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RESTAURANTS
PITSINEE JITPLEECHEEP
Fuji Group, the local Japanese restaurant chain pioneer, is expanding through a joint venture with Ichibanya, the largest Japanese curry house, to use Thailand as a springboard into Southeast Asia. A new company, Ichibanya Midwest Asia, has been set up with registered capital of 50 million baht. Fuji Group holds a 51% stake and Ichibanya and its partners the remainder.
Daisaku Tanaka, managing director of Fuji Group, said the company had invested 20 million baht to open its first CoCoIchibanya outlet at The Esplanade shopping centre on Ratchadaphisek road.
Thailand is the first location in Southeast Asia for CoCoIchibanya and the fifth worldwide after the United States, China, Taiwan and South Korea.
The company plans to open five new outlets next year and increase to 10 in the near future. All 10 branches will be operated by the company but future expansion could involve franchising.
''We saw the huge potential in the Thai market because it's a big population and open to new food cultures, particularly Japanese food,'' said Toshiya Hamajima, the CEO of Ichibanya Co.
CoCoIchibanya offers diners a new approach with customised menus. Customers can not only choose rice portions but also their favourite dishes of curry rice with three kinds of sauces: the original curry, mild curry or hash beef.
Customers also choose flavours and toppings such as fried chicken, seafood, beef shabu, koroke cream salmon and more than 30 others, and can select spice levels from mild to level 5. Prices are between 130 and 170 baht per dish.
The company believes university students and young working people will be its main market and wants two million baht in sales per month.
CoCoIchibanya now operates 1,159 branches internationally, including 1,142 in Japan.
''We are confident we can create a new culture of rice curry meals for Thai people,'' Mr Hamajima said.
''Our curry house got a positive response after one year in China and only one month in both Taiwan and South Korea. We aim to have the same experience in the Thai market. We hope to have a total of 20,000 CoCoIchibanya branches available in 100 countries in the long term,'' he said.
Mr Hamajima said that future outlets would follow in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
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