SINGAPORE – Founder of Japanese Chateraise cake chain Hiroshi Saito, the oldest son of a grape farmer, has died on Aug 10 at age 90. The company announced his death on Aug 13 in a statement on social media platform X. It added that the wake and funeral would be for close relatives only.

The company’s statement also said: “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.”

Mr Saito’s business philosophy was to manage the company in a way that brings joy to customers, business partners and employees.

Chateraise started in 1967, selling cream puffs for 10 yen. The name comes from Mr Saito’s roots: a portmanteau of “chateau” and “raisin” – French for “castle” and “grape”.

Over the years, he built an empire of more than 700 stores in Japan and more than 170 stores in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Its first overseas store was in Singapore. Mr Saito had wanted to open outside of Japan, and with his core team, visited 10 countries to figure out where best to open. They settled on Singapore, opening the first store in 2015 in Jurong. There are more than 35 stores here now.

Ms Takako Saito, his daughter, now runs Chateraise Holdings, which oversees the group’s confectionery chains, wineries, ski resorts, golf and country clubs and hotels.