Acquisition · Restaurants / food
Zensho buys Houston-based sushi kiosk operator SnowFox for $621 million
- Buyer
- Zensho Holdings (Tokyo)
- Target
- SnowFox Group, Houston, Texas
- Value
- $621M
- Status
- Completed; SnowFox was later rebranded as Wonderfield.
- Date
- 2023-06-13
Sukiya and Hama-Sushi operator Zensho agreed to buy all of SnowFox Topco, the parent of Houston-based SnowFox, from private equity firm Mayfair Equity Partners in a deal valued at $621 million. SnowFox runs about 3,000 chef-operated sushi kiosks across North America and the UK. The deal needed US regulatory approval.
Why it matters
The purchase gave Zensho a large ready-made grocery sushi network in the US at a time when its home market is shrinking.
How SnowFox was built
SnowFox grew out of YO!, the UK Japanese restaurant chain that Mayfair Equity Partners invested in from 2015. YO! bought Bento in 2017 and Taiko, a supermarket sushi supplier, in 2018. It entered the US by merging with Snowfox in 2019, and the combined SnowFox Group was formed in 2021.
What Zensho bought
The group ran four brands, Snowfox, Bento, Taiko and YO!, and also makes and wholesales sushi. Its kiosks are inside large grocery chains. Chief executive Richard Hodgson stayed on to work with Zensho's managers, and Mayfair sold its whole stake after seven years.
Zensho abroad
Zensho, founded in 1982, is Japan's largest restaurant company by sales. Outside Japan it already ran Sukiya and Hama-Sushi mainly in East Asia and Advanced Fresh Concepts, a grocery sushi business, mainly in the US. The deal later received final regulatory approval.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
