From honey prawns to 110 staff: Inside Zushi’s next phase of growth

Running a hospitality business in 2026 means juggling far more than what’s happening on the restaurant floor.

For Serena Ang, co-owner and general manager of Sydney’s Zushi Restaurant Group, that increasingly includes managing suppliers, purchasing and operations across multiple venues.

As the family-run business has grown, Ang says leveraging technology, including Amazon Business, has helped simplify some of the operational complexity behind the scenes, giving her both time and cost savings.

The behind-the-scenes pressure of growth

This year marks 20 years since Zushi first opened its doors in Darlinghurst in 2005. What started as a single restaurant has grown into a multi-venue hospitality group with more than 110 staff and an expanding range of offerings across Sydney.

“We’ve got one venue in Surry Hills and one in Barangaroo,” Ang tells SmartCompany. “But we also have different arms of the business like catering, mobile Zushi, and we’ve started a Zushi school for kids.”

Known for its modern Japanese cuisine, Zushi has built a loyal following around fresh sushi, sashimi and dishes like its honey prawns, which Ang says happen to have a special place in her own story.

“I love the honey prawns,” she says. “That’s actually how I got my husband to marry me. We met at Surry Hills while he ordered takeaway and I gave him a free box of honey prawns.”

The honey prawns clearly worked.

Ang, who runs Zushi alongside her brothers Ray and Jason, says the expansion comes with operational pressures many Australian business owners would recognise.

“I think there’s probably three things that I’ve always found really challenging,” Ang says.

“The first is simply the reality of trying to stay across every moving part of a growing business operating across multiple locations.

“It’s difficult trying to be across two venues and all the different avenues of the business at the same time,” she says.

Staffing is a major focus, particularly in hospitality where the pace rarely slows down. “We need to look after 110 incredible staff and be there for them every step of the way,” Ang says.

On top of that, there’s the operational side of the business: managing suppliers and purchasing across multiple venues, all while trying to keep everything running efficiently.

A balancing act businesses know too well

That balancing act will sound familiar to plenty of Australian SMEs right now. According to Amazon Business, 92% of Australian SMBs have experienced rising operating costs, putting more pressure on businesses to save time, simplify processes and reduce unnecessary admin.

One year since Amazon Business launched in Australia, business owners like Ang are seeing how the platform can help alleviate some of those pressures every day.

Amazon Business is helping organisations of all sizes make purchasing simpler, with features like business-only pricing, quantity discounts, multi-user accounts and spend visibility tools.

For Zushi, one of the biggest operational shifts has been moving more of its purchasing and procurement online, with Amazon Business providing what Ang calls a “one-stop shop” solution.

“We started using Amazon Business because it showed us we could streamline everything into one centralised place,” Ang says.

One of the biggest operational challenges for Zushi was managing the sheer number of suppliers involved in running the business day to day.

“Trying to negotiate contracts and meet with them and understand all their product catalogues was quite tough,” she says.

Consolidating more of that purchasing process into one place has helped reduce some of the admin burden.

“Being able to see everything in the one place instead of going face-to-face to 10 or 15 different shops at the same time has made a big difference.”

Everything but the kitchen sink (including a rice pH reader)

The Zushi team now uses Amazon Business across both front-of-house and back-of-house operations, purchasing everything from kitchen equipment and restaurant supplies to office essentials, including some surprisingly niche items.

One recent example involved sourcing a pH rice acidification reader, something Ang says would previously have required visiting specialist hospitality suppliers individually.

“We could only source one product from that particular store,” she says. “When we went onto Amazon Business, we saw there were 10 comparable products and prices available straight away, which we normally would not have seen face-to-face.”

For Ang, the convenience factor goes beyond speed alone. As Zushi has grown, visibility across purchasing, price comparisons and simply reducing the mental load of running a busy hospitality business have all become increasingly important.

“I think the diversity of the range is really important,” she says. “Usually it would be challenging for us to go to that many stores face-to-face and touch and feel and see all those products. Now it’s all in one cart and you can check out in five minutes.”

That simplicity matters when you’re managing staff, venues and customers across multiple locations, particularly in hospitality where operators are constantly balancing service, staffing and suppliers at the same time.

“I think online shopping has definitely made it easier because every business owner is time poor,” Ang says.

The business also uses Amazon Business to help improve visibility across purchasing activity within its management team.

“To be able to view and track what my managers have been purchasing, compare prices and see all the products in one place has been really efficient,” she says.

“It’s the simplicity of the one-stop shop. You know exactly when it’s going to be delivered.”

Building the next phase of the business

As Zushi moves into its next phase, Ang says the focus isn’t necessarily on opening endless new venues, but on expanding the parts of the business customers already connect with most.

That includes catering, mobile Zushi experiences and Zushi School, where children aged between five and 10 learn how to roll sushi.

“We’re really excited about exploring those different avenues of the business,” she says.

For Ang, that next stage of growth also means continuing to embrace technology that helps simplify operations behind the scenes.

“I think that’s the way the economy is shifting at the moment,” she says. “Everything’s going online and becoming more advanced and you need to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of technology.”

One year since Amazon Business arrived in Australia, that operational convenience is becoming increasingly valuable for businesses looking to save time, simplify purchasing and focus more energy on growth.

Originally published on SmartCompany