To build a better bento

Frenchman Thomas Bertrand came to Japan in pursuit of what he called “the Japanese Dream”. He ended up finding it in Kyoto bento boxes.

“For my parents’ generation, it was the American Dream,” says Bertrand, originally from St Etienne, France. “But when I was growing up, all my friends and I watched nothing but anime on television, and we became fascinated with every aspect of Japanese culture.”

After graduating from Kyoto University, Bertrand briefly worked in design before coming to the realisation that bento boxes were his future. He believed that the finely crafted and individualistic lunch containers would be attractive to people around the world. “Bento boxes are so commonplace for Japanese people that they’d never think of opening a shop dedicated to selling them to foreigners in Kyoto,” says Bertrand, who did just that.

His shop, Bento&co, started online in 2008, with a small, select inventory of lunchboxes and chopsticks. The initial website was in French, with English and Japanese versions coming soon after. Today, 60% of the company’s sales are to Europe, 25% to North America, 3% to South America, and 6% each to Asia and Australasia. Seventy per cent of the business is B2C, and 30% is B2B, including luxury hotels in Paris, Atlanta and St Martin in the Caribbean. Sophisticated black and red lacquerware stacking boxes have proved attractive for presenting room service of all kinds with a Japanese flair.

Requests from the hotels for boxes with white insides have required discussions with the craftspeople who make the boxes and an adaptive approach to the needs of customers overseas.

In 2012, Bento&co opened a bricks-and-mortar shop on three floors in the heart of Kyoto. The ground floor serves walk-in customers. The second floor is dedicated to warehousing, and the top floor is an office. The glass frontage creates an impression of Santa’s workshop, with lots of pretty things ready to go out to good boys and girls around the world.

Today, Bento&co sells lunchboxes from around the world; and, unsurprisingly, those from other countries are more capacious. The company also has a marketing edge. “Japanese makers focus almost exclusively on manufacturing to the detriment of marketing,” says Bertrand. “We sell lunchboxes from an English maker who uses very clever packaging; and despite the higher ticket, it really sells well.

“Our unique kokeshi doll bento boxes are plastic, but they’re machine washable and microwave safe. And they’re painstakingly screen-printed by hand in several colours by craftspeople. I think they’re too cheap,” he adds. “They would still sell well at a significantly higher price, and both the maker and Bento&co would make a better [profit] margin on them.”

Although the Japanese factor is a powerful draw for consumers overseas, it’s not the only consideration. “Europeans don’t just want a Japanese bento box; they want a functional lunchbox,” says Bertrand. “That’s very important.”

The international staff at Bento&co is clearly a key factor in the success of the enterprise. They speak some French, Japanese and English at various levels, enabling them to serve customers from many countries around the world, while marketing through social media in their respective mother tongues. The company sponsors international bento contests and has proven an attractive employer for Kyoto locals, who wanted to use their French ability while remaining in Japan.

© Japan Today