Boom time for Japanese restaurant
The Fuji Group, which opened its first Japanese restaurant in Yangon in March, says it has found unexpectedly overwhelming success in Myanmar, one of the poorest nations in the world.
Rawiwan Tanaka, marketing director of the Bangkok-based Fuji Group, told The Nation that
people had to make reservations to secure their tables at the Yangon restaurant almost every
evening. “Previously, we had planned to make it a pioneer investment, but unexpectedly we have become known very fast,” said Rawiwan Tanaka, marketing director of Fuji Group. “If it is in the evening, our customers have to call to book their seats every day.”
She said Fuji’s customers were local people and it had exceeded its target despite the fact that its prices were 20-40 per cent higher than those in Thailand because most ingredients have to be airfreighted in from the Kingdom. “Myanmar people sit longer than Thais but they
also dine more. The average bill per table is about 30 per cent higher: Bt1,200 compared with Bt850 in Thailand,” said the Fuji executive. The first Fuji restaurant in Myanmar is on
Hanthawaddy Road, near a shopping compound in Yangon. It has two storeys and is of a similar size to the Fuji restaurant in central Lat Phrao in Bangkok, though the former has fewer tables. A
karaoke service is provided on the upper floor.
“It’s the most beautiful and most modern restaurant in Myanmar,” she said. Rawiwan said Fuji had nearly reached saturation in the Thai market, where it runs more than 70 restaurants, and hence began to expand outside the country late last year, with its first branch in Laos. It will shortly open the second Fuji restaurant in that country and is looking to open a second
outlet in Myanmar as well as expanding to Cambodia, Vietnam and other Asean countries in
the near future.
Besides Fuji, the group also manages the Coco Ichibanya, Shin Daikoku, Sushi Tsukiji, Bangkok Kitchen, and Brassirie Nakawara restaurant chains. It has opened three Coco Ichibanya restaurants in Singapore and is launching the fourth outlet this week, she said.
“We have won the right to operate Coco Ichibanya in all Asean countries as 50:50 joint ventures
with the parent company,” she said. It is usually easier to open a Coco Ichibanya curry house than a Fuji, which serves a large variety of Japanese foods, since the latter requires a
minimum of 100 seats while 50 seats are sufficient for a Coco Ichibanya outlet.
The group plans to introduce another brand but cannot yet revealed the details, Rawiwan said.
