Fusian timeline
May 2010: Fusian opens its first restaurant in Cincinnati’s Tower Place Mall.
October 2011: Second Fusian restaurant opens at 1200 Brown St. near the University of Dayton.
October 2012: Fusian relocates its Cincinnati location to 600 Vine St. in downtown Cincinnati.
February 2013: Fusian opens its first Columbus-area restaurant near Ohio State University.
November 2013: Fusian opens fourth location in the Hyde Park Plaza near Cincinnati.
March 2014: Fifth Fusian opens at 8060 Montgomery Road just east of the Kenwood Towne Center.
May 2015: The second Dayton-area Fusian is scheduled to open in Washington Twp. near the region’s first Whole Foods.
June 2015: The chain’s 7th location is projected to open in the Easton Town Center in Columbus.
August 2015: Fusian is scheduled to open its 8th location on West Fifth Avenue in Grandview outside Columbus.
2016: Two additional Fusian locations are scheduled to open in the Cincinnati area, one in the Clifton area near the University of Cincinnati, and one near the Vintage Club in Montgomery.
Fusian, the fast-casual sushi chain launched in 2010 by three boyhood friends from Oakwood, will double in size over the next two years with the projected opening of five new restaurants, including the Dayton area’s second location next month on Ohio 725 in Washington Twp.
Fusian co-founders (and brothers ) Zach and Josh Weprin and Stephan Harman — who spoke in Fusian’s early years of their slow and deliberate expansion plans — say they’ve laid the foundation and are well-prepared for the growth spurt, which will include two other openings this year in the Columbus area followed by two in the Cincinnati area in 2016. And the brothers acknowledge they are now “scoping out” potential Fusian locations in the Cleveland area.
Stilll, Josh Weprin said, “Our growth strategy is to grow when we’re ready.”
And the time to grow might just be right for a more aggressive growth plan for Fusian, a quick-service sushi chain that utilizes a Chipotle/Subway-style ordering line that allows diners to customize their sushi roll and watch it prepared before their eyes. The concept has pioneered by other small chains in other parts of the country, but Fusian was first to employ the quick-serve custom sushi roll method in the Dayton area. And the concept recently attracted a second entry into the Dayton market with the opening of Sumera Sushi in Kettering, which also prepares sushi rolls to order in a quick-service format.
Even with Fusian’s accelerating expansion in larger metropolitan areas elsewhere in Ohio, the chain’s founders say they haven’t ruled out adding more locations in the Dayton area. “We have nothing signed at the moment, but that’s not to say we’re done,” Zach Weprin said. “Dayton has been a great market for us.”
Here and elsewhere, Weprin said, “We have our eyes open to every opportunity.”
The timing might be right to seize that opportunity, according to restaurant industry experts.
While similar fast-casual sushi chains have sprung up in several regions of the country, none has emerged as a national leader in the segment, according to Darren Tristano, executive vice president for Technomic, a Chicago-based food service research and consulting firm.
Tristano said younger consumers don’t have the same hesitation to eat raw fish as many older consumers still have, and that development, along with a trend toward consumers embracing bold Asian flavors, bodes well for the long-term future of sushi restaurants.
“There’s a tremendous opportunity for somebody who figures out how to do it, and how to do it efficiently and well,” Tristano said.
Overall, sushi restaurants have seen annual revenue growth of about 2.5 percent during the five-year period from 2009-14, to $2.1 billion, according to IBISWorld, Inc., a Los Angeles-based independent industry research firm. IBISWorld expects the number of sushi restaurants to rise 1.1 percent a year each of the next five years, reaching nearly 4,300 nationwide, 2019, and forecasts that industry revenue will rise at an annual rate of 2.3 percent to $2.3 billion by 2019.
Fusian’s founders — Josh Weprin is 31, Zach Weprin and Stephan Harman are 29 — have no ambitions of national market domination. Unlike many chains that seek to expand rapidly nationwide, Fusian is not looking to offer franchise opportunities, preferring to keep ownership and control of all new locations. Harman said the current growth spurt is possible only because the owners have been grooming management teams and employees for the new stores.
The Fusian owners say they have many reasons to look forward to the projected mid-May opening of a 1,800-square-foot restaurant coming to Miamisburg-Centerville Road at McEwen Road, in the same Washington Twp. retail center as the region’s first Whole Foods specialty grocery store.
The owners aid they share the same values as Whole Foods, and they believe the specialty grocer’s customers will like what they find at Fusian. And the new sushi restaurant’s design — which includes an open and welcoming kitchen — incorporates the concepts of hospitality and transparency the Fusian owners encountered during a 10-day trip they took to Japan in February.
“Our goal was to visit the Mecca of sushi,” Josh Weprin said. The trio dined in intimate restaurants that generally seated 20 or less, and witnessed the devotion to the craft that Japan’s sushi restaurants demonstrate.
And they want to share that with their customers here — in Dayton and elsewhere.
“Our goal is to continue to grow, to continue to expand, to continue to learn, and to continue to educate the market, by providing great service and great product,” Josh Weprin said.
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