Becoming a dollar billionaire thanks to beef rice dishes priced at only 70 thousand VND

Kentaro Ogawa (Japan), a new entrant to the ranks of the world's billionaires, built his $1 billion fortune thanks to beef rice bowls that cost just $3 (about 70,000 VND).

In 1982, Kentaro opened the first 24/7 Sukiya beef rice shop, targeting the average customer. He specialized in providing hot, full portions of white rice and stir-fried beef with onions for only $3 (about 70,000 VND).

Up to now, after 35 years, he has developed this establishment into a restaurant chain with 1,970 establishments worldwide, mostly in Japan and scattered in many countries such as China, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Billionaire Kentaro Ogawa

The Sukiya chain is owned by Zensho Corporation, which has 4,800 restaurants worldwide, specializing in dishes such as udon noodles, burgers, and conveyor belt sushi.

New business thinking

Since 1982, when he opened his first Sukiya beef bowl restaurant, Zensho has wanted to make his product unique. He refuses to compare himself to his competitors because, in some sense, when compared, companies create similar products and services.

“Japanese people tend to compare themselves to others. For me, only when customers acknowledge that Zensho is unique, and that Kentaro Ogawa is a businessman with a unique strategy that no one can imitate, will it have value. Uniqueness creates success,” said Kentaro.

A beef rice bowl at Sukiya restaurant.

Along with expanding his restaurant chain, he also established 5 food processing companies, 27 factories, 25 distribution centers, 1 food quality inspection center and many farms.

“We cannot guarantee food safety if we let another company supply or handle any step,” he said. “Up to 80% of the ingredients we use are self-produced, the rest are imported from trusted partners.”

$1 billion fortune

Currently, Zensho earns $4.7 billion in profits each year, far surpassing McDonald's in terms of revenue.

With a global development strategy, Kentaro has expanded its business to other Asian countries such as China, Taiwan and Brazil... with more than 2,000 restaurants. This has helped the company's stock increase by 30% compared to previous years.

It is known that Kentaro currently holds 40% of Zensho's shares, plus accumulated dividends, his total assets increased to more than 1 billion USD. Recently, he was honored by Forbes as one of the 50 richest billionaires in Japan, ranked 1,940th in the list of the richest billionaires in the world.

According to Dan Viet Newspaper