New launches helped Itsu achieve £50m in grocery sales revenue for the first time in 2023.
The grocery business of the Japanese food chain achieved a tenth consecutive year of double-digit sales growth last year, with revenues climbing 24% on 2022.
“Itsu grocery continues to see solid year-on-year growth in core ranges, alongside strong H1 2024 sales for new products,” the supplier said.
Itsu launched a total of 27 new products across chilled, ambient and frozen categories throughout the year, from rolled dry soba and ramen noodles to ready-to-heat udon noodles and a miso-based broth sachet.
The NPD blitz continued into this year, with the debut of its flavoured sparkling water range, Zen’water, into grocery in May.
Further launches were planned for this autumn, Itsu said, adding its latest innovation was set to go live in food-to-go chillers this October alongside “the biggest marketing campaign in the company’s history across rail, tube, roadside and digital channels”.
“The grocery dishes you’ll see in supermarket chillers this autumn are the result of decades of learning,” said CEO Julian Metcalfe. “Itsu has been innovating and evolving for 20 years. There’s so much more to do, we’re only just beginning.”
At a group level, revenues at Itsu for the year stood at £161m, up 16% on 2022.
Restaurant sales grew by 15% to to £116m, boosted by an 18% uplift in sales in the City “as workers re-established office routines”.
“Holding back on price increases and investing in building transactions through menu bundles and in-app promotions,” had been key to sales growth, Itsu said.
Group EDITBA, meanwhile, grew by 24% to £8.1m, “despite rising costs and ongoing investment in people, healthier innovation and future growth”.
In July 2024, Itsu completed an upsizing of existing cash facilities with HSBC to £30m, to “set the business up to deliver ambitious growth plans”, it said.
“Never before have customers around the world so wanted, and needed, healthier convenient food at home, and when out and about,” Metcalfe said. “At Itsu we have the passion, and knowledge, to create remarkable nutritious and affordable Asian-inspired ingredients and dishes, both for supermarkets and our restaurants.”
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