🔒Edo Sushi thrives on family values

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For husband and wife Cynthia and Thihan Tun, running their family sushi business is much more than just supporting their immediate family.

When the duo started their very first sushi business, Tun Asian Foods, 15 years ago, the success or failure of the business would not only impact their lives, but the lives of Thihan's family in southeast Asia.

“The efforts we were making for the business were to support Thihan's family in Myanmar,” Cynthia said. “For the past 15 years, we have supported his extended family in Myanmar due to the difficult economic situation in that country.”

Within five years of opening Tun Asian Foods and with the business growing, the duo turned their attention to the college and university sector and unveiled Edo Sushi Express, a small sushi delivery company based in Oakville. Their first customers were Yale University and UConn.

Cynthia — still a high school social studies teacher in New York at that time — worked nights and weekends supporting the business while Thihan shouldered much of the load in those early days. Eventually, Cynthia retired from teaching to focus her full-time efforts on helping grow the business.

And grown it has.

Today, Edo Sushi Express is a multi-service, business-to-business wholesale sushi company, specializing in sushi delivery and on-site sushi chef services. The company's kitchen is audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and third-party sushi chefs. Onsite sushi chefs make sushi for customers in universities, grocery stores and offices. The company makes nearly 50 different types of sushi.

With 25 locations and expected revenues of $2 million this year, Edo Sushi's customers feature some of the largest food service contract management companies in the country including Compass Group, Sodexo and Aramark, as well as several area colleges and universities such as UConn, Quinnipiac, Wesleyan and Southern Connecticut State University.

In addition to recently signing a five-year contract with UConn to provide sushi to the Storrs campus, the company also achieved Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certified woman-owned business status last December, making it the only company of its type that is woman-owned in the U.S.

Cynthia said scaling the business up from a mom-and-pop organization to a thriving business with a corporate office and presence across the country is a huge accomplishment and all part of her and Thihan's beliefs and values, which include non-negotiable food and product safety; uncompromising quality; passionate customer service; fearless innovation; plus rapid and continuous improvement.

“This effort is being made to expand our values and core beliefs into the sushi marketplace,” Cynthia said. “We demonstrate integrity in the marketplace and with our team. We tell the truth. We respect the individual. We promote teamwork. We listen.”

Edo Sushi's staff is made up of all types of people who share a passion for not only helping themselves but also working together toward a common goal.

Cynthia and Thihan make it a priority to make sure their team members have a sustainable living, health care and a safe and welcoming work environment.

“Employees should be able to commit to learning about our industry; expand the vision of their personal possibilities; work with other members of the team productively; ask questions; and maintain a sense of humor under stress,” Cynthia said.

Having worked for both large and small companies in her career, Shari Lee, Edo Sushi's operations assistant for the past six years, said working in a family-owned business allows her to know everyone she works with.

“No one is left out of meetings, lunches or parties,” Lee said. “Everyone works as a team, no matter what your title. A larger company would separate you into groups or departments and everyone did their own thing and no one worked as a team except within their own department.”

Cynthia said she and Thihan feel good that they can make a difference in their customers and employees lives.

“Being a small family business means that we have the ability to respond to the needs of each person we work with,” Cynthia said. “It means we have the ability to use our values and core beliefs to better the lives of other people.”

Q&A

What are the family values of your business? 

The family values in our business include integrity, honesty, respect, caring, sharing, education and promotion. Our background has made it necessary to work hard to care for our family. We understand that other people need to care for their families, too. We pay a higher wage so that people have a better life.

How do you remain competitive in the market?

We remain competitive by providing excellent service and a high-quality, fresh product while we ensure that our food is safe. We have been audited by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, and we have annual third-party audits on our commercial kitchen.

What are your most significant accomplishments in the past 12 months?

Our most significant accomplishments this year are being entrusted with a loan from the Department of Economic & Community Development; obtaining WBENC certification; and expanding our business to include locations in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.