Rather than purchasing at a low price, we focus on maintaining a stable supply of fresh and delicious ingredients to all store locations throughout Japan.
Well-functioning Traceability Systems
Based on the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) guidelines on the labeling of production locations for restaurants, Skylark publishes the production areas for its main raw ingredients including meats and seafood for its Japanese-style restaurants. Additionally, by managing manufacturing information on our products by lot number and utilizing a system that enables products to be traced at the time of shipment, we have established a traceability system that allows us to go back to the time of shipment in the event of any quality-related problems.
Procurement Audit
Skylark has established strict trading standards for the procurement of its ingredients. We inspect local factories and processes in accordance with our purchasing management regulations, and check hygiene management systems for each process at supplier locations based on the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) approach. We purchase only from suppliers that meet our trading standards. Information including production area, processing plant, and allergens contained in each ingredient is managed electronically at the time of purchase, enabling us to always provide the latest, up-to-date information.
Always Bringing Fresh Vegetables to Tables Across the Country
Vegetables are procured by our buyers from countries all over the world, including Japan, through individual producers or shipping organizations that contract with Skylark Group.
The most important thing in procurement is not to buy at low prices, but to secure stable shipments now and in the future. It is more important to ensure that delicious vegetables can be consistently delivered to tables in every restaurant.
Sourcing vegetables on a large-scale site
Stable delivery nationwide!
Vegetables Produced by Professionals
Vegetables are easily affected by factors such as weather and temperature conditions, but it is important that the necessary quantities continue to be shipped at the necessary times for our needs. For this reason, the producers we associate with are professionals who make their living from agriculture. Contracted producers do not appear in our menus by name, but we are supported by people with the awareness that they are supporting the production of vegetables provided by Skylark Group.
If large amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used, it is easier to secure more consistent quantity, but in order to produce safe and delicious vegetables, our producers strive every day to cultivate crops with minimal bitterness and astringency while preserving the taste of vegetables by reducing the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers as much as possible.
Our producers are agricultural professionals!
Producers grow delicious vegetables
Ensuring Quality and Quantity
The amounts of ingredients required by our stores and central kitchens fluctuates daily, but by introducing our own product management system, we are able to place orders to production areas on a weekly basis. This reduces the workloads of harvesting farmers and ensures the required quantity and quality of ingredients. Especially in the case of vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, for which harvests tend to be susceptible to changes in weather conditions, if the weather forecast shows rain and snowfall, we ask producers to bring forward harvesting plans and make requests to other production areas in advance and make arrangements with markets to prevent insufficient or unstable quantities and quality.
Vegetables also remain alive after harvesting, and their taste and nutritional value decline over time. We have therefore built a cold chain network* that suppresses vegetable respiration through refrigerated storage at lower temperatures, and are devising ways to maintain quality while securing the necessary amounts of ingredients while maintaining freshness.
- *A logistics method that enables fresh foods to be kept at low temperatures without interruption during the process of production, transportation and consumption
We read the weather to secure necessary amounts of ingredients
Vegetables are kept fresh in refrigerated storage
Delivering Safe and Tasty Meat
Beef and chicken are sourced mainly in blocks (beef comes from North America, Australia and New Zealand, while chicken is sourced from Brazil). In addition to purchasing directly on-site without going through wholesalers, we also purchase 750 tons of beef every month (including 400 tons of chilled beef) to keep overall costs to a minimum. We also regularly visit local farms and processing plants to closely check hygiene management and ensure safety and security of produce. In order to always ensure consistent quality during transport, when importing chilled beef, we strictly control temperature by keeping the inside of containers at 0°C at all times. Meat procured in this way is cut into gram units in manufacturing processes at our central kitchens, our own factories that manage and cook ingredients for Skylark Group. It takes time and effort to cut the meat into gram units with cuts suitable for each dish, such as for steak and for karaage (fried chicken).
We keep costs down by purchasing locally
We implement rigorous hygiene management