Policy and Approach
To meet the growing health-consciousness of our customers, the Skylark Group develops menus focused on nutritional balance, calorie control, and low-fat options—including vegetable-rich and low-carb selections—while regularly reviewing the portion sizes of all products. To cater to diverse needs related to age, constitution, or daily physical condition, we provide a wide variety of menu items and portion choices, as well as various side dishes, toppings, sauces, and dressings for customization. We also strive to provide accurate information on salt content, calories, ingredient origins, and the latest allergen data.
Our policy is to recognize and mitigate any potential negative impacts of our products on customer health. During the product development process, we conduct reviews based on health maintenance standards to support our customers' healthy lifestyles.
Health and nutrition are identified as materiality for our group. Under the supervision of the Board of Directors, initiatives are driven by the Group Sustainability Committee, which meets quarterly. The committee is chaired by the Representative Director, President and COO, with the Representative Director, Chairman and CEO, all Executive Officers, and group company presidents serving as members.
We are currently developing digital menu books to provide personalized nutritional information. We are also implementing a multifaceted approach—including information prioritization and pricing—to make it easier for customers to choose healthier options daily. Through these activities, we aim to actively and continuously promote high-value, healthy products.
For children, we strive to provide enjoyable dining experiences for the whole family through nutritionally balanced kids' menus, low-allergen options, and "food education" (Shokuiku) menus that allow children to learn about food while they eat.
Furthermore, at Musashino Mori Coffee, chawan, and La Ohana, we serve coffee using 100% organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified™ beans (with some exceptions) and aim to expand our organic offerings. We are also researching menus designed to address specific nutritional deficiencies.
Risks and Opportunities
Indicators/KPI
Examples of Action
Nutritional Information and Labeling
Our in-store menu books and digital menu books show calories and salt content for each dish we serve. For some noodle dishes, in addition to the overall calories and salt content, we also display the calories and salt content of the soup so that customers can control their own intake.
With regard to the labeling of nutritional content, restaurants are not subject to mandatory labeling of nutritional information under the Food Labeling Act, but we have established the Labeling Guidelines for Promotion Materials as our own labeling standards in accordance with the Food Labeling Act, and practice lawful and appropriate labeling through strict operations, with labeling only permitted after a check by a specialized department.
Status and Progress of Response to Health and Nutrition Conscious Menus
As part of our commitment to providing health and nutrition-conscious options, the Skylark Group strives to develop menus that allow customers to enjoy healthy meals easily in a one-plate format. This includes "balanced plates," where a variety of items can be enjoyed at once, and an enhanced lineup of nutritionally balanced set meals.
In our set menus, we have introduced options that allow customers to customize their meals according to their personal preferences and health conditions, such as adjusting rice portions (large or small) or choosing alternatives like side salads, soy bread, or multi-grain rice.
Currently, 100% of set menus that include rice across all our major brands allow for portion selection. Furthermore, through our digital menu books, we have established an environment where all customers can easily choose to adjust their meal sizes, a feature that is being utilized by many of our customers.
For our highly popular noodle dishes, we have received positive feedback for menus that allow customers to enjoy their meal while remaining health-conscious. Examples include dishes featuring "a full day’s serving of vegetables" for those mindful of their carbohydrate intake, menus using spinach-infused noodles to reduce carb content, and options where customers can choose to substitute regular noodles with zero-carb or low-carb alternatives.
Going forward, we will continue to prioritize health-conscious offerings across the menus of each of our brands, starting with items for which there is high customer demand, such as noodle dishes and desserts.
In addition, we are actively providing "products with less negative impact," including these health-conscious menus and environmentally friendly products such as 100% organic coffee beans and Rainforest Alliance Certified™ coffee. We promote the widespread adoption of these products by communicating their value through our menus, website, and social media, and by striving for strategic promotion and pricing to make them more accessible for customers to choose.
Children's Menus
To enable families including children with allergies to enjoy dining at our stores, we are diversifying our low-allergen menu for children. While low allergen menus are generally biased toward curry, Skylark Group offers other low allergen dishes such as negitoro-don (minced raw tuna on rice) and doria (rice gratin), and is working to develop further recipes.
Participating in the Project "We Support Your Health Improvement"
Skylark Group supports and participates in the Osaka Healthy Restaurant Promotion Council's "We Support Your Health Improvement" project.
Initiatives include serving healthy recipes, including nutritional labeling of major menu items, provision of healthy menu items (such as plenty of vegetables and lower salt content), and responding to healthy orders (such as adjusting portion sizes and serving condiments separately), while at the same time accumulating knowledge of menu development that contributes to health.
We also actively participate in initiatives recommended by local governments, such as sponsorship of the "Adachi City Initiative to Eat Vegetables."
Reflecting Customer Feedback in Menu Development
We have established a customer service office and created a system that enables us to respond quickly in order to utilize feedback from customers to improve the quality of our products and services.
Customer comments, opinions and requests received by the customer service office are reported to management as customer feedback and shared with related departments to review store operations and improve products and services.
We also refer to customer suggestions, opinions and requests when changing recipes and conducting menus revisions. We also receive many opinions on health and nutrition. These are shared with management, and we strive to reflect them in our menus in response to customers' increased attention to maintaining good health.
- *Non-caffeine barley tea introduced based on customers' Twitter comments: We responded immediately to comments made on Twitter in April 2019 by introducing caffeine-free barley tea to drink bars at all Gusto restaurants in July. Jonathan's and Syabu-Yo offer caffeine-free Sokenbicha at all restaurants. In this way, we are providing beverages that even children, pregnant women and nursing mothers can drink with peace of mind.