The developers of Sumera Sushi include Ray Wiley, a co-founder of Hot Head Burritos, and Timothy Tefs, an area developer for Hot Head Burritos. Both Wiley and Tefs also operate Subway franchise restaurants, Wiley in the Dayton area and Tefs in the Cincinnati area. Hot Head has a successful record of franchise growth: It was founded in Kettering in 2007 and now has more than 50 restaurants in six states.
The 1,700-square-foot Far Hills Avenue Sumera Sushi restaurant will have a seating capacity of 66 and projected employment of 18 to 20, according to Kettering records.
Wiley called the Kettering store “our pilot store, a prototype” and expects it will open in October. Plans call for adding three more locations in the region within a year. After that, “We expect to grow rapidly, through franchising,” Wiley said.
Sumera’s quick-service sushi concept, which will have a made-to-order service line similar to Chipotle and Hot Head, attracted its founders because sushi itself is a growing trend in the restaurant industry, and there are very few national players, Wiley said.
Although the region has several sushi restaurants, the only quick-service sushi chain locally is Fusian, which opened its first Dayton-area restaurant in 2011 on Brown Street near the University of Dayton, and is scheduled to open its second Dayton-area restaurant in Washington Twp. in 2015. It will be the sixth Fusian location in the Columbus-Cincinnati-Dayton region for the small chain.
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