In the 21st installment of this series, we spoke with Norihiro Aoyama (43, originally from Shizuoka Prefecture), president of Zensho do Brasil. The company operates the Brazilian Sukiya chain, which opened its first store in 2010 near the São Joaquim metro station in the oriental quarter of São Paulo.
14 years after its opening, the chain has expanded to 27 locations across Brazil, building a food infrastructure as one of Japan's leading restaurant chains, specializing in beef bowls and curry.
Sukiya's Beef Bowl
Sukiya in Brazil, whose motto is "Serving the taste of Japan as it is," is a directly managed restaurant of Japan's Zensho Holdings. In order to provide clients with the "fun of choice," the company's restaurant business operates about 30 chain restaurant brands in Japan, including beef bowl, sushi, hamburger, udon, and coffee shops, and Sukiya is one of them.
It is the largest restaurant chain in Japan, and the number of overseas stores is expected to exceed 10,000 by the fiscal year ending March 2024, making it one of the top 10 chains in the global restaurant industry in terms of the number of stores.
Currently, Sukiya has over 1,900 stores in Japan, and 670 stores overseas (China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mexico, etc.) in order to spread Japan's national dish around the world (as of the end of December 2023).
When President Aoyama joined Zensho Holdings in 2003, there were only about 400 Sukiya restaurants in Japan. Even back then, Zensho's founder and CEO Kentaro Ogawa aimed to become the world's number one food company, and he has been involved in that growth while watching that goal steadily become a reality.
He was interested in expanding Sukiya's operations to areas where it does not yet exist, and explains his desire to "grow Sukiya overseas just as it does in Japan, and to create restaurants where Japanese food is more accessible and can be enjoyed casually."
A wider variety of Japanese national dishes on the menu
Sukiya basically serves the Japanese flavors all over the world. In Brazil, the staff who prepare the food often do not know the original Japanese flavors, so they first check the correct flavor more carefully than in Japan.
Brazilians seem to prefer stronger flavors than Japanese people, so some products are a little stronger. Popular dishes among Brazilians include Shimeji beef bowl, pork cutlet curry, and Brazilian-style barbecue bacon and cheese bowl, while Japanese people love Negi-tama beef bowl and various set meals.
Since its opening, the Brazilian restaurant has been working to draw interest in Sukiya by offering well-known Japanese dishes on its menu in addition to beef bowls, including ramen, tonkatsu rice bowls, and set meals that are not available at Sukiya restaurants in Japan.
Every year, product developers from Japan visit the restaurant regularly to develop new local menu items, taking into consideration popular Japanese products and those in demand in Brazil. In response to the recent popularity of Angus beef, a "Yakiniku Donburi" (grilled meat rice bowl) made with 100% Brazilian Angus beef was added to the menu two years ago.
In order to propose various ways of eating through Japanese cuisine, they currently introduce monthly campaign menus and update the menu four times a year. In February of this year, they will be offering a new menu for a limited time only, the "Teriyaki Salmon Bowl," as well as campaign menus, such as "Beef Bowl King (five times the usual amount of meat and three times the usual amount of rice)" and "Curry King (three times the usual amount of curry and twice the usual amount of rice)."
In order to allow more people to experience Japan, each store is currently being renovated with a Japanese design, including the products, exterior, and interior.
Safe and secure food for the world
The company's mission in expanding globally is to provide safe and delicious food at affordable prices to people all over the world. Through these activities, the company aims to eradicate hunger and poverty from the world and bring stability and development to human society.
Just like in Brazil, all stores are responsible for food safety and quality from purchasing to sales, and they always thoroughly inspect meat production plants.
Brazil is the second largest producer and largest exporter of beef in the world, which is important to Sukiya. In recent years, in order to improve not only quantity but also quality, an increasing number of packers (food packaging companies) have adopted feedlot (cattle raised on pasture are kept in pens for 1-3 months before shipping and fed high-energy feed to fatten them up) and semi-feedlot breeding methods.
With an eye on exports to overseas markets where inspections are strict, the awareness of Brazilian producers is also changing rapidly, with more emphasis on traceability (tracking the production and distribution process) and the breed of cattle. In addition to an environment that allows them to provide "safer and tastier food," the abundance of ingredients needed for cooking and the continuing population growth of the Brazilian market are major attractions for the company.
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Overview of Zensho do Brasil |
*This article is reprinted from the Brazil Nippo (February 3, 2024).
© 2024 Tomoko Oura
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