Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has entered into a business alliance with CRISP Holdings, Inc. (CRISP HD) and acquired an 18.4% stake in the company.

 

CRISP HD’s mission is “To create Raving fans" of both its shops and products. The company has 14 specialty salad shops across Japan, which are aiming to establish healthy and delicious, customized salads as a new staple in Japan’s market. To evolutionize the customer experience, CRISP HD has also developed its own SaaS system called “PLATFORM,” which is available for purchase by restaurants. “PLATFORM” covers mobile-order, online-payment and other services.

 

Japan’s restaurant industry is facing a number of challenges, including labor shortages and food waste. Despite the progress being made in digital technologies and systems, barriers like lengthy development times and huge upfront investments have stalled their use by small and medium sized businesses. In Japan, roughly 80% of such businesses have yet to take advantage of them. However, by reducing the upfront investment and these lead times, CRISP HD’s “PLATFORM” SaaS is a good fit for Japan’s restaurateurs. In addition to improving efficiency at restaurants and reducing their food waste, “PLATFORM” provides them with access to marketing information tailored to consumer preferences and customer lifetime value. Also, by leveraging tools like AI and external data on weather and other elements, CRISP HD is developing a next-generation model in the food retail space which is effectively combining online and offline services, examples of which include sales forecasts and automated ordering.

 

This alliance is expected to promote joint initiatives by MC and CRISP HD, which share similar values. MC’s mission is to simultaneously generate economic, societal and environmental value, while CRISP HD’s policy is to find solutions to the problems facing Japan’s restaurant industry. MC will also be taking advantage of its broad business know-how and networks to develop the CRISP HD brand, and to apply CRISP HD’s “PLATFORM” to the construction of a new business model that will help to boost its corporate value. Under the terms of the alliance, MC will be assigning a full-time director to CRISP HD.

 

For MC, the alliance was formed under a trial business incubation program launched by its Consumer Industry Group, the aim of which is to promote projects that are invested in the creation of consumer value and development of human resources. Through this alliance and all future endeavors, MC remains committed to creating new value and supporting the initiatives and challenges of its employees.

 

 

 

【For reference】

 

CRISP Holdings, Inc.

Established                     ： January 20, 2020

*Established as a holding company of CRISP, Inc., which operates Salad Shops and KACHIRI, Inc., the subsidiary providing the “PLATFORM” SaaS.

 

Head Office                     ： 1-10-10, Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Representative                ： Hiroshi Miyano

Main Business Activities  ： Customized salad shop CRISP Salad Work, and cloud-based software, “PLATFORM”, for mobile orders, online payments, store management systems and CRM solutions.