Summary
MTG Foods Group faced a multimillion-dollar debt, but became the largest in southern Brazil in providing Japanese food in delivery and takeaway formats.
The MTG Foods group is a concrete example of how the corporate path is not linear. Before facing a debt of R$ 5 million during the pandemic, the Matsuri restaurant, located in Paraná, was elected for eight years (from 2012 to 2019) as the most remembered in the city of Londrina by the Top Nikkey awards. The titles did not avoid the turbulent path, but guaranteed a culture of quality that was decisive for the following years.
Currently led by Raphael Koyama and partners Maria Clara Rocha and Maria Fernanda Canizares, the operation has become the largest in southern Brazil in the Japanese food sector in delivery and take-away format, with an expected turnover of R$ 70 million with three brands: Matsuri, Matsuri To Vai and Mok The Poke.
“We always knew where we wanted to go, but with responsibility and solidity,” says Raphael Koyama, partner and CEO of Matsuri and Matsuri To Go.
Koyama has a history of overcoming challenges alongside his father, Claudio Koyama, and mother, Emiko Koyama. At age 24, the entrepreneur who ran the startup Ecofood, which he created to reduce food waste in retail, left the company to run the family business, which was going through tough times.
Until they invested in the delivery model, they closed the three restaurants they had opened until then, sold their apartment, their car and even prepared lunch boxes with Brazilian food to pay off the debts resulting from the pandemic.
Expecting to sell R$ 30,000 in the first month of delivery operations, in June 2020, Matsuri To Go reached R$ 237,000. At the end of the same year, the turnover amounted to 1.6 million reais.
“The following year we opened units in Arapongas, Apucarana and the first franchise in Iboporã, Paraná, reaching almost R$ 6 million in turnover,” says the CEO.
Also in 2021, the central kitchen was opened, which to this day is the operation responsible for supplying the entire network and which is led by partner Maria Fernanda Canizares. All the chain’s sauces are produced here. According to Raphael, around 60 thousand packages per month are made for soy sauce alone, made with a special, jealously guarded recipe.
Female Entrepreneurship
The narrative of female entrepreneurship has always been a solid foundation for the MTG Foods Group. The manifesto “Giving up is not an option” was pronounced by Emiko Koyama in the midst of a debt of R$ 5 million. The creation and entry of Mok The Poke into the Group was a provocation by partner Maria Clara Rocha, who created the brand in the midst of her business career: during the day she worked as a civil engineer and after work she immersed herself in entrepreneurship. The operation was created in 2022 based on the entrepreneur’s strategic vision that foresaw a growing market.
“From the harmonization of inputs, to the first tests, to the branding, we developed everything from scratch with the premise that consumers would like to have freedom of choice in ingredients and that the demand for healthy and light foods would be ever greater,” says the company’s CEO.
From R$ 20,000 in revenue in the first month of operation of 2022, Mok The Poke reached R$ 6 million in the first half of 2024, representing 23% of the operations of the MTG Foods group. Currently, Maria Clara has abandoned civil engineering and, in addition to Mok The Poke, is responsible for interfacing with the more than 2,000 customers that the operations, together, serve every day, implementing new stores of the Group, structuring data and marketing.
Do you remember the physical operation of the Matsuri restaurant from the beginning? It reopened at the end of 2023, on an area of 700 m2, with capacity for 160 people and with 40 direct employees, in the city of Londrina, Paraná. R$ 2 million was invested to get the unit off the ground. The turnover forecast for 2024 is R$ 11 million. According to Raphael, more units should open.
“We are still defining the location, but we foresee more restaurants with this format,” says the CEO. Of the 50 units, 24 are owned and he explains the strategy. “One of the differences of our network is that we are very close to our affiliates. It doesn’t make sense to just sell operations. We also have to have our own and live the market with them on a daily basis,” he adds.
The network recently entered Santa Catarina with the first operation in Blumenau, and in Mato Grosso, in Sinop. “We listen to our customers’ requests in the front-end and work behind the scenes to ensure they are met. We are already the largest in the South and we are aiming for Brazil,” concludes Maria Clara Rocha.
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Source: Terra
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