‘The sushi market is ripe to be disrupted’: Australian-style sushi start-up aims to shake up Itsu and Wasabi

Rolled, a new Australian-style sushi brand, is set to launch in Manchester next month with ambitions to disrupt the lunchtime sushi market.

It will open as a kiosk in Manchester’s Trafford Centre in mid-August, serving a selection of Australian ‘handrolls’.

The company was founded by Melbourne-raised Adam Miller, who has worked in hospitality technology in Australia and the UK for the past eight years with payments brands such as Mr Yum.

He first moved to the UK in 2021 in a sales capacity for Mr Yum and in February decided to set up his own business out of his craving for “distinctly Australian” sushi.

The chopsticks-free sushi offering aims to challenge the sushi boxes that are served at the likes of Wasabi and Itsu, which cater to a business clientele.

Rolled takes its inspiration from the Australian-style ‘handrolls’ that were believed to have started at Sushi Sushi, a Victoria-based company founded in 1998. These differ to traditional Japanese maki, as they are served as one long block of sushi that can fit in the palm of your hand, instead of being cut up into smaller, bite-sized pieces.

Miller confessed he did not know what traditional Australian sushi was until he visited Japan aged 16.

“It’s a crazy phenomenon where Aussies don’t know it’s Australian because [to them] it’s Japanese. Nine out of 10 [people] don’t actually know it was invented here, so that’s why it hasn’t really been exported,” he told The Caterer.

Miller has set his eyes on becoming one of the first Australian sushi brands in the UK to be scaled up across transport hubs, shopping centres and high streets amid a British fondness for other Australian hospitality brands such as Granger & Co and the Daisy Green Collection.

“The more I looked into this specific business, the more I realised the gross profit is high, the labour model can be quite tight, and the opportunity for scale is huge in my eyes, and I wholeheartedly think if I get the model right, this can be the most-loved sushi brand in the UK,” he said.

He expects people to purchase between two to four rolls at a time, which will be priced at roughly £3.40 each.

Miller added: “The sushi market is ripe to be disrupted because no one is doing anything different besides Sushidog, but they are very different to what we’re doing. They are one burrito-sized sushi roll and it’s kind of like a Chipotle or a Subway model, whereas ours is freshly made that day and displayed like at Krispy Kreme.”

He has also been working with several hospitality experts, who he is not prepared to disclose, but who, he affirms, “know how to scale businesses”.

“Our goal will be to introduce the UK market to this concept with the hopes that we can validate the model, raise some capital and expand. I don’t want to put a limit on that. It doesn’t exist anywhere so there’s a lot of green fields,” he added.

Considering Rolled has not yet opened its first site, Miller said he knows not to get ahead of himself, but revealed that he hopes to build a “franchise-ready model” if that becomes an option in future.

He stressed he is especially keen to start Rolled in Manchester, despite “strong intentions” to expand the business to London when the time comes.

“There’s always good validation when you get Caravan, Flat Iron and Blank Street brands coming up to Manchester, but there’s also a lot of really cool independent brands opening. All the cool stuff is happening here and I want to be a part of that,” he said.