Coco Ichibanya aims to launch 30 restaurants in India in 10 yrs

Coco Ichibanya, the world's largest chain of Japanese-style curry restaurants, has formed a new joint venture with Mitsui & Co to foray into the Indian market.

Mitsui has a stake of 60% in the joint venture and will handle everything from managing the business to finding franchisees to expand, while Ichibanya will take care of store operations and product development.

Mitsui and Ichibanya are aiming to launch 30 restaurants in New Delhi, India, in the first 10 years.

Mamoru Kuzuhara, the President of Ichibanya, said, “There was something lacking in not having restaurants in the birthplace of curry. We want to introduce our comfort food, the one that developed in our culture, for Indian customers to try.”

Both partners are looking at sourcing Japanese rice within India and use a vegetarian-friendly curry sauce that contains no animal fat.

“I tried the India-grown japonica rice. It was all right, but it did taste a bit different,” Kuzuhara further stated.

Ichibanya has 1,264 outlets of its famous chain in Japan. It has another 180 restaurants scattered through the US, UK, China, and South East Asia.

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