How Hana Group is bringing fresh, high-quality sushi to the masses via retail channels
As a world-leader in pan-Asian cuisine in the retail sector, Hana Group (Hana) offers freshly prepared dishes via almost 2000 points of sale across 13 countries. On a mission to widen access to great-tasting, high-quality food, Hana partners with leading retailers to bring its various brands and innovative concepts to life in the retail sector.
Designed to provide an experience as vibrant and unique as its menu, the company offers innovative and exotic taste experiences. Hana operates under different brands, such as Mai Sushi, Genji, Sushi Gourmet and Sushi Market, which can be found in the UK, USA and Europe. We’re joined by Jason Danciger, Managing Director of Hana Group UK, Ireland, and Eastern Europe, to learn more about how the business has grown in these territories. 
“What started as one store in the UK nine years ago has been a whirlwind success of bringing sushi and Japanese cuisine to retail environments,” Jason opens. “Our counters make shopping experiences more interesting, with our fresh, healthy, and vibrant foods providing customers with restaurant-quality meals they can eat on the go or at home. In the early days, our typical customers in the UK were older children, those around ten years old, as they were intrigued by the unconventional nature of sushi. Today, those children are now buying sushi themselves, which is a phenomenal full circle moment for us as we approach a decade in business.
“Our growth has mostly occurred naturally and organically. Sainsbury’s was our first ever client, and we still have a very strong relationship with them, having renewed our contract several times and now operating Sushi Gourmet counters in over 170 stores. We also work with Marks & Spencer (M&S), currently with Mai Sushi kiosks in over 30 stores, and there are lots of growth plans in discussion. To boost our presence in the US, the group acquired an American brand with counters in Whole Foods stores a decade ago. Recently, the US team enjoyed successful new openings at Walmart. We also partnered with Dunnes Stores to expand into the Irish market, where we now have over twenty kiosks with significant growth planned with all partners.”
Brand personality
Despite operating several brands within the same sector, Hana prides itself on creating unique personalities for those brands. “Each individual brand is more than just a name; it’s an exclusive offering to each retailer with its own product range and personality,” Jason elaborates. “Within Mai Sushi for M&S, for instance, we’ve chosen a set of categories that associate colors with product characteristics like spice, fish content, or dietary preferences. We’ve carried this color scheme through to the product branding and labeling so that customers can easily recognize their favorites or identify something new to try, and the sushi itself is also very colorful to align with the kiosk design. We’ve also experienced huge success with Sushi Gourmet in Sainsbury’s stores, having modernized the brand and incorporated social media to interact with customers and drive brand engagement.
“Sushi Gourmet offers classic Japanese sushi hand rolled with crisp vegetables and hand carved quality fish, but our products differ across other concepts to suit each market. At our kiosks within Whole Foods, for example, you’ll find American-style sushi with brown or purple rice, mayonnaise, and crunchy onions on the top, whereas Mai Sushi is very colorful with small, pretty garnishes. Driving a positive food culture resulted in us winning recognition for our quality at the Quality Food Awards eight years in a row. We won the Great Product Award and the Great Taste Award, as well as landing Golden Q’s Product of the Year out of thousands of entries.
“We have a team of fabulous chefs, most of whom have been with us since the very beginning, and we operate our own development kitchen to work on new recipes and conduct product tastings,” Jason continues. “We taste new products almost weekly, as while the classic products will always sell, it’s great to bring some innovation to the sushi market to attract people to our kiosks. In fact, some of the most successful launches we’ve done have been in partnership with cause related marketing where a percentage of the revenue is donated to charity, such as the Fisherman’s Mission or Trees for Cities.”
Strategic relationships
With quality being one of Hana’s top priorities, the company works closely with its supply chain to protect its standards. “We approach supplier relationships as true collaborative partnerships rather than as a buyer and supplier,” Jason explains. “These strategic relationships are not only powerful from a supply perspective, but they also help us advance our sustainability agenda. While we love accreditations like ASC or MSC because they provide assurance to the wider market, we also visit suppliers ourselves. We’ve visited our salmon farms, for example, and spent time meeting fishermen and seeing the plants where our salmon is cut. These visits are valuable in terms of both checking our quality standards are met and fostering more sustainable practices across our supply network.
“Sustainability is embedded in our DNA and it’s a huge passion across the group. We’re engaged in several initiatives such as hands on support and accreditation from Sustainable X to help us lower emissions, but we also spend time training our teams and creating a culture that embraces these practices. We’ve found that sustainability is also a great way to engage customers and employees within the business, which has been a key element of our long-term growth and success.” 
Growth trajectory
Before our conversation turns to the future, we’re keen to learn more about Jason’s interesting career journey and how it has shaped his approach to Hana. “I fall into the unique category of ‘grocerant,’ a grocer and a restaurateur,” he says. “I started my career as a chef with the Roux brothers, where I had the privilege of working with incredible ingredients in Michelin-star kitchens. Following a few board level roles in large high street restaurant groups, I then moved to M&S to look after their hospitality business, which eventually progressed into me taking on the counters too. I worked on an amazing project to transform M&S bakery counters and with triple digit growth, M&S thus gained significant market share. I loved my time in retail, but I equally loved being a restaurateur, and I wanted a role that combined these two areas.
“I joined Hana in 2016, and I absolutely love my role. One of the most rewarding parts is seeing the genuine passion across our teams and supporting people as they develop their careers. As an example, we’ve recently created some chef jackets with embroidered phrases, either ‘sushi expert’ or ‘sushi legend,’ which we award chefs after either five years for expert or ten years of service to become a legend. We traveled to our counters to hand these out, and it was amazing to see our employees’ pride in this accomplishment.
“We have exciting expansion plans underway with all our current partners, and we can double the size of our business even without a new partner. However, the sign of ultimate success would be to retain our rich culture as we grow. We know that people in the UK and Europe love sushi, and there are plenty of opportunities to grow as we continue to deliver healthy food that brings pleasure to our customers.”