Sats wants a slice of the pie in Japan’s ready-to-eat meal market.
Back in July, the group announced a strategic partnership through its subsidiary, Sats TFK with Japanese conglomerate Mitsui, for the latter to acquire a 15% stake or $36.4 million investment in Sats’ food solutions India, Sats food solutions Thailand, Sats Tianjin, and the group’s food distribution subsidiary, Country Foods.
Presently, Sats is the leading aviation caterer in Asia, providing meals for international airlines across different formats ranging from first class to economy. It is in this proven capability and track record that Sats chief executive officer (CEO) for food solutions, Stanley Goh, is confident in expanding the business to serve consumers beyond the aisle.
“We will pivot into the non-aviation space with high-value ready-to-eat meals while ensuring we keep our culinary expertise and ability to create authentic meals,” says Goh at Sats TFK in-flight kitchen facility at Tokyo’s Narita Airport on Aug 26.
Able to produce up to 40,000 meals daily across a variety of cuisines including halal meals, the Narita facility is one of Sats TFK’s three within the greater Tokyo area.
He adds: “We have over 1,000 chefs (across the group) that are able to service about 130 international airlines, as well as dietitians and food technologies that can create culinary cuisines into scale production.”
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While Sats brings its end-to-end capability along the food production value chain to the table, Mitsui’s retail business unit has an existing network throughout Japan, including joint-ventures with 7-11 Japan, China and the US through its parent company, Seven & i Holdings.
“With our now new partnership with Mitsui, we are able to leverage on some of these capabilities together to bring better value to our respective stakeholders.”
The spread
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Presently, Sats has several brands under its ready-to-eat umbrella.
These include Farmpride, its frozen foods label, which can be found at NTUC Fairprice stalls in Singapore, and The Travelling Spoon, a halal-certified microwave food label produced in collaboration with local hawker brands distributed throughout the island’s 7-11 convenience stores.
The group’s foray into Japan comes in the form of its N’s Deli label, which premiered at a recent food fair held by Japanese supermarket chain, Meidi-Ya. These microwavable ready-to-eat meals include well-known Singapore dishes such as laksa, chicken rice and biryani.
Goh explains that Japanese consumers have a liking for the robust flavour profile found in Singapore’s dishes. He tells The Edge Singapore: “We understood that for Meidi-Ya and their consumers, there was an actual demand for authentic Singaporean food, which they know of through travel. So when we priced and brought our products to the fair, they sold out very quickly.”
Together, Sats and Mitsui plan to supply similar frozen meals to Muji Japan by the first quarter of 2025.
Although Goh is bullish on the potential of growing the business in a nation where ready-to-eat meals are popular and highly consumed, he is also aware of the competitive nature of its market.
On this, he says: “We have data that actually shows that the ready-to-eat market continues to grow, and our projection of growth over the next 10 years is one that we feel very optimistic about.”
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The food solutions CEO points to increasing urbanisation and busier lifestyles as main consumer factors driving the demand for convenient meals.
“Today, when we look at the standards of ready-to-eat meals, some of them are quite basic, and we feel that with our expertise and the network that Mitsui can offer, we're able to offer high-value, authentic, meals that would that would meet this demand and consumer preference,” adds Goh.
General manager for Mitsui’s retail business division and retail business unit, Mitsuhiro Goto, similarly sees a healthy outlook for the partnership. He says: “We think that the ready-to-eat market on a global scale will continue to grow, especially in Asia. By offering a higher value product, it will be more convenient, more healthy, and with these keywords, I think we can capture consumer preference here in Japan.”
While the meals by Sats certainly look and taste superior compared to other meals in the category, they are also priced at a premium.
Sats group CEO Kerry Mok says that this, however, is part of the group’s strategy gathered from consumer insights, as a generic product would not be able to compete.
“We make higher-end aviation meals, and we want to use that knowledge to create products that people like,” says Mok.
If Japanese consumers judge that the proof is indeed in the pudding, the aroma of chicken rice and laksa could soon be wafting out of Tokyo neighbourhoods.
