Selected for the "2024 Ibaraki Global Business Promotion Project (Export Expansion Challenge Project)"
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Tokyo Bar Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, CEO: Tsutsui Hiroaki, Co-founder: Tsutsui Reiko, hereinafter referred to as "Tokyo Bar"), which develops and manufactures food items that are loved for a long time by a wide range of people while tackling social issues related to food, such as mass waste in food processing, greenhouse gas emissions*1, and safety, has been selected for the "2024 Ibaraki Global Business Promotion Project (Export Expansion Challenge Project)" publicly solicited by the Ibaraki Global Business Promotion Council. In the future, Tokyo Bar plans to receive a subsidy for a coordinator to support the acquisition of overseas sales channels. *2
Tokyo Bar is currently working on product development and sales expansion based on the needs of not only Japan but also overseas. The subsidy will be used to cover the costs of supporting the expansion of sales channels in the United States.
The "Ibaraki Global Business Promotion Project (Export Expansion Challenge Project) 2024," for which Tokyo Bar was recently selected, is a project run by the Ibaraki Global Business Promotion Council, whose secretariat is Ibaraki Prefecture, that supports businesses working to expand exports with the aim of creating and expanding companies that can achieve annual exports of more than 50 million yen within three years.
Tokyo Bar has been selected for this project in recognition of our strategy to expand overseas sales channels.
Tokyo Bar will use the grant money to cover the costs of expanding sales channels in the U.S., and will work with San-J International, Inc. (Head office: Virginia, U.S.; CEO: Takashi Sato; hereinafter "San-J") as a support coordinator to develop sales channels in local U.S. retailers and restaurants. San-J is a company that manufactures and sells tamari soy sauce, which boasts the number one share of luxury retailers in the U.S.
As this collaboration gets fully underway, Tokyo Bar will exhibit its products at San-J's booth at the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show*3 to be held in New York (USA) from Sunday, June 23rd to Wednesday, June 26th, 2024.
At this exhibition, we will be introducing the entire lineup of products developed and sold by Tokyo Bar, starting with the "KAWAÌINE" series, which is based on the basic concept of "upcycled*4 and plant-based foods*5 that use all ingredients to achieve both nutrition and deliciousness."
Tokyo Bar is also working with San-J in the "General Incorporated Association Consortium for Expanding Local Food Exports with Fermentation at Its Core," which was established mainly by San-J after the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries adopted the processed food cluster project. The consortium brings together manufacturers from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Fukui, Miyagi and other regions with the aim of branding and expanding exports of products with the keyword "fermentation," such as miso, koji and soy sauce. San-J, which has knowledge of the export business, has been impressed by the story behind "KAWAIINE" and the fact that it is a Japanese product, and has high expectations for the future of our company in overseas sales channels.
With the cooperation of San-J, which currently distributes to approximately 18,000 stores in the United States, Tokyo Bar will work to increase awareness of its products and expand its sales channels.
Tokyo Bar has been considering expanding overseas for some time now, and has exhibited at events such as the "Japanese Food Export Expo" (Dates: Wednesday, June 19-Friday, June 21, 2024, Venue: Tokyo Big Sight) *6. With this selection as an opportunity, we will aim to further expand our business in the future.
Tokyo Bar will continue to contribute to creating a rich society through food and strive to deliver delicious upcycled materials and plant-based ingredients to more customers.
