The company has supplied some of the best, most popular ramen spots around the US for decades, such as Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York and Tsujita in Los Angeles. The factory cost about €3.5 million ($3.8 million) to build and will produce about 4 million portions of ramen for customers from London to Warsaw by the end of the year.
John Husby, co-owner and chef de cuisine at Chuka Ramen Bar in Madrid, estimates that Sun’s product costs about 10% more than the closest competition in the fresh-frozen noodle category in Madrid, from the Japanese company Momotaro. Sun’s product costs about 10% more than the closest competition in the fresh-frozen noodle category in Madrid, from the Japanese company Momotaro.
Guy Quirynen, founder and chief executive officer of Ramen Umamido, has worked with Sun Noodles to create an umamido noodle with customized thickness, length, and chewiness. Sun Noodles was started in the early 1980s by Hidehito Uki, Kenshiro’s father, who came to Hawaii from Japan to get into the ramen business. “If you order today, you get [the ramen] in two weeks,” says Uki.
“Because ships were delayed sometimes, it became a four-month delay.” He adds, “We lost some customers.”
Sun now has three factories in the US, including ones in Oahu, Los Angeles, and Carlstadt, New Jersey, near Teterboro. Shipments of noodles to Europe have risen by more than 40% over the past seven years, and they currently supply noodles to more than 75 restaurants around the UK. Before the new facility opened, Europe took about 5% of the volume from the New Jersey factories.
By being in the logistics centre of Europe, Sun will be able to reduce freight costs and reduce transit time for customers, helping Sun solve some of the issues they’ve faced in Europe.
Demand for Sun’s noodles is continually growing in European places, both obvious and unexpected, with the region’s biggest demand coming from Paris and London. In Italy, demand is soft, and the Sun Noodle team hopes that market will grow.
Still, Uki says, they have a surprisingly enthusiastic audience in Poland. “In Warsaw, there’s big enthusiasm for ramen,” Uki says. “They are flying over Japanese chefs to teach them to make it.”