Bellbe

Bellbe (株式会社ベルベ) was a Japanese bakery and patisserie chain headquartered in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture. Founded in March 1973 by Tamio Ishikawa, who had eight years of experience in the baking industry, it began as a sole proprietorship and was incorporated in April 1976 as 'Tezukuri Pan Yogashi no Bellbe' (Handmade Bread and Western Confectionery Bellbe). The company operated on the mottoes of 'commitment to ingredients, quality, and taste,' 'no compromise on handmade methods,' and 'one store, one workshop,' offering reasonably priced products that earned high praise from local residents. From 2010 onward, Bellbe pursued an aggressive expansion strategy, opening stores in street locations, shopping centers, station buildings, the Ashigara Service Area (downbound), the Otemachi Building, and the Kasumigaseki Building. It actively practiced scrap-and-build, closing stores that fell below monthly sales targets. By June 2020, the company recorded sales of 2,560,970,000 yen. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced store closures and reduced operating hours, causing sales to decline. Fixed costs such as labor and rent weighed heavily, and salary delays occurred. From around spring 2021, unpaid rents became common, and some financial institutions began debt collection. Doubts also emerged about past financial statements. In late October 2021, delays in loan repayments and payments to multiple suppliers were revealed. On October 31, 2021, President Ishikawa, who had been in contact until the previous day, disappeared, and neither his family nor Bellbe personnel could reach him. A note saying 'I'm tired' was later found, along with his driver's license and mobile phone. Unable to repay creditors, Bellbe closed all stores on November 8, 2021, and ceased operations, entrusting post-processing to lawyers. The next day, store managers were gathered at the Yamato headquarters and informed of the bankruptcy. Because only former President Ishikawa understood the accounting, and financial details were difficult to grasp, the company abandoned filing for civil rehabilitation. A new representative, a senior employee, was appointed to file for bankruptcy. On February 4, 2022, bankruptcy documents were mailed to the Yokohama District Court, which accepted the filing by February 8. On March 8, 2022, the court issued a bankruptcy commencement decision. Total liabilities were approximately 5.9 billion yen, the largest bankruptcy ever for a bakery chain. The bankruptcy petition listed about 30 lenders, including financial institutions, companies, and individuals, and 98 bank accounts. Even before the business ceased, credit research firms Teikoku Databank and Tokyo Shoko Research suspected Bellbe had been window-dressing its accounts for years. Former President Ishikawa, together with accounting office employees, had falsified ledgers and financial statements. He also lacked detailed business and profit plans. When working capital ran dry, Bellbe requested loans for new stores from multiple financial institutions and diverted the funds to working capital. The scheme involved submitting different falsified financial statements to different financial institutions, pretending each bank was the main bank, and engaging in multiple leases. One financial institution commented, 'It seems they submitted multiple financial statements to different parties. We did not recognize them as a problematic borrower and could not see through it.' When bank loans became difficult, Bellbe borrowed funds in May 2021 under the guise of capital investment from a friend of former President Ishikawa, but that also became difficult to repay. Due to the window-dressing, Bellbe's cash flow reached a dead end. On October 28, 2021, former President Ishikawa visited a law firm in Tokyo to consult about filing for civil rehabilitation and confessed to fraudulent accounting. The lawyer requested genuine financial statements and store-level profit-and-loss data.

