TOKYO –
Mos Food Services, operator of the Japan-born hamburger chain Mos Burger, is driving a powerful restoration, with gross sales surpassing 100 billion yen for the primary time within the 12 months ended March 2026 and each income and revenue reaching file highs.
Japan’s hamburger market has been increasing quickly, supported by sturdy demand for each main chains and higher-end gourmand burgers. Burger King, the business’s third-largest participant, has grown from 77 shops to 371 over the previous seven years, drawing prospects with its flame-grilled Whopper and huge parts. McDonald’s Japan, the market chief, posted file gross sales of 416.6 billion yen final 12 months.
Mos Burger, ranked second within the business, has additionally benefited from the broader growth. Its shops stay busy at lunchtime, with prospects citing the chain’s handmade really feel, beneficiant use of greens and more healthy picture as causes for returning.
The firm’s resurgence marks a pointy turnaround from the early 2000s, when it struggled throughout Japan’s deflationary interval. McDonald’s pushed a low-price technique on the time, reducing the value of its hamburger to as little as 59 yen, whereas Mos refused to hitch the discounting race. That choice left Mos with a picture of being comparatively costly and contributed to weak earnings. In 2004, a Big Mac price 260 yen, whereas the usual Mos Burger was priced at 300 yen.
That worth hole has since narrowed and even reversed in some instances as uncooked materials prices rose throughout the business. A Big Mac has climbed above 500 yen, whereas Mos has additionally raised costs. Customers now say McDonald’s feels costlier than earlier than, making Mos appear much less like an unusually high-priced possibility.
Price, nevertheless, is just one purpose behind Mos Burger’s current energy. Under President Eisuke Nakamura, who took workplace in 2016, the corporate has pushed an aggressive technique geared toward rising factors of contact with prospects. Nakamura has launched a variety of merchandise, from a number of shrimp burgers launched on the similar time to a 6,000 yen eel rice burger developed by a Japanese restaurant-style strategy.
One of the corporate’s key methods is what it calls worth gradation, providing merchandise throughout a broad vary of worth factors from on a regular basis gadgets to small luxuries. In one current marketing campaign, Mos bought three shrimp-based burgers at totally different worth ranges, together with its common shrimp cutlet burger, a limited-time avocado shrimp cutlet burger and the limited-quantity shrimp fry burger priced at 780 yen, that includes two giant items of fried shrimp.
The concept behind the lineup is to seize prospects whose spending habits has break up throughout a interval of weak financial sentiment and inflation. Some prospects need lower-priced gadgets, whereas others are keen to pay extra for premium merchandise. Mos goals to serve each teams by guaranteeing that every worth band has a corresponding product.
The technique extends past shrimp burgers. Mos has positioned customary gadgets in common worth ranges, home beef merchandise in premium classes and Japanese Black wagyu gadgets in ultra-premium classes. The firm says prospects could select cheaper gadgets earlier than payday, then go for a small luxurious once they have extra room to spend, with Mos offering selections for each events.
Another pillar of Nakamura’s technique has been a shift towards product growth based mostly extra intently on buyer suggestions. Since its founding, Mos has created distinctive merchandise, together with the unique Mos Burger topped with meat sauce and tomato, the teriyaki burger, which the chain says it was the primary to promote in Japan, and the rice burger launched in 1987, which turned successful through the use of rice patties as a substitute of bread buns.
Those earlier merchandise had been largely born from inside concepts. Nakamura concluded that merely growing what the corporate believed was scrumptious was not sufficient to satisfy altering buyer wants. He built-in the beforehand unbiased product growth division into the advertising and marketing division, shifting the corporate towards a system during which buyer demand shapes menu creation.
One instance was an avocado burger launched with a 100% home beef patty bigger than ordinary. The product focused feminine prospects, however suggestions confirmed that many discovered it too giant. The following 12 months, Mos diminished the scale of the meat and lowered the value, turning the product into a serious hit.
The firm says clearly defining every product’s goal buyer has made decision-making simpler for builders. When groups face uncertainty, they’ll return to the query of who the product is for and what that buyer needs.
Mos Burger’s enterprise can also be supported by its franchise community. Of the chain’s 1,305 shops nationwide, greater than 80% are franchised. At a gathering of franchise house owners in Saitama Prefecture in late May, Nakamura instructed operators that because the World Cup approaches, Mos additionally hopes to change into an organization able to competing globally.
The file outcomes mirror a mix of business tailwinds, rising acceptance of upper burger costs and Mos Burger’s effort to supply each reasonably priced selections and premium indulgences. By avoiding a single-price identification and broadening its menu throughout on a regular basis and luxurious classes, the chain is positioning itself to draw a wider vary of consumers in a altering market.
Source: テレ東BIZ