Popular food establishment brand Kinton Ramen continues to aggressively expand its footprint in Canada and is soon launching a new concept called Kinton Express in a smaller format.
Currently there are over 40 Kinton Ramen locations across Canada, United States and Japan and the first Kinton Ramen Express is scheduled to open in the coming weeks at 1 Richmond St W in Toronto.
Karalyn White, Senior Director of Franchising for the Kinka Family which operates the Kinton Ramen brand, said about 10 new Kinton Ramen locations are expected to open this year.
The first Kinton Ramen opened in 2012 on Baldwin St in Toronto. Today more than half of the locations are in southern Ontario with a presence as well in Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, Tokyo, Chicago and New York.
Eli Vladimirsky, Director, Advisory & Transaction Services and Sari Samarah, President, CEO and Broker of Record for Value Insight Realty, works with the Kinka Family to handle its real estate needs.
“High density neighborhoods or areas with good daytime and evening traffic” is what Value Insight Realty looks for when scouting out potential locations for Kinton Ramen.
For Quebec, Corey Bessner, President and CEO of Core Consultants Realty handles the Kinton Ramen real estate selection.
“Ramen is something you can enjoy during lunch or dinner,” he said. “Our ideal size for a typical Kinton Ramen is about 1,800 to 2,200 square feet with dine in, with an average of 50 seats. We do have stores that are larger and smaller but that’s the typical size.
“For the Express concept that we’re starting and have implemented into some locations, we can go as low as 500 to 600 square feet for a food court or even as small as 1,000 to 1,500 square feet.”
White said the Express will offer a quicker version of getting the noodles with self-serve kiosks.
“1 Richmond is going to be our flagship express store that will have a smaller seating area without table service and with emphasis on grab and go, take-out and delivery.” she said.
As Kinton Ramen expands its footprint, it will expand with both full size locations and the Express versions.
“If we go to enclosed malls, airports, The Path or destinations in more urban territories like the heart of downtown it would make sense to do an Express version. In Japan, it’s quite popular to actually go and have ramen and stand, eat and go. So the idea of quick served ramen is already popular around the world. For us to implement that here – the plan would not be every Kinton Ramen – but where it would work and make sense we would want to implement this version,” said Samarah, adding that it would be a faster food option at a quality offering.
“In the food courts we’ve seen over the years and for fast food options, there’s good quality options but if we can take the Kinton Ramen dining experience and bring it in a faster, casual atmosphere then it becomes fine casual dining.”
White said there has been a demand from franchisees and from guests for the new concept.
“We’re able to go into various types of real estate opportunities,” she said.
White said two locations for the brand have been signed for Calgary to open in 2025 and the company is on the hunt for more locations in Calgary and in Edmonton.
“We’re also expanding all over Canada. In Quebec, Ottawa, as well as potentially in the Maritimes, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg. We’re working on expansion to those markets,” added Samarah. “And we believe that Kinton Ramen in the next few years will have 100 stores in Canada at the current pace of growth we are experiencing.”
