YO! Sushi

Last updated

YO! Sushi
Company type Private
Industry Kiosks
Restaurants
Founded1997;27 years ago (1997)
Founder Simon Woodroffe
Headquarters,
Number of locations
50 restaurants
Area served
United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Australia.
Key people
Richard Hodgson (CEO) [1]
Products Sushi
Revenue £80 million (2015)
Owner Zensho
Number of employees
1,800 (2015)
Parent The Wonderfield Group
Website yosushi.com

YO! Sushi (sometimes shortened to just YO!) is a chain of kiosks and conveyor belt sushi restaurants, principally in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Australia. [2]

Contents

History

Previous logo Yosushilogo.png
Previous logo
YO! Sushi at Trinity Leeds. (2019) Yo! Sushi, Trinity Leeds (12th March 2019).jpg
YO! Sushi at Trinity Leeds. (2019)
YO! Sushi in Bluewater Shopping Centre (2007) Bluewater3752.JPG
YO! Sushi in Bluewater Shopping Centre (2007)
YO! Sushi in Paddington station, London (2005) Conveyor belt sushi overview.JPG
YO! Sushi in Paddington station, London (2005)
YO! Sushi in Manchester (2006) Yo! Sushi in Manchester.jpg
YO! Sushi in Manchester (2006)

YO! Sushi was founded in 1997, by British entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe. [3] [4] The current owner is Zensho Holdings, with royalties paid to YO! Company. YO! Sushi opened its first restaurant in Soho, London in January 1997. [5] A second restaurant followed opening in Harvey Nichols.

In 2000, Robin Rowland became CEO, and in 2002, YO! Sushi opened their first restaurant outside London, in Manchester's Selfridges. By 2003, the company had twelve restaurants open, and the first franchise opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In April 2003, one scene from the movie Johnny English takes place in a restaurant of YO! Sushi. Johnny English gets his tie stuck in the conveyor belt. Two new franchises opened in 2007, one in Dublin, the other in Moscow. In April 2010, they opened their fiftieth company owned restaurant in Market Place, London.

In 2008, they became the first catering group to adopt the Food Standards Agency's traffic light colour coding system, which allows customers to see nutritional information about the food they are eating. [6]

From 1 September 2009, the YO! Sushi in Whiteleys Shopping Centre launched its takeaway and delivery services, allowing customers to go into the restaurant and order their food or order online to get food delivered to their homes. [7]

By June 2014, the company had more than seventy restaurants. [3] In October 2016, the company opened its first American stand alone restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts, and a few months later, in the Flatiron District in Manhattan, in March 2017. [8] The company had five restaurants in North America, but all of them have since closed.

In 31 July 2024, YO! Sushi's parent company Snowfox rebranded to The Wonderfield Group, YO! Sushi and other businesses in their portfolio would be phased out for the Wonderfield branding. [9]

Restaurants

YO! Sushi specialises in delivering sushi to customers using the Japanese style 'kaiten' conveyor belt method. [10] [11] [12] In each restaurant various sushi dishes and other Japanese cooked foods are prepared in a theater style kitchen in plain view of customers and then set on the thin conveyor belt. [12]

The belt carries food around the restaurant in a circuit, allowing diners to pick any dish from the belt. [10]

The restaurants are mostly based in the United Kingdom with the majority in London. [13] Restaurants have also been opened in the Middle East in Dubai, [14] Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait, with others in other countries such as Ireland.

In the United States, YO! Sushi has opened five restaurants: There was a YO! Sushi located at the Westfield Garden State Plaza shopping mall in Paramus, New Jersey, which is close to New York City. The location opened in May 2015, but it closed in 2017. [15] There was also another location in Sarasota, Florida.

Then, three more locations opened in Tampa, Florida, Short Hills, New Jersey at The Mall at Short Hills, and Woodbury Commons mall in Central Valley, New York. All of the locations in the United States were eventually closed by 2018. Mayfair Equity Partners acquired Canadas Bento Sushi in 2018.

