Read time: 5 minutes

Good morning! It's Thursday, September 28th. Today’s post looks at Takaya Awata, Japan’s newest billionaire and founder of restaurant conglomerate Toridoll Holdings!

THE FEATURE

Japan’s New Billionaire: The Udon King

Takaya Awata is the founder of Toridoll Holdings and became Japan’s latest billionaire this year after shares of his company surged by nearly 50% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

With Awata’s 48% stake in this chain restaurant operator, he has a $1.1B net worth!

So, What’s The Business?

Tragedy struck Awata early in life when he lost his father in the seventh grade. Despite the loss, Awata’s love for his father and his local cuisine drove his early success.

At the age of 23, Awata dropped out of college to open a Japanese-style grilled chicken restaurant. The business was failing until Awata took a visit to his late father’s hometown of Kagawa, where he relived the joy of eating at the open-kitchen udon noodle shops.

This trip reshaped Awata’s restaurant aspirations. He quickly transitioned Toridoll into an udon noodle restaurant where chefs use fresh ingredients and cook in front of customers to offer an interactive experience. With homemade noodles and affordable prices, Toridoll’s chain of restaurants expanded and led to the company going public in 2006.

Toridoll Holdings now has 1,900 restaurants around the world with noodle shop chains like Marugame Seimen. In the last quarter ending in June, the company generated a record-breaking $360M in revenue (a 20% increase from the same period last year).

Some of this revenue is a result of the pandemic ending and Awata adding take-out options to each of his restaurants. However, the long-term growth of Toridoll Holdings comes from its massively successful global expansion. Toridoll has a competitive pricing strategy that matches the cost of their meals to local fast-food chains, but this is just one of the drivers of the company’s international success.

How They Win: The Alexander the Great Expansion Approach

To fully understand Awata’s approach to international expansion, it’s helpful to know a little history about the world’s greatest expansionist.

Upon gaining a new territory, Alexander the Great installed respected locals in positions of power rather than members of his military brass. Secondly, unlike other conquerors who would quash local traditions and cultures, Alexander let them flourish and would even adopt some of their tastes (such as the Persian affinity for wearing pants).

As Toridoll Holdings expands beyond udon noodles, picking up halal-compliant restaurants in Malaysia and doughnut chains in America, the company has copied Alexander the Great’s strategies.

For one, Awata keeps on the local management of any foreign business he acquires. That’s because local managers have a better understanding of their cuisine and culture than any Japanese overseer could. And, in terms of culture, all of Toridoll’s Japanese restaurants located overseas adapt to local tastes. For example, udon is served with a pork-based broth in China and a tomato-based broth in Indonesia instead of the traditional fish-based broth.

Over the next five years, Toridoll Holdings has $650M earmarked for mergers and acquisitions to triple the number of their international eateries to 5,500 and double revenue to $2B. With its recent 20% increase in revenue, Toridoll Holdings is making international expansion look easy.

TOGETHER WITH VOCAL

An Investment Opportunity You’ll Be Vocal About

Content publishing platforms like Medium and Patreon rake in over $50M in annual revenue.

But they require creators to build their own audiences and limit payment opportunities. With the creator economy worth $250B, the opportunity is even bigger for a platform that puts creators first.

That’s exactly what Vocal is doing. And it’s creating a massive opportunity for investors like you.

Vocal is putting creators first with the best tools to share, grow, and earn more money. That’s why nearly 2M creators have already joined Vocal, reaching an audience of 200M readers.

Now that Vocal’s proven their creator-first model is a hit, they’re ready to scale by bringing in investors like you.

Don’t miss out - for a limited time you can earn 5% bonus stock when you invest! Click here to become a Vocal shareholder.

Get In Touch

1) Promote Yourself! Get in front of 7,000+ business professionals by sponsoring this newsletter (we ❤️ our sponsors). Just hit reply to this email and say, "Let's partner!"

2) Do You Have An Outlier Business? We want to share your story if you are building something cool and growing fast. Hit reply to this email and tell me - what you're building, why, and why it's an outlier business.

3) Ask Us Questions: Are you struggling with a business or career question? Just ask it, and we'll share it with thousands of people who want to help.

Disclaimers

Disclosure: This is a paid advertisement for Vocal Inc Reg CF offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.vocal.media.