About Us
Our vision
We aspire to be a space that symbolizes the city.
For some, it offers the comfort of a community.
For others, the excitement of a desired destination.
And for others, the special feeling of the coffee spirit.
We believe our role is to increase the total amount of happiness in society.
To become Japan's leading coffee mega-venture company
We aim to be a company that can make a significant contribution to society, and we approach our daily work with a spirit of challenge.
Story
Hello, I am Hiroki Yoshiike, the representative director of After THREE Co., Ltd. (the company that operates KIELO COFFEE).
The founding of KIELO was greatly influenced by my experience visiting Finland in Northern Europe while I was in university.
At the time, as a university student, I made the most of my abundant free time and proactively challenged myself with various interesting "to-dos."
I cycled from Tokyo to Osaka.
I backpacked through Southeast Asia and Western Europe.
I fell in love with coffee while working part-time at Starbucks.
And in Finland, which I chose as the culmination of my university life, I witnessed what it means "to be" happy.
On my first day in Finland, I discovered that I wouldn't be able to see the aurora, despite the intense "to-do" of aurora viewing being my primary purpose for visiting.
From there, through various encounters in Finland, I experienced a lifestyle of high happiness.
The high level of interior design unique to Nordic countries, where people spend a lot of time indoors.
The cuteness of interior lighting due to the short daylight hours.
A way of life that positively embraces work-life balance.
A spirit that cherishes time with loved ones and values connection.
And coffee breaks, so ingrained that they are inseparable from daily life.
I felt that the culture responsible for this "to-be" happiness was precisely what Japan lacked, and that my mission was to spread coffee shops that embody such a culture. After returning to Japan, I spent two years opening the first KIELO store.
Our story began in the spring of 2019, with our first store in Akihabara, Tokyo.
New to the coffee industry, we received training and bean wholesale from a famous Tokyo coffee roaster and started our business by trial and error.
We chose Akihabara, Tokyo, for our first store.
It was the perfect location for our first base, a place with many Tokyo businessmen, various cultures taking root, and local people from the downtown area living there.
In the beginning, there were days when we only had about 10 customers a day,
and we even experienced the loneliness of having no guests for 4 hours straight.
However, thanks to our efforts, the store gradually grew and took shape, and then the global pandemic hit.
Thanks to the support of our local customers, regulars, friends, and acquaintances at that time, we are still able to operate successfully today. (We are truly grateful for your support.)
In the spring of 2021, we opened a roastery store (KIELO Store No. 2) in Hongo and prepared to get the company on track.
Then, in the summer of 2024, we opened a separate brand, X coffee, in Ginza, and in the summer of 2025, we will open KIELO Store No. 3 in Asakusa.
Our coffee business values both breadth and depth.
As a Japanese brand of Nordic culture, the KIELO brand will carefully select locations and content, and plan to increase the number of stores to connect with more people.
We mainly plan to expand within Japan, aiming to develop in more open locations as a brand that is loved by diverse customers.
At X Coffee, we are committed to delving deep into coffee culture. We approach our work with a spirit of inquiry, constantly seeking new ways to define the coffee business. We also consider expanding internationally, and as such, we will not limit ourselves to operating solely as our own company. Instead, we aim to be an unconventional brand that astonishes the world.
We want to improve the coffee business.
However, small companies and individuals cannot change anything by simply having an idea.
That is why we spare no effort to expand our company and increase our value.
There have been, and surely will continue to be, moments where we felt that our actions contradicted our ideals and what was right.
That is why we will always remain humble, continue to learn, and push forward towards our goals, savoring each day.
Our progress will not stop.
After THREE Co., Ltd.
Hiroki Yoshiike, Representative Director