How the CEO of this Charlotte sushi company keeps growth rolling

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Look for Hissho Sushi to continue to grow, even a year after the founders of the franchise sushi bar company sold most of their stake in the Charlotte-based company.

[ALSO READ: Sushi restaurant nears opening in uptown Charlotte]

Dan Beem, chief executive of Hissho Sushi, expects to open 300 franchise locations during 2019 after opening 300 in 2018, his first full year at the company. Now at 1,250 locations around the country, Hissho has targeted military installations as a place where the company wants franchise locations.

Beem joined the company in October 2017 from Winston-Salem, where he was president of U.S. operations for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. Hissho’s new majority owner, investment firm American Investment Holdings, bought the company from Philip Maung, who, along with his wife, founded Hissho in 1998.

“He (Maung) passed me the keys to a very healthy and growing company,” Beem says.

Most of Hissho’s sushi bars are in grocery stores, on corporate campuses, at universities and in government installations, and the vast majority are franchises.

Beem spoke to the Charlotte Business Journal last month during an hour-long interview and tour of the company's Steele Creek-area headquarters. Read more here about what's in store.

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