In March, Snow Peak launched Snow Peak Local Foods in collaboration with GreatCompany, a restaurant operator in Snow Peak’s home prefecture of Niigata. The new venture will invest heavily in food development, manufacturing and sales and is part of Snow Peak’s wider plan to develop its brand in five core areas: outdoor, clothing, food, housing and work.
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The new subsidiary will manage Snow Peak branded restaurants and cafes under the banners, Snow Peak Eat, Restaurant Snow Peak and Snow Peak Cafe.It will also include its resort and travel experiences and marketplace, Marche. The venture’s aim is to connect visitors to countryside locations,local producers and the “harvest experience”, a package of travel and visiting farms at harvest time. Snow Peak also plans to develop food ranges from local regions, including Niigata, to sell under its brand and in stores. The first of these food ranges is Yukimuro bread, which uses wheat flour aged in a snow room (a type of natural fridge) and Koshihikari rice flour from Niigata prefecture.
In addition, Snow Peak has been collaborating with various brands. In December, the company signed a joint venture with Timco, manufacturer and seller of fishing equipment and outdoor wear. Snow Peak also collaborated with Ivic, a fishing gear and fish-related sauce and soup manufacturer, which also organizes fishing trips via its 10 stores in Hokkaido. As with its food venture, Snow Peak plans to increase its range of fishing products and fishing and camping experiences. It will also open large-scale urban experience centres equipped with restaurants, spas and glamping.The first of these is planned to open this year in a location an hour from Sapporo.
Food products were launched at the Snow Peak resort, Snow Peak Field Suite Spa, which opened at its headquarters in Sanjo, Niigata last month. The resort is centred on hot springs with views of Awagatake Mountain and covers 2,000 square metres. Last year, Snow Peak expanded its camping site from 165,000 square metre to 500,000 square metre intended to be integrated with the hot spring.
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Snow Peak plans to bring this community and activity theme to more of its stores going forward – in January it opened a pop up store in Setagaya called Life Biotope, introducing its experiences and tie-ups with local governments to promote an outdoor life and better environmental protection.
(Source : Japan Consuming)