Dumpling King’s Next Expansion Plan: Taichung and Taipei Not Ruled Out

▲Dumpling King. (Photo by reporter Huang Shiyuan)

Reported by Huang Shiyuan, Taipei

The Taiwan No. 2 branch of Japan’s Dumpling King officially opened on November 22, but it is also located in Kaohsiung (Hanshin Success Store). When will it expand to other cities and counties? Kumazoe Hiroshi, Managing Director and Head of Overseas Business at Dumpling King, stated that plans to open stores in Taipei and Taichung have been in the works, but he emphasized that Dumpling King will focus on maintaining the quality of its current branches before discussing further expansion.

One reason the Taiwan No. 2 branch is still in Kaohsiung is the central kitchen. Currently, Dumpling King’s first central kitchen is in Pingtung, which can only supply three to four outlets at most. In 2018, Dumpling King’s key development goals in Taiwan are expansion and setting up central kitchens, with the location of these kitchens also influencing where future branches will be. The new central kitchen is likely to be in Taichung or Taoyuan. However, Kumazoe stressed that quality will be prioritized before any expansion, a principle Dumpling King has always upheld.


▲Dumpling King No. 2 Store. (Photo provided by Dumpling King)

Currently, both the Taiwan No. 1 and No. 2 stores are located inside malls. Will there be opportunities to open street-front stores in the future? Kumazoe said that street-front stores are the best way to showcase the Dumpling King brand, but they require much more challenging conditions compared to mall locations. He added that all current store opening invitations have come from malls. However, in the future, Dumpling King may collaborate with Taiwanese companies to make opening street-front stores easier.

Since opening in April, the most popular item at Dumpling King has been dumplings, followed by ramen and fried rice. Kumazoe explained that the ramen uses pork bone and seafood broth, and after repeated testing by the company president, it has been adjusted to best suit Taiwanese tastes. The flour is also imported from Japan. He also mentioned that Japanese employees who visited the Taiwan store said the ramen there even tasted better than the ones in Japan.