By separating the bread-making process and studying each individual process scientifically, we have created a system with high reproducibility and productivity.

With this method, it is possible to open multiple bakeries or a chain of bakeries in your area.

The difficulty of being a baker, as I learned at Saint Marc

I think many people know that our first franchise deal was with the bakery restaurant “Saint Marc”.

In the early 1990s, with a site area of 2,000 square meters and a floor area of 330 square meters, we opened 180 restaurants in three years as a restaurant offering a full French course meal with all-you-can-eat freshly baked bread.

The thing that was difficult for Saint Marc at the time of its founding was the production of “freshly baked bread”.

The selling points of the bakery restaurant “Saint Marc” were


(1) French cuisine


(2) served as a full course meal


(3) and with an all-you-can-eat service for freshly baked items


.


(1) Regarding the food, we used industrial engineering (IE) methods to learn how to cook, and we dealt with the issue of improving the layout, improving the training methods, and improving the menu so that even amateurs could cook in a short period of time.


② For full-course service, we shortened the time needed to learn how to do it using our industrial engineering know-how, so that even part-time workers could provide full-course service in the restaurant in eight days.


③ As for bread... At the start of the business, we were operating a “scratch” bakery, making bread from flour, but we couldn't agree with the baker, and there was a conflict with the management team, and one day, all the bakers suddenly left, and as a result, we ended up using a certain manufacturer's frozen dough and using a “bake-off” method, where we only do the final processing at the store.


The frozen dough bake-off was delicious when it was freshly baked, but the taste deteriorated the next day.The selling points of the bakery restaurant “Saint Marc” were

(1) French cuisine

(2) served as a full course meal

(3) and with an all-you-can-eat service for freshly baked items

.

(1) Regarding the food, we used industrial engineering (IE) methods to learn how to cook, and we dealt with the issue of improving the layout, improving the training methods, and improving the menu so that even amateurs could cook in a short period of time.

② For full-course service, we shortened the time needed to learn how to do it using our industrial engineering know-how, so that even part-time workers could provide full-course service in the restaurant in eight days.

③ As for bread... At the start of the business, we were operating a “scratch” bakery, making bread from flour, but we couldn't agree with the baker, and there was a conflict with the management team, and one day, all the bakers suddenly left, and as a result, we ended up using a certain manufacturer's frozen dough and using a “bake-off” method, where we only do the final processing at the store.

The frozen dough bake-off was delicious when it was freshly baked, but the taste deteriorated the next day.

Japanese bakeries are also very popular overseas.

In Dubai, the most popular Japanese food is not sushi or ramen, but a Japanese-style bakery called YAMANOTE. Including competitors, there are now more than five Japanese-style bakeries in the city.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, there are also seven bakeries called “Panya”.

In Paris, France, there is a Japanese-style bakery called “Aki” that is doing very well. Sandwich bread and sweet buns are selling well.

Bread was originally born in Europe (France and Germany) and then introduced to Japan. European bread has evolved in a unique way in the Japanese climate, and it has become a big hit in Asian countries and is also a hit in its home country of Europe.

The same is true of ramen and curry: foods that originated in China and India have evolved in a unique way in Japan and are now what they are today.

Unfortunately, the know-how of Japanese-style bakeries has been used by Korean companies to realize global expansion as a bakery franchise. When I visited Mongolia last year, the “delicious Japanese-style bakery” that was introduced to me was a Korean bakery franchise.

In this situation, I was looking for a Japanese bakery that could compete on the world stage. I continued to search for one throughout 2018.

The Baker Problem

Every bakery was running into problems with their bakers.

The bakeries that had already boldly expanded overseas were all facing a shortage of bakers who had trained in Japan, even though things had been going well at the start of their expansion and they had entered a stable management phase.

We have the know-how of a successful bakery

We have the interior design plans of a successful bakery

The problem is that we have reached a dead end with the training and supply of bakers.

Segmenting the process

The bread production process is generally as follows.
Make the dough, Divide and Mold, and Bake


Which process requires craftsmanship? The answer is dough making. First, let's break down the dough making process and the subsequent processes. If you are planning to open multiple stores, you can centralize the dough making process and create a central kitchen.The bread production process is generally as follows.

Make the dough, divide and shape, and bake

Which process requires craftsmanship? The answer is dough making. First, let's break down the dough making process and the subsequent processes. If you are planning to open multiple stores, you can centralize the dough making process and create a central kitchen.

Uniformed by long-term aging at low temperatures

The dough is made using the know-how for making dough that was developed in Japan. It is a low-temperature, long-term fermentation technique. Using this technique, it is possible to stably produce excellent dough even without skilled workers.

With the conventional method of making bread dough, temperature and time management are important, but by using long-term fermentation, even workers who have not had any experience can handle it.

Since it is possible to train bakers in a short period of time, it is possible to promote inexperienced people to bakers one after another. Even if they leave the company, the damage is minimal, and it is a problem that can be solved by teaching someone else.

Also, even if you gain experience using this method, it is only experience of one process, so the point is that you cannot do all of the bakery production just from that.

The more you actually know, the more you realize that this business model is suitable for new businesses.