A Japanese retailer builds managers before stores: Saeki plans 100 outlets in Vietnam
Saeki Selva Holdings, which runs 56 stores in Japan, plans its first Vietnamese store in Ho Chi Minh City within three years and a 100-store network, training Vietnamese staff in Japan for at least three years first.
What happened
VietnamPlus reported on 20 September 2026 that Saeki Selva Holdings, a Japanese retailer operating 56 stores mostly around Tokyo, intends to open its first Vietnamese store in Ho Chi Minh City within three years and then build towards a network of 100 stores.
The company is starting with people rather than property. As of last month it employed 138 foreign workers under trainee schemes. Vietnamese staff will work in Saeki stores in Japan for a minimum of three years, then return to be trained in store management and product development. Kenshi Yamamoto, who oversees workforce development, said a fully capable store manager normally takes about ten years to train. JETRO commented that a joint venture with a Vietnamese company may be an important factor.
No investment figure was disclosed, and the report does not state whether Saeki will operate directly, enter a joint venture or franchise.
Why the sequence is unusual
Across Asia the standard entry playbook is site first: sign a lease, open a flagship, then recruit and train at speed. It produces early headlines and, often, an inconsistent fifth store.
Saeki is running the playbook backwards, and the admission about ten years is the most useful sentence in the story. Food retail lives on fresh produce, shrinkage control and daily ordering decisions. Those are judgement skills, learned on shift, and they cannot be compressed into a two-week induction. A company that says so out loud is making a realistic plan rather than a promotional one.
There is a franchising implication even if Saeki never franchises. Any master franchisee in Asia faces the same bottleneck. Brands routinely audit a candidate capital and property pipeline; far fewer audit the candidate ability to produce store managers at the pace the development schedule assumes. That gap is where development agreements quietly fail.
Figures to keep
- Current scale: 56 stores in Japan, mostly around Tokyo
- Plan: first Ho Chi Minh City store within three years; target 100 stores
- Workforce: 138 foreign trainee workers as of last month; minimum three years in Japan
- Stated training reality: about ten years to develop a full store manager
Compiled from public sources for information only, not investment advice.