140% Year-over-Year Growth. A Pioneer in Promoting Thai Cuisine Scales Its EC Business and Transforms into a Self-Sufficient Organization — Allied Corporation

Allied Corporation, with more than 45 years of history, operates under the mission of "creating new value as the bridge between the world's food and Japan's food" and imports and sells a wide range of food products, primarily from Thailand and Vietnam. enableX has been providing comprehensive support for EC marketplace sales growth since 2023. In this interview, we spoke with Ms. Rie Ito of the Sales Promotion Department about the challenges the company faced in its EC business and her assessment of enableX's support.

Please tell us about the company's history and business.
Allied Corporation sells a broad lineup of Thai and ethnic food ingredients — from seasonings imported directly from Thailand to ready-to-use blended seasonings for easy cooking. We have been importing Thai food since 1987, when Thai cuisine was far from mainstream in Japan, and in 2000 we launched our own brand under the concept of bringing "Thailand's Kitchen" to dining tables in Japan and around the world, focusing on growing the ethnic food market in Japan. We operate as a lean organization of approximately 30 employees with sales of 2.9 billion yen (fiscal year ending March 2022). Our main customers are wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants — B2B transactions account for the core of our business. We also operate B2C sales as part of our EC business.

What were the challenges you faced before engaging enableX?
Though we had a clear direction to grow our EC business, we were short on personnel, time, and knowledge. Our company originated in B2B transactions with wholesalers and retailers, so end-consumer sales had been a small-scale operation on Rakuten. During the pandemic, however, the EC market expanded sharply and Rakuten orders grew accordingly. That led to a decision to invest seriously in EC, and I joined as the dedicated EC manager. Even so, it was extremely difficult for one person to handle everything alone. Page updates, SEO measures, ad operations, customer service — we were short on time and knowledge across every area. We were essentially starting from scratch, so when we first began to make improvements, sales grew significantly. But once I had implemented all the measures within my own range of knowledge, the question of "how do we grow sales from here?" emerged as the next challenge.

What was the deciding factor in choosing enableX?
There were two main factors. First, enableX truly provides comprehensive, end-to-end support. We considered spot engagements with other firms — page creation only, or SEO only — but we concluded that judging multiple elements together was essential. Second, the prospect that we could grow alongside the engagement. At our first meeting, what struck me was the statement, "Let's aim for you to be able to do this in-house within one year." With a pure outsourcing arrangement, even if EC sales grow, Allied Corporation's own capabilities do not improve, and the business becomes permanently dependent on outside support. With enableX, by contrast, knowledge is shared as we move forward together, so know-how accumulates inside the company and becomes an asset. We could receive support while also learning and developing our own skills. That was the key difference from other firms, and the reason we decided to work with enableX.

What outcomes have you seen since enableX's support started?
It has only been three months, but we have been able to address areas we had not previously gotten to — such as thumbnail testing and competitive research — and sales have continued to grow at roughly 140% year-over-year. Now that the foundational work has been put in place, however, growing sales further will require deeper specialist expertise. We see this next phase as a higher-difficulty challenge, and we hope to continue receiving enableX's support.

Beyond the quantitative results, what other aspects have been satisfying?
Having enableX as a sounding board and sparring partner has been an enormous help. Previously, I could only review the results of my own initiatives on my own, which often turned into a kind of self-dialogue. Since enableX's engagement began, we have been able to analyze and review the results of each initiative together — how to evaluate them, what could have been done better — and to extract learnings for the next round. Having a partner who answers your questions and concerns is genuinely reassuring.

What are your expectations of enableX going forward?
Until now, we have been able to grow sales through the "zero-to-one" approach of doing things we had not yet done. The next phase — growing sales further from here — will be considerably more challenging. We hope to take on those higher-difficulty challenges together with enableX's support, and we look forward to continuing our work together.