标题: Kura Sushi Lands in Taiwan [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 12-21-2014 13:14 标题: Kura Sushi Lands in Taiwan (1) Mook, 海外亞洲首店！大阪老字號Kura迴轉壽司登台營運. 新浪新聞, Dec 19, 2014
news.sina.com.tw/article/20141219/13616629.html
("日本第三大迴轉壽司連鎖店Kura(くら寿司，無添蔵壽司)台灣首店 * * * 落腳南京東路與松江路交叉路口(松江南京站8號 [bus] 出口），全店擁有148席座位 * * * KURA為來自大阪的老字號平價壽司店，以不添加化學調味料、人工甘味劑、合成色素、人工防腐劑等訴求 * * * 目前 * * * 美國有7家 [分店] * * * 台北店採用和日本店面同樣設計，消費者可利用觸控面板進行快速點餐")
Note:
(a) kura 蔵(P[rincipal]); 倉(P); 庫 【くら】 (n): "warehouse" (But Kura Sushi uses hiragana for "kura" in lieu of kanji/)
(b)
(i) The "muten 無添" is a Japanese word short for
mutenka 無添加 【むてんか】 (adj): "(See 添加) additive-free"
(ii) "添加" is short for 添加剤 (a noun pronounced "tenkazai").
My comment:
(a) shirase 知らせ 【しらせ】 (n): "(See お知らせ) notice"
(b) Pronounced "kurakōporeshon,"くらコーポレーション is katakana for "Kura Corporation."
(c) There is no need to read the rest of the announcement.
(3) 日本藏壽司進軍台灣 拚爭鮮. 中央社, Dec 21, 2014
(藏壽司每盤新台幣40元（特殊菜單除外），爭鮮迴轉壽司則是每盤30元")
Clicking "LOCATION" tab in the top horizontal bar, leads to blank.
(ii) However, there is indeed ONE American store, in Newark, California.
Zensen Sushi Express www.facebook.com/zensensushiexpress
("ABOUT[:] ZENSEN Sushi Express currently operates over 300 sushi shops in Asia, including in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and now is coming to America. http://www.sushiexpress.us/")
(iii) Zensen Sushi Express opened in Berkeley, California last year and soon closed (for unknown reasons).
(d) It is unclear what language "zensen" is for 爭鮮. My educated guess is it is made up--"s" and "sen" is Chinese pronunciations (in Japan) for kanji 争 and 鮮.
translation: Kura Sushi opened its first oversea restaurant in US in 2009. Yet, there few people eat raw food. Even so called sushi centers on roll sushi [such as California roll]. As (it) is, [the company] cannot make the best use of the knowhow gained in Japan and applies to that market. On the other hand, this expansion into Taiwan for the first time allows identical systems used in Japan for an oversea store: 鮮度君 (the cap [cover] that keeps sushi fresh), the precision to collect [empty] dishes with water, etc.
Based on a successful model format, a person in Kura Corp in charge IR [international relations] wants to establish as many as scores of stores [in Taiwan], with a single swoop.
(e) "進出先に台湾を選んだ理由は、親日国であり、日本で流行りの製品や文化が受け入れられやすい下地があることや、政府も誘致に積極的なことが挙げられる。決め手は、すでに回転寿司市場が形成されており、新規参入しても評価が得やすいと考えた点。くら寿司によると、台湾には数百億円規模の回転すし市場があるという。"
The reason Taiwan is selected as the place of expansion is: pro-Japan, accepting goods and culture popular in Japan, cheap [inexpensive], [Taiwan] government's incentives and so on.The decisive factor is the already formed conveyor-belt sushi market, so such so that even a new entrant can easily gauge [the market]. According to Kura Sushi, the Taiwan market for conveyor belt sushi amounts to tens of billions yen.
(f) "その中で断トツの存在感を示しているのが現地企業の「争鮮回転寿司」（Sushi Express）で、店舗数は200以上を誇る。くら寿司の日本での店舗数が2014年10月期末で344だから、かなりの大規模チェーンであることがわかる。"
In the [Taiwan] market, 争鮮回転寿司 Sushi Express is one local enterprises with commanding lead and boasts 200 plus stores. Kura Sushi has 344 stores in Japan by the end of October 2014, so we understand that [Sushi Express] is relatively large in scale.
(g) "ただ、同じ回転寿司といっても、レーンの中に人がいて、ロボットが握ったすしをサーブしたり、お客から声がかかれば注文を受けたりと、台湾の現状はさながら昔の日本の回転すしのようだという。日本のいわゆる100円均一店では、注文はタッチパネル方式でレーンは直線と、効率化や厨房の省人化では台湾の先を行く。"
However, though [Sushi Express] is in the same business of conveyor belt sushi, [in its stores] people [diners] sits inside the lane, having the sushi [whose rice] robots knead into shape, and orders by shouting. The current Taiwan is, so to speak, Japan in the past as far as conveyor belt sushi is concerned. The so called 100 yen uniform-price [Kura] store [ie, dollar store, where every item costs $1]--with orders by touch panel, straight lane, efficiency, and few people in kitchens--will be destined for Taiwan.
