KUALA LUMPUR: Mr Hiroshi Saito, the founder of Japanese confectionery giant Chateraise, has died on Aug 10. The company made the announcement on Tuesday via a statement on X (formerly Twitter), adding that only close relatives will be attending the wake and funeral.
The cause of death was not revealed.
"Although his passing is a great loss to us, the company will continue to uphold the founder's guiding principle of 'threefold management', and will continue to uphold that spirit in order to meet the expectations of our customers", the statement reads.
As reported by The Straits Times, Mr Saito's business philosophy is to run the company in a way that brings joy to customers, business partners and employees
Mr Saito's father was a grape farmer. Hence the name Chateraise, a portmanteau of "chateau" and "raisin", French for "castle" and "grape".
There are more than 700 Chateraise outlets in Japan and more than 170 in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the UAE, Thailand, Vietnam and China.
Mr Saito's daughter, Takako Saito, now runs Chateraise Holdings.