Policy and Approach
In response to increasingly health-conscious mind of customers in recent years, Skylark Group is developing recipes that are conscious of nutritional balance, calories and low fat content, such as recipes with plenty of vegetables and low levels of carbohydrates.
In addition to offering a wide range of recipe variations and portion options to suit customer needs depending on their age and physical condition on any given day, we also offer several kinds of side menus, toppings, sauces and dressings which customers can combine and choose freely. In doing so, we strive to provide appropriate information such as salt and calorie informatoin, production location information, and the latest allergen information.
In the future, we will also work to develop information provided in our digital menu books, so that we can make appropriate nutritional suggestions for each customer.
We also do our best to make sure that children can enjoy the family dining experience. We offer children's dishes with consideration for nutritional balance, low-allergen recipes for customers with allergies, and educational menu items for people to learn about food while enjoying their meals.
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.
Health- and Nutrition-conscious Menus
Skylark Group strives to develop menus that make it easy to eat healthy meals in one plate, such as balanced dishes that allow customers to taste various items at once and a full range of nutritionally balanced set meal menus.
In the set menu category, we have made it possible for customers to arrange menus according to the tastes and health state of customers, such as increasing or decreasing the amount of rice and offering the option to select salads, soy bread and multigrain rice instead of white rice.
Noodle dishes are popular with customers, and menus which allow customers to enjoy noodles in a health-conscious manner have been well received. Examples of such menus include noodle menus containing a whole day's portion of vegetables, noodle menus using spinach noodles which have limited carbohydrate content, and menus where regular noodles can be changed to zero-carbohydrate or low-carbohydrate noodles. We will continue to develop menus that are health-conscious in each brand in response to the increasing needs of customers.
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.