Dive Brief:

• Kura Sushi USA has added service robots, called Kur-B the KuraBot, to all of its 37 restaurant locations, the company said in an email to Restaurant Dive. Kur-B delivers drinks and condiments to guests’ tables.
• The restaurant company has also added new table tablet features that allow the ability to order drinks and mobile phone self-checkout.
• These features build on Kura Sushi’s technology innovations, including a revolving sushi bar, robots that make some high-volume items like sushi rice, and automated ordering and billing. The company owns over 30 tech patents.

Dive Insight:

The technology investments Kura Sushi has made over the last several years helped it recover from major losses during the pandemic and gain momentum in recent months, including double-digit same-store sales growth in Q2. Comp sales at the company are up by 183% compared to 2021.

This growth has been fueled in part by sufficient staffing levels, which was at 95% during Q2, aided by the robot rollout. Kura Sushi’s staffing levels are also above some of its full-service peers. Dine Brands, for instance, is about 10% below full labor capacity across its IHOP and Applebee’s systems.

“These robot servers deliver immediate results in terms of reducing the workload of our front-of-house employees, which we hope will reduce retention and make us a more attractive employer of future candidates,” CEO Hajime “Jimmy” Uba said during the Q2 call in April.

Filling labor gaps is why several concepts are experimenting with robotics. Chili’s and Denny’s, for instance, recently expanded the deployment of Rita the Robot. 

During the earnings call, Benjamin Porten, Kura Sushi’s vice president of investor relations and business development, said the goals with the robot server rollout is to drive sales and improve table turn times, as well as to reduce labor costs, which were up by more than 10% year-over-year for the company.

Uba added that consumers have thus far had a positive reaction to Kur-B.

“This response has been overwhelmingly positive, both in terms of the ability and fun that robot servers provide and the improvements to customer service resulting from the reduction of non-hospitality focused responsibilities for our front-of-house employees,” he said.