40 percent of Yoshinoya restaurants would use a self-service system

Recently the NHK News on-line reported the following:

吉野家 店舗の４割をセルフ方式に

2018年10月5日 21時11分

人手不足が深刻さを増す中、従業員の負担軽減につなげようと、大手牛丼チェーンの「吉野家ホールディングス」は、およそ４割の店舗を客が料理を自分で運ぶセルフサービス方式に切り替えることになりました。

吉野家ホールディングスは、ことし８月までの中間決算を５日発表し、コメなどの原材料費の高騰や人手不足に伴う人件費の増加で８億5000万円の最終赤字になりました。中間決算での最終赤字は８年ぶりです。

こうした中、河村泰貴社長は記者会見で、吉野家の店舗の４割に当たるおよそ500店について来年から５年かけて、客がレジで注文をして自分で料理を運ぶセルフサービス方式の店舗に切り替える方針を明らかにしました。

吉野家では、これまで一部の店舗にセルフ方式を導入して検証したところ従業員の歩数が４割減るなど負担の軽減につながったほか、従来よりも客席を広くしたことで売り上げも増加したということです。

河村社長は「５年、10年先を見据え、おいしい牛丼を提供するだけでなく、ゆったりと食事を楽しんでいただくことで競争に勝ち抜いていきたい」と述べました。

Translation

Amidst increasing serious labor shortage and in order to reduce employee's burden, Yoshinoya Holdings as a major beef bowl chain was going to change approximately 40 percent of its restaurants into using a self-service system in which visitors had to get their ordered dishes themselves.

On the 5th Yoshinoya Holdings announced its interim closing ending August of this year, it was an 850 million yen in red in the final closing due to the soaring of raw material cost such as rice, together with an increase in personnel expenses accompanied by labor shortages. The previous deficit in interim closing was 8 years ago.

As such, Yasutaka Kawamura  the president at a press conference made clear a policy that in 5 years starting from next year, about 500 restaurants which was equal to 40 percent of all its restaurants would be affected by changes of being turned into a self-service system: visitors placed orders at the register and got their ordered dished by themselves.

When introduced a self system to certain Yoshinoya restaurants for checking, the number of steps of the employee decreased by 40 percent and led to a burden reduction. Furthermore, as the guest seats were made wider than before, it was said that the sales were also increased.

President Kawamura stated that "gazing into five or ten years ahead, we are not merely offering a good beef bowl; because we can offer a meal that could be enjoyed comfortably, for that we would win a competition.”

So, Yoshinoya restaurants are trying to improve their service system to increase profits.