Sushi, Delivered by Robots & Revolving Belts: Kura Revolving Sushi Bar Expansion

The conveyor belt sushi chain Kura Revolving Sushi Bar has huge growth plans for 2024. The company just announced it will open between 13 to 14 new restaurants across the United States in its 2024 fiscal year. That would be the highest number of new locations Kura has ever opened in a single year since first coming to America back in 2009.

Kura is already making big progress on its big goals. Since the start of 2024, the sushi chain has opened 10 brand new restaurants in cities like Pittsburgh, Tampa, Kansas City, and the suburbs near Chicago like Naperville and Skokie. It even just opened its first restaurant in Orlando, Florida too. With these new restaurants, Kura now has 60 total locations across 17 states plus Washington D.C. And Kura plans to keep quickly opening more and more new restaurants.

"Our organization has demonstrated that it's more than capable of meeting that challenge year after year, and we're excited to keep delivering on that," said CEO Hajime "Jimmy" Uba.

Kura expects to grow its total restaurant count by at least 20% annually over the next several years. For 2024 specifically, the chain is targeting an increase of 26% to 28%.

The rapid expansion is backed by strong financial performance. Kura has seen positive customer traffic for 12 consecutive quarters now. Same-store sales were up 3% in the most recent quarter compared to a year ago.

Part of why Kura is doing so well is because of its special dining experience using technology. Kura has a rotating conveyor belt that brings sushi plates right to each customer's table. The chain is also testing out new robots and machines like robot dishwashers and rice ball makers to help make operations better.