As consumption upgrades across China, restaurant companies must keep refining their products, sharpening their service and raising customer satisfaction at every touchpoint. Japan's restaurant industry sets the benchmark, and it has a great deal to teach.
In December 2018, with Yitang running the programme, Nestlé China took an in-depth look at Japanese restaurant companies: sessions and site visits with Japanese founders and experts on brand operations, franchise and chain management, product development and central kitchen management.
Diamond Dining
Session: Multi-Brand Growth Strategy for Restaurant Companies
Founded in 1996, Diamond Dining is a leader of Japan's restaurant industry: 12 subsidiaries, 425 outlets and more than 150 restaurant brands spanning premium Japanese cuisine, chicken specialists and themed restaurants. Listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it posted sales of 45 billion yen in 2018.
A hundred restaurants, a hundred concepts: Diamond Dining pioneered the multi-brand strategy in Japanese food service.
How do you keep profits growing steadily while running so many brands and SKUs? Diamond Dining has its own answer.
Watami
Session: Managing a Restaurant Chain and Differentiating Individual Stores
Founded in 1984, Watami is Japan's largest izakaya chain, a group of 730 outlets including more than 80 overseas.
A highly standardised, highly replicable store-opening model is one of the main reasons behind Watami's success.
Fungo
Session: Product Development and Brand Marketing at Japan's Trendiest Restaurants
Fungo is behind some of Tokyo's most talked-about restaurants. Its founder blends American food with Japanese sensibilities to create products young Japan loves, from the apple-pie specialist Granny Smith to its sandwich and bakery restaurants.
Kensuke Takahashi (高橋賢佑), leading central kitchen designer
Session: Central Kitchens in Japan Today and Key Design Principles
Chairman of the Food Facility Planning Institute and one of Japan's foremost central kitchen experts, Mr Takahashi is a first-class registered architect and SQF consultant who has designed central kitchens for 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, AEON and other major convenience-store and supermarket chains.
A direct conversation with the expert, covering the design philosophy, management model and day-to-day operation of central kitchens.
