Activities

YO! Sushi owns and operates a chain of Japanese-style conveyor-belt sushi bars in high streets and concessions across the UK. The restaurants offer a mix of traditional Japanese and Western recipes in a high-tech and theatrical setting. Customers choose colour-coded dishes (priced between £1.50 and £5) from a conveyor belt and order their drinks using airline-style call buttons.

High profile concessions include Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Harrods, Fenwick, Network Rail and BAA.

The group is expanding internationally through franchising.

Timeline

• 1997: The first YO! Sushi restaurant opened in Soho, London by founder Simon Woodroffe
• 1998: The group opens restaurants in Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Finchley Road 02 Centre
• July 1999: Robin Rowland joins the four-strong group and in October 2000 becomes chief executive officer
• September 2003: Rowland leads a management buy-out of the 12-strong restaurant chain backed by private equity firm Primary Capital (PCL). The £10m ‘development capital’ deal leaves PCL with a 60.5% stake, Woodroffe with 22% and management with 17.5%
• October/December 2003: The first overseas franchises opens in Dubai
• 2005: Five new restaurants are opened
• 2006: YO! Sushi opens six new restaurants in the UK and five franchised branches overseas
• December 2006: The group secures £17.5m-worth of new banking facilities with Barclays Bank to fuel its expansion and return money to shareholders
• 2007: YO! Sushi opens 4 restaurants; Newcastle, Heathrow T3, Nottingham and Glasgow International franchise partners are established in Ireland, Russia and Malaysia with restaurants opened in each territory
• 2008: Primary Capital sells YO! Sushi to Quilvest and management

Financial snapshot

Forecast turnover for 2008: £36m
Forecast Ebitda for 2008: £6m

Operating data

Number of employees: 1000 in the UK

Number of YO! Sushi restaurants: 34 in the UK and 10 franchised venues overseas (two in Ireland, one in Russia, two in Malaysia and five in Middle East)

Average number of covers per week: 43,000 per week
Number of customers served per annum: more than three million
Average spend per head: £13.50

Annual consumption of salmon: 200 tons

Strategy

“YO! Sushi plans to build on recent success to operate more than 100 restaurants by 2010, split 50/50 between UK the UK and key overseas markets, to establish YO! Sushi as a leading global fast casual brand.”

Source: company statement, September 2006

Chief executive

Robin Rowland

Key directors

Financial director: Zoe Tindall
Operations director: Gary Thomas
Business development director: Alison Vickers

Contact

95 Farringdon Road
London
Greater London
EC1R 3BT

Tel: 020 7841 0700
Fax: 020 7841 0759

E-mail: enquiries@yosushi.co.uk
Website: http://www.yosushi.com

Commentary

YO! Sushi’s concept of bringing sushi to the masses was an instant success. The first restaurant attracted queues down the street within seven days of opening and was soon serving 4,000 customers a week.

Rowland has steered the business through some early poor site decisions and brand extensions, led the management buy-out, and increased sales from £11m in 2001 to £30m in 2007. During that time, Ebitda has soared from £800,000 to £4+m in 2007.

2006 saw the opening of six new restaurants in the UK and five overseas.

Six more UK restaurants are scheduled to open in 2007 and more with franchise partners in Ireland and Russia.

YO! Sushi plans to expand to 100 units by 2010, split equally between the UK and overseas.