The company's headquarters is on Farringdon Road, London, United Kingdom. The company offer a menu with 19 vegan items. [16] At the PETA Vegan Food Awards 2015, the company's Tofu Katsu Curry won in the category Best Vegan Curry. [17] The restaurant also provides classes in making sushi. [18]

In August 2020, YO! Sushi announced that it will shut 19 of its restaurants and cut up to 250 jobs as part of a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) restructuring process. [19]

Environmental record

In November 2015, the Marine Conservation Society rated restaurants on the sustainability of their seafood. YO! Sushi served more species of seafood than the other chains surveyed, and still received a rating of 4.1 out of 5.0 which was among the highest ratings. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sushi</span> Japanese dish of vinegared rice and seafood

Sushi is a Japanese dish of prepared vinegared rice, usually with some sugar and salt, plus a variety of ingredients, such as vegetables, and any meat, but most commonly seafood. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice", also referred to as shari (しゃり), or sumeshi (酢飯).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fast food</span> Food prepared and served in a small amount of time

Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. Fast food is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredients and served in packaging for take-out or takeaway. Fast food was created as a commercial strategy to accommodate large numbers of busy commuters, travelers and wage workers. In 2018, the fast-food industry was worth an estimated $570 billion globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conveyor belt sushi</span> Restaurant where sushi is placed on a looping conveyor belt

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automat</span> Type of fast food restaurant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of sushi</span> History of food

The history of sushi began with paddy fields, where fish was fermented with vinegar, salt and rice, after which the rice was discarded. The earliest form of the dish, today referred to as narezushi, was created in Japan around the Yayoi period. In the Muromachi period (1336–1573), people began to eat the rice as well as the fish. During the Edo period (1603–1867), vinegar rather than fermented rice began to be used. The dish has become a form of food strongly associated with Japanese culture.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Woodroffe</span> British businessman

Simon Woodroffe is an English motivational speaker and entrepreneur. He started the sushi chain YO! Sushi in 1997, and appeared as a "Dragon" on the first UK series of Dragons' Den. Woodroffe conceived and launched YO! Sushi after an early spell in television. The business established conveyor belt sushi bars featuring call buttons, robot drinks trolleys, Japanese TV, self heating plates and other such novelties.

Just Eat is an online food order and delivery platform. It was founded in 2001 in Kolding, Denmark, as a food delivery company, and later headquartered in London, United Kingdom, from 2006 until it was purchased by Netherlands-based Takeaway.com in 2020 forming Just Eat Takeaway.com. Just Eat acts as an intermediary between independent takeaway food outlets and customers. The service operates under the Just Eat brand name in seven countries. The platform enables customers to search for local takeaway restaurants, place orders and pay online, and to choose from pick-up or delivery options. The company Just Eat plc acquired SkipTheDishes in Canada and Menulog in Australia and New Zealand.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todai (restaurant)</span> Restaurant chain based in the United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue C Sushi</span>

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References

  1. "Richard Hodgson to lead Yo Sushi following takeover of Bento". TheGrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  2. "Company Overview of YO! Sushi Group Ltd". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  3. 1 2 Smale, Will (25 June 2014). "Simon Woodroffe: The Yo! Sushi boss who beat depression". BBC News. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  4. "Yo! Sushi Food Case Study" (PDF). UK Government Intellectual Property Office. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  5. Popham, Peter (22 January 1997). "Sushi for every one" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  6. YO! Sushi adopts traffic light labeling / Eat Out Magazine Archived 25 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  7. YO! Sushi launches takeaway service / Eat Out Magazine
  8. Rao, Sonia (28 October 2016). "Changes for Harvard Square: Farewell, Café Algiers. Hello, Flour". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  9. "Snowfox rebrands to Wonderfield Group". www.dineoutmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  10. 1 2 Issenberg, S. (2007). The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy. Gotham. p. 23. ISBN   978-1-59240-294-6 . Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  11. Ritzer, G. (2014). The McDonaldization of Society. SAGE Publications. p. 56. ISBN   978-1-4833-5895-6 . Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  12. 1 2 "On the Horizon: Treats". Tampa Bay Times. 28 October 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  13. "Fast.. Food for the Whole Family - YO! Sushi Restaurants & Takeaway". yosushi.com. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  14. YO! Sushi opens first outlet in Dubai / Ameinfo Archived 14 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  15. "Opening Alert: Yo! Sushi, Paramus, NJ- Boozy Burbs". boozyburbs.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  16. Kirkova, Deni (25 February 2016). "Vegan sushi: Where to get the best plant-based Japanese food in the UK". The Metro . Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  17. "PETA UK Vegan Food Awards 2015". peta.org.uk. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  18. "Sushi School, YO! Sushi". yosushi.com. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  19. "Yo! Sushi to shut restaurants and cut 250 jobs". BBC News. 14 August 2020. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  20. Smithers, Rebecca (18 November 2015). "More than half of UK's family restaurant chains serving unsustainable seafood". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 July 2017.