The restaurant owner plans to bring other dining outlets to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
The restaurant owner plans to bring other dining outlets to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
One of Japan's fastest-growing restaurant chains is embarking on a $10 million expansion into New Zealand.
Fukuoka headquartered Ippudo, known as Hakata Ippūdō in Japan, has opened its first New Zealand store in Auckland, and plans to open at least four other venues in New Zealand in the next fiveyears.
The noodle restaurant, which is Japan's first - and biggest - global ramen chain, operates in 13 international markets and has more than 100 stores located throughout the world, including in America, England, France, across South East Asia.
Ben Cheong, operations manager for ST Group, the company which owns the Ippudo brand, said the chain planned to have five stores operating in New Zealand in the next five years.
Mid-market Ippudo, which sells noodle dishes in Australia from $15, opened its first New Zealand store in Scentre Group's newly-developed Westfield Newmarket shopping mall in Auckland yesterday.
Plans are already underway for two more Auckland, one to be located in the CBD. Outside Auckland, Ippudo is looking to open stores in Wellington and Christchurch.
Australian parent company ST Group also plans to bring its other hospitality businesses to the market. It operates eight hospitality brands, including NeNe Chicken, Kurimu and Pafu.
"We want to expand all over New Zealand, however, we're concentrating our focus into the Auckland market first," Cheong said. "It will likely take a couple of years before we enter new areas.
"We've invested close to $3 million for the first store, other stores will cost an average of $1.5 million per location."
ST Group has been planning a New Zealand launch for the Ippudo brand since 2016, when it launched another of its portfolio brand, Malaysian restaurant PappaRich, and bubble tea retailer Gong Cha.
Ippudo has been operating in Australia for close to 10 years and has seven stores. It opened its first in Sydney. Cheong said ST Group was focused on establishing the Ippudo brand, before it looked to introduce other restaurants.
"We are very realistic in how we manage our businesses and operations. We focus individually on each of the brands ... there are challenges that are very different for each one, even just as compared to Australia," he said.
Ben Cheong, operations manager for Australian restaurant operator ST Group. Photo / Supplied
Challenges Ippudo would have to navigate in the New Zealand market included sourcing seasonal produce such as avocados and watermelon, population size, geography and logistics, Cheong said.
The brand would adapt its menus for the market to navigate these, he said.
Despite the large number of Japanese food outlets in New Zealand, Cheong said there was still opportunity for growth. "Japanese offerings that are here are already established, what that means for us is the food is accepted; what we bring to the table is a very authentic core ramen. However, the main thing that's different is a ramen dining cart - it's not just your pop-in, pop-out shop, and we sell alcoholic drinks. It's different from the normal ramen shop."
