YO! Sushi acquires Bento Sushi for $78 million
YO! Sushi, an iconic Japanese restaurant group, has acquired Bento Sushi, North America's second largest sushi brand, for CAD $100 or $78 million (USD), creating a global multi-channel and multi-brand sushi platform.
YO! Sushi, an iconic Japanese restaurant group, has acquired Bento Sushi, North America's second largest sushi brand, for CAD $100 or $78 million (USD), creating a global multi-channel and multi-brand sushi platform.
Bento, founded in Toronto in 1996, is the second largest sushi brand in North America, and the largest in Canada trading from over 600 locations, while supplying sushi to 1,700 partner sites. Bento operates across a range of formats which complement YO!’s existing markets. These include quick-service restaurants, on-site kiosks in supermarkets, and other foodservice locations, and a number of production facilities which supply sushi to grocery and institutional foodservice clients across North America. The business has achieved strong growth, delivering compound annual sales growth of 16% in the past three years. Bento and its licensees employ over 2,000 highly trained sushi chefs and serve more than 20 million sushi portions every year.
With YO!’s international restaurant network across Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, the combined business becomes one of the largest sushi companies outside of Japan, providing an international, multi-brand, multi-channel offering, well positioned to benefit from the continuing increase in consumer interest in healthy, provenance-rich foods. The acquisition will create synergies and enable the continued growth of both businesses, particularly in the U.S. market. The combined businesses have recorded sales of approximately £175 million over the past 12 months.