Bellbe was founded in March 1973 by Tamio Ishikawa, who had eight years of experience in the baking industry, as a sole proprietorship in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture. In April 1976, it was incorporated as 'Tezukuri Pan Yogashi no Bellbe' (Handmade Bread and Western Confectionery Bellbe). The company operated on the mottoes of 'commitment to ingredients, quality, and taste,' 'no compromise on handmade methods,' and 'one store, one workshop,' offering reasonably priced products that earned high praise from local residents. From 2010 onward, Bellbe pursued an aggressive expansion strategy, opening stores in street locations, shopping centers, station buildings, the Ashigara Service Area (downbound), the Otemachi Building, and the Kasumigaseki Building. It actively practiced scrap-and-build, closing stores that fell below monthly sales targets. By June 2020, the company recorded sales of 2,560,970,000 yen. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced store closures and reduced operating hours, causing sales to decline. Fixed costs such as labor and rent weighed heavily, and salary delays occurred. From around spring 2021, unpaid rents became common, and some financial institutions began debt collection. Doubts also emerged about past financial statements. In late October 2021, delays in loan repayments and payments to multiple suppliers were revealed. On October 31, 2021, President Ishikawa disappeared. A note saying 'I'm tired' was later found, along with his driver's license and mobile phone. Unable to repay creditors, Bellbe closed all stores on November 8, 2021, and ceased operations, entrusting post-processing to lawyers. The next day, store managers were gathered at the Yamato headquarters and informed of the bankruptcy. Because only former President Ishikawa understood the accounting, and financial details were difficult to grasp, the company abandoned filing for civil rehabilitation. A new representative, a senior employee, was appointed to file for bankruptcy. On February 4, 2022, bankruptcy documents were mailed to the Yokohama District Court, which accepted the filing by February 8. On March 8, 2022, the court issued a bankruptcy commencement decision. Total liabilities were approximately 5.9 billion yen, the largest bankruptcy ever for a bakery chain. The bankruptcy petition listed about 30 lenders, including financial institutions, companies, and individuals, and 98 bank accounts. Even before the business ceased, credit research firms Teikoku Databank and Tokyo Shoko Research suspected Bellbe had been window-dressing its accounts for years. Former President Ishikawa, together with accounting office employees, had falsified ledgers and financial statements. He also lacked detailed business and profit plans. When working capital ran dry, Bellbe requested loans for new stores from multiple financial institutions and diverted the funds to working capital. The scheme involved submitting different falsified financial statements to different financial institutions, pretending each bank was the main bank, and engaging in multiple leases. One financial institution commented, 'It seems they submitted multiple financial statements to different parties. We did not recognize them as a problematic borrower and could not see through it.' When bank loans became difficult, Bellbe borrowed funds in May 2021 under the guise of capital investment from a friend of former President Ishikawa, but that also became difficult to repay. Due to the window-dressing, Bellbe's cash flow reached a dead end. On October 28, 2021, former President Ishikawa visited a law firm in Tokyo to consult about filing for civil rehabilitation and confessed to fraudulent accounting. The lawyer requested genuine financial statements and store-level profit-and-loss data. A follow-up meeting was scheduled for November 1, but Ishikawa disappeared, and the lawyer and senior employees discussed future policy. According to Teikoku Databank, immediately after the business ceased, financial institutions inquired with the lawyers about the loans. About two years after the bankruptcy, on December 5, 2023, former President Ishikawa was found hiding at an acquaintance's house in Seya Ward, Yokohama, and was arrested by the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Investigation Division 2 and Yamato Police on suspicion of fraud for swindling a real estate company out of a check worth 30 million yen. On January 10, 2024, Ishikawa was re-arrested for submitting falsified financial statements with inflated sales to financial institutions and fraudulently obtaining approximately 50 million yen in loans. Bellbe's business was taken over by 'Az,' established in December 2021. Az's president, Ryo Kojima, is a relative (son-in-law) of the missing former President Ishikawa, leading to speculation of a 'planned bankruptcy.' Kojima denied this, stating he had only worked as a store manager and was not involved in head office management, that the head office management was carried out solely by the autocratic Ishikawa, that other executives did not even know the business condition, and that he himself learned of the business suspension and all-store closure only two days prior.

• Founded as a sole proprietorship in Yamato, Kanagawa by Tamio Ishikawa.

• Incorporated as 'Tezukuri Pan Yogashi no Bellbe'.

• Began aggressive expansion, opening stores in various locations.

• Recorded sales of 2,560,970,000 yen.

• President Tamio Ishikawa disappears.

• All stores closed and business suspended.

• Bankruptcy filing mailed to Yokohama District Court.

• Bankruptcy proceedings commence; liabilities approximately 5.9 billion yen.

• Former President Ishikawa arrested for fraud.

• Former President Ishikawa re-arrested for fraudulent loans.

Affordable, handmade bakery and patisserie chain emphasizing ingredients, quality, and taste.

• Handmade bread

• Western confectionery (cakes, pastries)

• Accounting fraud (window dressing)

• President's disappearance

• Arrest of former president

Read more

1. 1ベルベ (製パン) - Wikipediaja.wikipedia.org
2. 2Belbe - Wikidatawikidata.org