Japan's largest curry rice chain, CoCo Ichibanya is entering into the Indian market. The brand is foraying into the country through a joint venture between Major trading house Mitsui & Co and Ichibanya Co, Coco Ichibanya curry house operator.
The joint venture is planning to open its first restaurant in Delhi-NCR early next year. It is looking at a combined investment of $3 million in the Indian market for establishing its network here.
The partnership is marking Mitsui's, which is one of the largest and prominent global trading and investment companies of Japan, venture into the restaurant business in the country.
After establishing its flagship store, Ichibanya India is aiming to launch 10 directly owned outlets within five years and 20 franchise outlets in the following five years.
Taku Morimoto, EVP and COO of the Asia Pacific Business Unit, Mitsui & Co, said, "With a population of over 1.3 billion and a rapidly growing middle-income class, we believe the time is right to launch the CoCoICHI brand and concept in India, one of the world's largest food and beverage markets."
"By investing in businesses with direct consumer touch points, we aim to create connections with our established portfolio of businesses, industrial expertise, and deep customer networks to stimulate further growth," he further added.
Presently, Ichibanya operates 1,264 outlets of Coco Ichi in Japan and 180 restaurants globally across US, UK, China and South East Asia.
