House Foods Group Corporation is considering selling Ichibanya, the operator of “Curry House CoCo Ichibanya,” Nikkei reported on August 31. House Foods brought Ichibanya under its umbrella as a subsidiary in 2015 and the two companies have since worked together on things like ingredient sourcing, but House Foods is now moving to overhaul its business portfolio and unwind the parent-subsidiary listing arrangement. Several investment funds are reportedly already showing interest in an acquisition. On 5ch, opinions were split: some pointed to a breakdown in the balance between price and taste, or argued that soaring rice prices had hurt profitability, while others pushed back on the idea that CoCo Ichi has raised prices too often, citing data showing the chain hasn’t raised prices since August 2024.
It was learned on the 31st that House Foods Group Corporation is considering selling Ichibanya, operator of “Curry House CoCo Ichibanya.” Ichibanya became a subsidiary in 2015 and the two firms have cooperated on ingredient procurement and other areas since, but House Foods is now reviewing its business portfolio to pursue new growth. It is also moving to end the parent-subsidiary listing structure in order to improve capital efficiency.
Both House Foods Group and Ichibanya have selected financial advisors for the sale. Multiple investment funds have already come forward with interest in acquiring the company… (remaining 463 characters available in the paid edition)
Nikkei, August 31, 2026, 9:05 AM
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
And yet CoCo Ichi still didn't raise prices.
Meanwhile other restaurants, even rice balls, jacked their prices up like crazy.
You don't get it.
They got abandoned by exactly those people.
Your clock's stopped, buddy.
Go ahead and try opening a restaurant on that budget then
I misread that as 2,300 yen for a second
Exactly. Even Bon Curry (a famous retort curry brand) has a suggested retail price of 275 yen tax included these days, and a serving of rice runs about 120 yen, so that's already 400 yen.
Do the people crying that CoCo Ichi is 'so expensive' not cook for themselves?
It's coasting on brand name for now, but I think it's going to get rough from here.
It's famous enough among foreigners as basically 'the most well-known curry chain in Japan,' so it'll probably hold up as long as tourist numbers stay high.
This is just like watching Japan McDonald's after Eiko Harada (the former CEO known for aggressive cost-cutting). It's like they cashed in every hidden asset they had.
The brand's damaged too — a revenue drop after this seems all but certain.
Eating out is basically 3x the price of cooking at home as a rule…
If you're single, cooking at home doesn't actually get much cheaper unless you plan really carefully.
Factor in the time spent cooking and cleaning up, and it's not that different from cheap eating-out options.
It's a different story if you're cooking in bulk for a family of four, though.
Home cooking isn't some magic method that makes everything cheaper.
Yeah, this is exactly it.
You eat curry because it's cheap in the first place.
At this price you start thinking you might as well eat something else.
Same here.
The parent company had changed without me even noticing.
No,
it's already begun
https://kabutan.jp/stock/?code=7630
I think another price hike is coming.
And they'll probably keep cutting corners on ingredients too.
Can they even do that with franchise locations?
'tastes bad → I dislike it'
but actually
'I hate it → therefore it tastes bad'
What's there even to hate in the first place?
Were you a former employee or something?
There's actually a crowd out there that hates CoCo Ichi? lol
Don't need the whole topping-curry thing.
CoCo Ichi's flavor is just too bland.
C&C hits the sweet spot.
The fact that rival chains aren't growing means a lot of people still think CoCo Ichi is number one.
You wannabe-consultant types should go tell Go Go Curry something like 'expand nationwide and you'll steal CoCo Ichi's customers and grow.'
No idea if they'd actually listen to you though lol
That's because they'd already raised prices to the limit lol
CoCo Ichi raises prices quickly, without hesitating.
The idea is supposedly to protect employees.
When I worked there part-time, my impression was that the hourly wage was a bit higher than at typical restaurants.
>CoCo Ichi raises prices quickly, without hesitating
You should actually go look up when they last raised prices.
Plenty of restaurant chains raise prices every single year, you know.
If that approach makes the business unsustainable, it's game over in the end.
You have to look at every angle, including the customers.
If it's unsustainable, it goes under. The fact that it hasn't means this pricing is justified.
The fact that House Foods is letting it go
makes me think that from House's perspective, it's already hit its limit.
It's still hanging on because it has assets to fall back on, but
the fact that House Foods, its longtime partner, is pulling out
looks to me like there's some problem they tried everything to fix and couldn't.
CoCo Ichi: August 2024, no hikes since
Matsuya: July 2024, April 2025
Katsuya: October 2024, March 2025, October 2025
Yoshinoya: July 2024, April 2025
Sukiya: April 2024, November 2024, March 2025, September 2025 (price cut), March 2026, July 2026
Matsuya: July 2024, April 2025
Ohsho: June 2024, February 2025 (gyoza, fried rice)
McDonald's: January 2024, March 2025, February 2026
And you guys are out here saying 'CoCo Ichi raises prices constantly'
Are you okay in the head?
I think it's just a perception problem.
I don't know the price history of every single chain, but
places like Katsuya still give off a 'well, at this price, I guess…' impression.
With CoCo Ichi it's more like
'Wait, THIS curry costs THAT much??'
That's the kind of price impression it gives off now.
What about the size of the hikes though?
If both the base price and the topping prices go up, that's a double hit.
They were already jacking up prices like crazy before the real rice crisis even hit, so now that the actual crisis is here, they can't raise prices anymore.
If anything, rice prices have even come back down since.
Background and Key Points of This Story
This potential sale appears to be part of the broader trend of the Tokyo Stock Exchange pushing listed companies to improve capital efficiency. Parent-subsidiary listings have increasingly been unwound in recent years, since minority shareholders’ interests can end up subordinated to the parent company’s wishes — and Ichibanya, ten years after becoming a House Foods subsidiary in 2015, has now become a target for that kind of review. On the thread, some argued CoCo Ichi has been “raising prices nonstop,” but in fact it hasn’t raised prices since August 2024, while rivals like Matsuya, Katsuya, and Yoshinoya have revised prices multiple times between 2024 and 2026. Posters who laid out the actual numbers pointed out this gap in perception, splitting opinion in the thread. Some also argue that by holding off on price hikes, the chain absorbed the full impact of soaring rice prices, which hurt profitability. That said, at the time of writing, the buyer and terms of any sale remain undecided, with the situation still at the stage where several investment funds have simply expressed interest.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[CoCo Ichi] Parent company House Foods Group considers sale, aims to end parent-subsidiary listing.”