(h) "デフレ時代の勝ち組と言われた回転すし業界だが、魚介価格の高騰に急速な円安が追い打ちをかけ、各社の経営環境は厳しさを増している。そんな中、くら寿司が12月12日に発表した2014年10月期決算は、最終利益が前期比約2割増の30億円と過去最高を記録。 * * * 台湾を橋頭保に海外 [東南アジア] 拡大へ [section heading] とはいえ、くら寿司の顧客の中心は子供連れの30代ファミリー層。長い目で見れば、少子高齢化が進む国内だけでは市場は先細りのおそれがある。* * * 日本に比べて原材料費や人件費が安く、おまけに法人税も17％と低い。 * * * くら寿司によれば、台湾のオープン初日は「大盛況だった」と、上々のスタートを切ったようだ。業績が絶好調とはいえ、回転すしは外食の中でも原価が高く、薄利多売のビジネスであることに変わりはない。
Though conveyor belt sushi is a winner in the era of deflation [in Japan], the rising costs of fish and shellfish [seafood, in a word] and yen depreciation [possibly Kura Sushi imports] increases the hardship of the business. In the midst of that, on Dec 12 Kura Sushi published its financial report for October, with profit hiking by 20% or 3 billion yen. * * * Taiwan as beachhead to expand into Southeast Asia [heading] Even so, the customers of Kura Sushi are around the thirty something [age] families with children. In the long term, relying solely on the domestic market, which is progressing to few children and old age, brings fear of a dwindling market. [So Kura Sushi must go out.] * * * Compared with Japan, raw material and labor [in Taiwan] are cheap. What's more, corporate tax of 17% is low. * * * Kura Sushi says, the grand opening day saw great success ( or, packed-out) 大盛況, which makes a superb start. Although performance is top form (despite good business), high 原価 cost of good sold of revolving sushi [on conveyor belt] among food service industry 外食 [literally, dining out] makes this a business of small profits with large volume, a fact that will not change. 作者: choi 时间: 12-21-2014 13:16
(1) Joan Coello, Smart Sushi: How the Classic Dish and Technology Comes Together to Make Dinner Even More Fun. Rocket News 24, Oct 5, 2013.
en.rocketnews24.com/2013/10/05/smart-sushi-how-a-classic-dish-and-technology-come-together-to-make-dinner-even-more-fun/
Note:
(a) kaitenzushi (kanji: 回転寿司) where the "s" in "sushi" is softened to "z" because "s" is the first letter no more.
(b) The photo shows you a table with two conveyor belts, with a green rectangular sign (displaying a downward arrow) at the level of the tabletop where a patron drops dishes. See photo 2 in the previous posting.
(c) This report is to tell you how it works. If you have visited one of its stores, there is no need to read it.
"Absent, too, are the exorbitant prices of conventional sushi restaurants. At a Kura, a sushi plate goes for 100 yen, or about $1.22.
"In the kitchen, a robot busily makes the rice morsels for a server to top with cuts of fish that have been shipped from a central processing plant, where workers are trained to slice tuna and mackerel accurately down to the gram.
In all, just six servers and a minimal kitchen staff can service a restaurant seating 196 people, said a company spokesman, Takeshi Hattori.
"While the overall market for belt-conveyor sushi restaurants jumped 42 percent, to 428 billion yen, in 2009 compared with 2003, higher-end sushi restaurants are on the decline, according to Fuji-Keizai, a market research firm.
Note:
(a) Nobuyuki "Nobu" MATSUHISA 松久 信幸
(b) "Kunihiko TANAKA 田中 邦彦, Kura’s chief executive, who opened Kura’s first sushi restaurant in 1995"
(c) "Munenori Hotta, a food service industry expert at Miyagi University in Japan"
(i) Munenori HOTTA 堀田 宗徳
(ii) Miyagi University 宮城大学 is public, in Miyagi Prefecture.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyagi_Prefecture
(iii) The NYT report was translated into Chinese:
自动化传输带为寿司连锁店创造利润. 译言网, Aug 28, 2011
article.yeeyan.org/view/245662/213914
, where (c) is "本宫城大学的餐饮服务行业的专家宗矩崛田先生." Wrong name.
(d)
(i) Takeshi HATTORI is most likely 服部 武.
(ii) The same 译言网 translation said "Takeshi Hattori" was 北野服部年宏 ("一位公司发言人北野服部年宏说").
(A) 北野 is extraneous--nowhere to be found in the (English) NYT report..
(B) 服部 年宏 is Toshihiro HATTORI (1973- ; a former footballer; according to ja.wikipedia.org).