Mon 20th Nov 2017 - YO! Sushi buys North America’s second-largest sushi brand with 600 sites YO! Sushi buys North America’s second-largest sushi brand with 600 sites: YO! Sushi has bought Bento Sushi, North America’s second-largest sushi brand, creating a global multi-channel and multi-brand sushi platform. The acquisition values Bento at £59m ($100m Canadian dollars) and has been facilitated by Mayfair Equity Partners, which partnered with the YO! management team as part of a management buyout in 2015. Bento, founded in Toronto in 1996 by Ken Valvur, is the second-largest sushi brand in North America, and the largest in Canada trading from more than 600 locations, while supplying sushi to a further 1,700 partner sites. Bento operates across a range of formats which complement YO!’s existing proposition. These include quick-service restaurants, on-site kiosks in supermarkets and other foodservice locations, and a number of production facilities that 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 more than 2,000 highly trained sushi chefs and serve more than 20 million sushi portions every year. Bento’s success has been driven by Ken Valvur and Glenn Brown, Bento’s chairman and chief executive respectively, and as part of the deal they join the board of YO! and become significant shareholders in the combined group. With YO!’s international restaurant network across Europe, the Middle East and Australia, the combined business becomes one of the largest sushi companies outside Japan, providing an international, multi-brand, multi-channel offering, well placed 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 US market. The combined businesses have recorded sales of about £175m over the past 12 months. The acquisition of Bento comes after two transformational years for YO!, in which Mayfair Equity Partners bought into the business and Robin Rowland returned to the role of chief executive. Following a renewed focus on the brand, product, and people, including the appointment of several senior team hires, the business has seen like-for-like sales growth of 5% over the past 18 months. Eight new sites opened in the UK this year, as well as the group’s first sites in Manhattan, Paris and Sydney. Rowland said: “We’ve successfully reinvigorated the business over the last two years to ensure the foundations are in place for long-term growth. This acquisition takes YO! into the next stage of its development, and creates the first global multi-channel Japanese food purveyor. Bento’s proposition and its management team’s strong track record make it the ideal partner for YO! as we look to further grow our brand.” Brown, added: “This partnership presents Bento with an incredible opportunity to grow its platform. YO! and Bento share a similar ethos and history, and we look forward to working with the YO! team and taking advantage of opportunities to develop both brands.” Valvur said: “The combination of YO! and Bento will further enhance our group’s ability to be the partner of choice for grocery and institutional foodservice providers throughout our enlarged operating geography, and creates exciting opportunities for our valued team members on both sides of the Atlantic.”