beard papa's Commitment to Quality and Freshness

For 11 consecutive years, we’ve seen Japanese food-related exports increase. If we look at up to 2023, they reached JPY 1.45 trillion. This has been consolidated overseas by the growing popularity of Japanese restaurants, which grew from 55,000 in 2013 to more than 200,000 today. How do you account for this substantial rise in Japanese food exports? Why is now the time for washoku to shine internationally?

One thing I can say about Japanese restaurants is that they have exceptional quality in safety and standards for food. Japanese cuisine has, therefore, gained a lot of appreciation and is highly evaluated as a cuisine. I think this appreciation doesn’t come without high quality and safety standards. When a country goes from a developing country to a developed country, they follow the same path, becoming more conscious of the health and well-being of their people. The Japanese diet is typically well-balanced and healthy. One thing in particular that we pay attention to with our DAY TO LIFE products is to avoid over-flavoring since Japanese food is well-balanced, and we want to continue that balance. I would describe our flavoring as moderately flavored. We understand that there are certain markets that like extreme flavorings, such as super spicy or salty products, but our ethos has always been to maintain balance, even in overseas markets. By doing so, we are able to appeal to a wider range of people and expand our customer base. I think this balance is really why so many people worldwide really enjoy Japanese food compared to some more extreme flavored cuisines.

The most important element of food products is the taste, and customers think they are delicious. This is the key point in selling food products. Therefore, surprising customers with good taste when they place the product in their mouths is something critical to our business. Overseas customers are not used to the kinds of dishes we have in Japan, and when those people look at typical Japanese food, they are often surprised. This feeling is what we want to achieve with our products, and then we would like to follow that with a customer desire for more. When developing new products, we get together with our staff, and one thing we push is the fact that a delicious taste is just the first step. To differentiate ourselves, we need to go beyond just being delicious. This is where the surprise element comes into play. Finally, we need to make our customers want to eat our products again. I believe our original cream puff brand, beard papa’s, has achieved these goals.

beard papa’s flagship store in Taiwan

You mentioned a core truth that international consumers are not always accustomed to Japan’s unique way to present food. This has positives, including the sense of surprise you talked about, however, there are some negatives, particularly in certain countries where consumers find it hard to classify exactly what type of Japanese food fits in where. There are product categories that are unique to Japan and don’t exist overseas. How do you influence the market about a category of food that it is not used to?

To answer this question, I will focus specifically on beard papa’s. With this brand, we offer the same texture and taste no matter what market, and the product recipe is identical across the world. We are trying to align the textures and tastes that are liked in markets such as the US with those that are enjoyed in Japan. What differs, however, is the flavor of the cream. This means securing local materials for cream, but it is also tricky to find ingredients that are good quality. This is particularly apparent with ingredients such as eggs and milk.

The base for our flavor is custard cream, and without good custard cream, you cannot make good cream puffs. We introduced the same machine to produce custard cream in all of our shops. Overseas, the quality of eggs and milk is different, and in some markets, the taste is lighter than that in Japan. This is due to the feed given to local hens or cows. Fortunately, since we have the same recipe, we are able to offer the good quality no matter where the shop location is.

I would like to discuss our success in overseas markets now a little bit. Our original cream puffs are our most profitable products and sell very well. Different countries have different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, they have different taste perception. We always try to make hybrid-type products available, particularly with the cream filling. If we were to try and expand only with products not known locally, we wouldn’t achieve any success, so localization is very key. Take, for example, Southeast Asian countries, which really like durian. In those locations like Thailand, we have developed cream puffs that feature durian-flavored cream. Interestingly, these durian cream puffs have sold very well. Customers who enjoy our original cream puffs and those hybrid-type products will continue to come back to our stores in order to try other offerings we have. Localized hybrid products allow our company to permeate in local markets, creating a customer cycle.

I was involved in the development of products in the US. We took a French cream filling to the American market, but it didn’t sell well. I remember wondering why. A lady in our office told me that American people just don’t know what the product is, and she suggested we change the name. We ended up calling the product our Honey and Butter Cream Puff. For the last eight years, this product has now sold very well. We brought this same recipe to Singapore and other Asian countries, retaining the name Honey and Butter, which has seen good success.

Being delicious isn’t enough to do well in overseas markets. It is even more important to balance creating a product that local people can relate to. Traditional flavors and names are the core of this approach. A typical example of an overseas failure is when Japanese companies bring Japanese products to overseas markets. This is even more true when they solely focus on Japanese flavors and ignore local preferences. It is vital to strike a balance between localization and Japanese flavors. This approach requires considerable effort to develop a full complement of flavors.

beard papa’s cream puff

What do you believe has the greatest potential for growth?

Speaking of our brands, we would like to expand into countries where we don’t yet have a presence. Countries that we already have a presence in will continue to be key to our growth, and we would like to increase our penetration in those locations. Europe in particular, is somewhere we are not yet present in, and therefore, we would like to challenge those markets.

The domestic market is another area we would like to penetrate further, but, as you might know, the population in Japan is decreasing and aging. This is especially true in rural areas of Japan. In order to address rural locations, we would like to switch our strategy and utilize food trucks additionally.

In the US we currently have 43 shops, which is rather small compared to the size of the American market. Going forward we would like to increase the number of shops we have in the US market.

Europe is a very complicated market, especially for food-related products. Each country has radically different tastes and food cultures. Are there any particular countries you’ve identified as a good point to start?

We often get offers from the UK and Germany, but we haven’t yet received any from France. We will make a decision based on our market research. There are also regulations to consider, as we often have to export materials from Japan or Singapore. The biggest regulations are regarding eggs, but we see solutions and research is still ongoing regarding European regulations.

The beard papa’s overseas business is based on a franchise model. What other support services besides the recipes do you offer your franchisees? How can franchisees benefit from the beard papa’s and DAY TO LIFE networks?

In terms of support we offer to our franchisees, we often provide materials and interiors for the shops because we want to integrate our brand styling into franchise locations. I’ve been the CEO for the last seven years, and the main thing I’ve focused on is the customer experience. We would like to enhance the customer experience by increasing contact points with customers. Ten years ago, our strategy was to contact customers only physically through our shops. We would place a lot of posters and pamphlets in our shops. Now, we’ve switched to a cross-media promotion strategy. The customer experience at shops is important, but so is enhancing the virtual experiences customers can have.

Franchise stores are responsible for offering the same high quality products at the same level as domestically to all their customers. Head office is responsible for developing new products to franchisees, and so we have kitchen studios for this purpose in Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and the US.

Imagine that we come back in four years and have this interview all over again. What goals and dreams do you hope to achieve by the time we come back for that new interview?

Right now I am focused on expansion in overseas markets. At this moment, we are present in 11 countries and two regions, but by the time you come back for that new interview, this will have increased. It is hard to give you a target, but right now we have 210 shops in overseas markets, and this number will surely continue to grow. We are also hoping that by 2028 we have a new brand or platform, increasing the number of markets we are present in. 

For more information, visit their website at: https://www.daytolife.com.tw/