Dubai's Sumo Sushi & Bento inks deal to enter India
The Japanese restaurant chain plans to open up to 25 stores in India in the next five years.
Sumo Sushi & Bento, a Dubai-based Japanese cuisine restaurant chain, is laid out plans to come to India.
The company has teamed up with FranGlobal as its local partner to open up to 25 stores in the next five years. The first restaurant is expected to open in six months in either Delhi or Mumbai.
“India is a vibrant and exciting country and people are demanding new cuisines and we will hit the mark on it. There’s already awareness, interest and curiosity among Indians around Japanese cuisine especially fusion oriented food,” Sumo Sushi & Bento chief executive officer Julianne Holt Kailihiwa said. “There’s also a big Indian customer base in Dubai, hence we feel that India reasonably should be a scalable market for the brand."
Sumo Sushi & Bento has been serving sushi in Dubai and throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for more than 19 years.The restaurant says it to a cosmopolitan mix of customer base offering both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. In Dubai, the restaurant chain offers two full pages of vegetarian fare which it expects will do well in India.
“Although we are open to regionalization and customisation as we grow in the country," added Kailihiwa.
The chain intends to focus on major urban hubs including cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. The target customer base, it explains, will be the well-travelled, educated, digitally savvy and aware of the cuisine.
“Our biggest challenge is to provide good quality product at a competitive price because the raw material used in Japanese cuisine is expensive. Our quality matches the ones offered in a five-star hotel. We also plan to introduce beer and wine in the menu," said Venus Barak, chief executive, Franglobal.
Photo credit: Sumo Sushi & Bento Facebook
