You Me Sushi is planning to grow its 24-strong estate to 40 stores this year, with a target of 150 over five years, head of franchise Tim Circus tells MCA.
While the new openings will all be in England, the handmade sushi concept is also looking to enter the Scottish market with a site in Glasgow.
“Our five-year strategy goes up to 150, but we won’t stop there,” Circus says. “There’s lots of opportunity around the brand to go into international markets.
“Our focus is restaurant quality sushi at high street prices.”
You Me Sushi was established in 2008 with a single site in Marylebone, in response to a gap in the market for Japanese cuisine.
It began franchising in 2018 and opened nine locations last year, taking the estate to 24.
Brand started 2008 in Marylebone – saw gap in market for Japanese cuisine, grown from there
The USP is high quality ingredients, with the product made by highly trained chefs and offered across three types of stores: kiosks, delivery hubs, and sit-down.
The kiosk model has worked well in shopping centres, while delivery-oriented units also cater to grab and go and click and collect, while sit-down restaurants have a minimum of 15 covers.
“We look at the model, location, and demographic to decide what fits in,” Circus adds. “The high street has more shoppers, while students do more delivery, but it suits all ages.
“The ideal location is a high footfall town centre.”
While the delivery side of the business performed strongly during and after the pandemic, the sit-down aspect remains important as people returned to restaurants, according to Circus.
“We’re focused on growing with our franchisees and recently signed up multistore operators,” he explains. “It’s taken time to get the model right, but it’s now a robust and flexible model.”
While future expansion focuses on cities, You Me Sushi is also keen to open in more suburbs, where the offer is oriented towards both sushi and hot food.
The brand sees strong trade from office workers during the lunch day part, but dinner sales hold up well, according to Circus.
Despite staffing struggles across the industry, Circus notes the business has had little trouble recruiting due to sushi’s position as a major food trend.
“There’s more healthy eating now, especially with the younger generation.
“Sushi’s got a lot of growth potential still. It’s gone from being predominantly city-oriented as we move into other areas of the country.”
