The 74-strong restaurant group has signed an agreement with the retail giant to open YO! To Go counters at two of its UK stores.
Under the agreement Yo! Sushi will have a manned kiosk in each site to prepare made-to-order sushi as well as sushi for the front-of-store food to-go range.
The first of the two trial sites at Sunbury-on-Thames Extra opens today (10 October), with the second kiosk due to open at Tesco’s Bournemouth Extra store next week.
The move sees YO! to Go branded products available for the first time outside of the brand’s restaurants.
It is not the first play into retail by the restaurant group. In April this year the company bought Waitrose sushi supplier Taiko Foods for an undisclosed sum.
Taiko was the first manufacturer of sushi for UK supermarkets and supplies food-to-go such as dim sum and bento for several retailers. At the time YO! Sushi said the deal was part of its plan to build a “global multi-format and multi-brand sushi business".
“We have seen substantial increase in demand for to-go products over the last 18 months and developing our YO! To Go proposition is an important part of leveraging the expertise and capacity gained through the recent Bento and Taiko acquisitions,” says YO! Sushi CEO Richard Hodgson.
“As consumers continue to look for high quality, fresh, and speedy food options, we are well placed as a global multi-channel, multi format Japanese food platform to lead in making sushi more accessible, not only via restaurants, but also kiosks and supermarkets.”