Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo
Featured Member - Rie Kihara

Interview - August 2005


Rie Kihara - President of RIE COFFEE
Rie Coffee Profile:
· Only the finest selected coffee beans, roasted with painstaking care, go into the unique RIE COFFEE brand of fresh gourmet coffees.
・ We provide coffee for company use, as well as gift baskets. Gift baskets can be customized.
・ We offer coffee delivery services for parties, coffee breaks at seminars, and other events.
・ We provide sales promotion tools such as coffee for shop samples, posters, fliers, and sample chocolates.
・ Official Importer of Ghirardelli
・ We not only handle coffee, but also tea, cocoa, chocolate, mugs, and other coffee-related products.
・ Importing everything we sell from overseas, we offer products that are hard to find in Japan. We present the latest overseas products as soon as they are introduced.
・ We provide coffee in quantities that meet customers’ needs, from 500g up to as many kilograms as requested.

Distinguishing Features of RIE COFFEE Products
・ Easy to drink, with a pleasant aroma and a light aftertaste. Delicious even after cooling.
・ A gourmet coffee sold so soon after roasting that it still seems moist.
・ Use of aromatic flavors developed to appeal to Japanese tastes through repeated trials.
・ Decaffeinated coffees are produced by the water pressure caffeine-removal method using Swiss Water, not by chemical methods.
・ Very popular summertime products developed by RIE COFFEE include Cafe´ Foue´tte and Mango Smoothie.

Interview with Kihara:
1. When did you start your first business? What was it? What lessons did you take away from that experience?
Started in 1996, the same company as now - selling gourmet coffees. I have learned to "never give up".

2. What are some of the challenges you have faced in starting your business and how did you overcome them?
Forming my businesses was the biggest challenge. I started my Yugen Kaisha company with one of my friends, but I formed my current Kabushiki Kaisha by myself. This was a big challenge for me, because I didn't have anybody to talk to regarding my company. I have since got a lot of advice from my father.

3. How did you form your business? (Yugen Kaisha, Kabushiki   Kaisha, etc.) How long did the start-up process take?
Kabushiki Kaisha. It took one month from beginning to end.

4. Where do you see your business in 5 years?
We will have:
- 2 or 3 Rie Cafes in Shinjuku area.
- 5 divisions: (1) Sales (2) Productions (3) Ghirardelli (4) Individual (5) General , Shipment
- 20 staff
- Sales of 700,000,000yen

5. Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Why?
No, not yet. I know many many of entrepreneurs and they are so great and much better than me.

6. What is your definition of an entrepreneur?
- Someone who can deliver.
- Someone who watches what lies ahead.
- Someone who can be a leader.
- Someone who can take the full responsibility

7. What piece of advice would you give to a person wanting to start his or her own business in Japan?
To make a plan what you want to do.
- To ask yourself again and again if you can make the commitment to continue your company no matter what happens and being ready for anything, even bad things.
- To find a good adviser.

8. Can you recommend any resources such as books, websites, or support centers for entrepreneurs in Japan?
- My management school, Soushin Jyuku (http://www.soushinjyuku.com/)

9. Who are your mentors in business?
- My father.
- Teacher at my management school, Mr. Inamori

10. What makes you happy?
- Travelling in the U.S.
- Spending time with my best friends.
- Seeing my staff happy at work.
- Seeing my clients happy with RIE COFFEE.