UK-based conveyor belt chain YO! Sushi has bought Taiko Foods, a supplier of sushi, Asian foods and dim sum to UK retailers including Waitrose and Costco, The Times reported.
The UK sushi restaurant chain’s deal for Taiko, which until 2013 was part of MCM Foods Manufacturing, a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co, adds 220 workers at its Taiko’s west London.
Last year, YO!, which has 97 restaurants worldwide and saw a management buyout in 2015 involving the UK’s Mayfield Equity Partners, purchased Toronto, Canada-based Bento Sushi, that country’s largest sushi brand with 600 units and another 1,700 partner sites.
Bento is North America’s second largest sushi brand, YO! said.
“With YO!’s international restaurant network across Europe, the Middle East and Australia, the combined business becomes one of the largest sushi companies outside Japan, providing an international, multi-brand, multi-channel offering, well placed to benefit from the continuing increase in consumer interest in healthy, provenance-rich foods,” the company said in a release.
“We’ve successfully reinvigorated the business over the last two years to ensure the foundations are in place for long term growth,” YO! CEO Robin Rowland said.
Source: Undercurrent News
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