lure back customers, but it has failed to stem the sharp fall in its sales.

For the full year through February, the company kept its operating profit forecast of 130-140 billion yen, up 4.5-12.6 percent from the previous year, above an average estimate of 128.7 billion yen in a poll of 13 analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Aeon and rivals have been suffering as consumers cut back on spending on clothes and other non-food items, prompting further price cutting and the conversion of unprofitable stores into discount shops.

Last week, bigger rival Seven & I Holdings (3382.T) posted a bigger-than-expected 17.5 percent decline in its first quarter operating profit, hurt by weakness in its supermarket and department store divisions.[ID:nT369185]

Shares of Aeon fell 30.6 percent in the past 12 months through to Monday, underperforming an 18 percent decline in the Tokyo stock exchange's retail subindex .IRETL.T. (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka)