Article France Sushi 2023 - Steady progress

France Sushi : You are forecasting very strong growth in 2022. What are Sushi Robots' bestsellers? And how are your sales currently divided between the different types of machine?

Alice Touchais : Sushi machines are still our core business. With the boom in take-away sales, demand is as strong as ever, especially as sushi machines allow us to tackle the pokéballs market, since they use the same processes for washing the rice, cooking it, etc. Our turnover is 70 % generated by sales of sushi machines. But that hasn't stopped us from looking to diversify: we also offer machines for making gyozas, ramen and kakigori (the famous Japanese crushed ice). We're looking to diversify our catalogue so that we can cover more specialities and offer our customers different products.

Are new trends emerging?

Absolutely, we were surprised in 2022 by the very strong demand for gyoza machines. We've had more and more requests from all over Europe, whether it's a small machine for a restaurant or one for a large production line.

We were also pleasantly surprised by the latter: we'd never had so many orders for gyozas production lines. It was impressive, because these machines can produce up to ten thousand gyozas an hour. They form the discs of dough, place the filling in the disc and then mechanically close the gyoza. They can also be combined with other machines to package the gyozas or pass them through tunnels for freezing.

What new developments can we expect from you in 2023?

During a trip, we met a supplier in Taiwan who will provide us with new machines for gyozas, but also for other specialities that we weren't expecting, such as empanadas. It's not at all Asian, but we have demand in Spain, which has enabled us to sell our first machines. This supplier is particularly qualitative, with a very good after-sales service, and we really appreciate our collaboration. Naturally, we continue to work with Japanese specialists for the manufacture of the machines, which we then import. We work mainly with the Autec brand, for which we are the exclusive distributor in Europe. We also work with other Japanese brands, as we are committed to being multi-brand. We can sell Autec sushi machines as well as Fujiseiki or Korean Lucky sushi machines.

2023 promises to be a particularly eventful year. Can you tell us more?

Today, we have 18 employees in France and 4 in our various subsidiaries. As well as diversifying our range of machines, we have several projects that will require additional recruitment. We want to open new subsidiaries in Europe. Our aim has always been to stay close to our customers. We are close thanks to the Internet, but being physically close is important to us, as we advocate quality after-sales service, installation by technicians, and training for our customers. To achieve these objectives, we need people on the ground.

We are present in the UK, Spain and Poland. We're also looking at other countries, notably Germany for 2023. We're also thinking about the Nordic countries and Italy, but these are still plans for 2024.

We have extended our premises and are in the process of creating a professional kitchen to develop a training centre. Before the Sushi Robots adventure, its founder Emmanuel Letellier created The Sushi School in London in 2004, a training centre dedicated to training people who wanted to become sushi chefs. We are now relaunching this project under a new name.

It will be adapted for six people. We don't want more people because it's a professional training course and you have to take your time. As for the training courses, we haven't yet decided on all the programmes, but they won't be focused solely on sushi.

Source: France Sushi Magazine