The first Yamagoya noodle restaurant has been officially opened on Soi Thong Lor 13 in Bangkok.

Named Yamagoya (Thailand) Co Ltd, the joint venture will also be in charge of franchising Yamagoya restaurants in the Kingdom, the rest of Asia and Australia.

YS Food, which operates 280 ramen restaurants in Japan, holds a 49-per-cent stake in the JV, while Santi has 25 per cent, and Gastronome - a subsidiary of Bara Windsor & Co Ltd - holds the remaining 26 per cent. Gastronome operates Le Vendome French restaurant in All Seasons Place.

"I believe the Yamagoya ramen restaurant business in Thailand has potential because of its quality product. It is famous in Japan and listed on the Japanese stock market," Santi said at Thursday evening's press conference.

He added that between 10 and 15 restaurants would be opened by the joint venture at prime Bangkok locations, including Siam Square and Surawong Road, and in other major provinces such as Chiang Mai, Phuket and Chon Buri (Pattaya).

All other outlets will be run via individual-investor franchisees. The initial investment for fran?chisees will be between Bt300,000 and Bt500,000, excluding land and premises. The franchises should break even within two to four years.

Masatoshi Ogata, president of YS Food, said the company had been in the noodle restaurant busi?ness for almost 40 years and has almost 280 outlets in Japan. The company has already expanded its restaurant business to Malaysia.

"In addition to Thai customers, we also would like to serve more than 60,000 Japanese who stay in Thailand, so that they can enjoy the feel of the original ramen restaurant just like they would at home in Japan. Our new joint ven?ture in Bangkok will take care of franchising our Yamagoya ramen restaurants in Thailand, the entire Asian market and Australia," said Ogata.

Virawat Dangsubutra, manag?ing director of Yamagoya (Thailand), said about 100 restau?rants would be opened in the Kingdom in the next five years. The company will next year expand the franchised outlets of Yamagoya restaurants to potential markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong, which have a similar, noodle-eat?ing culture to Japan.

To save on production costs, YS Food is considering whether to relocate its factory from Japan to Thailand. If so, the local plant would produce ramen noodles and supply all Yamagoya outlets in Thailand, other Asian markets and Australia, besides exporting to Japan.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation