Japanese discount store operator Don Quijote Holdings will open a new chain in the United States early next year selling take-out Japanese food such as deep-fried oysters and noodles to tap growing demand for Japanese cuisine, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.
"If you go to the United States, you can get high-end Japanese food as well as ingredients but there's a gap when it comes to the kind of middle-of-the-road prepared food that's popular in Japanese supermarkets," Takao Yasuda told Reuters in an interview.
"Ultimately, we would turn this into a pan-Pacific business," he added, saying he hoped to bring the concept to Southeast Asia and China in three to four years.
Don Quijote, known for its cluttered 24-hour stores selling everything from toilet paper to Rolex watches, is one of the few winners among Japanese retailers but is a laggard overseas, where it has 11 supermarket stores in California and Hawaii through its acquisition of Los Angeles-based Marukai Corp last year, as well as three Don Quijote stores in Hawaii.
Yasuda, who founded the company in 1989, said the still-to-be-named chain would be independent of Marukai and Don Quijote, although some of the Marukai sites would be converted into the new chain. He eventually envisages at least 200 to 300 stores in the United States alone, he said.
Most would be inside shopping malls, while Don Quijote was also open to buying other local companies for the real estate to set up brick-and-mortar stores, he said.
Calling the concept "oriental mobile foods", Yasuda said this would be the main business for Don Quijote both in the United States and Asia, rather than replicating the all-you-can-find general discount store format.
"It would be extremely difficult to compete with the likes of Walmart in the United States," Yasuda said.
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