Mitsubishi Foods Co., Ltd. Serves Up a Tasty Investment in Japan Food Express Ltd. in the UK

Mitsubishi Foods Co., Ltd. (location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Hiroshi Kyotani, hereinafter referred to as “Mitsubishi Foods”) is Japan Food, a wholesaler business centered on restaurant stores, and a retail and restaurant business in the UK and Germany. We are pleased to announce that we have agreed to acquire 20% of JFE’s shares through a third-party allotment from Express Ltd. (Head Office: London, CEO: Yasunori Kitabayashi, hereinafter referred to as “JFE”).

Our company’s purpose is to “contribute to the realization of a sustainable society through the food business,” and we not only strengthen our business foundations that support Japan’s food infrastructure, but also acquire new functions and take initiatives in new business fields. We are actively promoting this.

“Washoku” has been registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, and in light of the fact that Japanese food is attracting more attention in countries around the world due to its increasing popularity among inbound tourists, our mission is to deliver Japan’s proud food culture to the world. With this in mind, we have come to this agreement.

Our company has set “exporting Japanese food culture” as one of the pillars of our growth strategy in our medium-term management plan “MS Vision 2030,” and the European market is an important target because of its economic scale and the growth potential of the Japanese food market. It is one of the major markets, and we plan to dispatch management personnel locally to strongly promote our business.

We will create new demand by leveraging JFE’s sales network for eating out stores and directly managed retail stores and eating out stores to offer trial sales of Japanese food and a place to experience authentic Japanese food. We will work to expand the export of Japanese food culture.

【Club name】Japan Food Express Ltd.

【President】Masao Asai

【Representative】Bei Lin Jinggui

[Head office location]London, UK

【Establishment Date】October 2017

[Business description]We are a Japanese food import and wholesale company that stocks approximately 2,000 types of Japanese food ingredients and beverages, mainly in London, and has a customer sales network of nearly 3,000 companies, mainly high-end restaurants. In 2018, the company also established a branch office in Germany, aiming to expand the know-how cultivated in the UK throughout Europe.