Daimaru Umeda adds five new sweets brands as it renews its basement food floor for December
Daimaru Umeda will open five new confectionery brands — two of them nationwide debuts — on its basement food floor on December 1, the latest phase of a renewal J. Front Retailing's Daimaru Matsuzakaya has been running in stages since spring, betting fresh souvenir-oriented sweets can keep pulling shoppers through one of Kansai's busiest depachika.
Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores said Daimaru Umeda will open five new sweets brands — plus reopen three existing ones with renovated shops — on the basement food floor's Japanese and Western confectionery section on December 1, according to a release dated September 29. The opening is one stage of a renewal of the floor the company said it has been carrying out gradually since spring 2026.
The five new brands are New Taiyo no To Parlor and Dojima Roll Canvas, both described as nationwide debuts; La Maison du R OSAKA, which the company said is opening its first permanent Kansai location; and Papabubble and Hyde & Away, both new to Umeda — Papabubble bringing live candy-making performances and Hyde & Away specialising in square-shaped fruit tarts, according to the release. Morozoff, marking its 95th year, and confectioner Osaka Aising are among the shops being renovated the same day, the company said.
Ahead of the main renewal, the company said it will reopen the Rikuro Ojisan's Shop twin store on November 24 with a renovated fresh-baked cheesecake zone. Daimaru Matsuzakaya is positioning the new lineup as a next generation of Osaka souvenir sweets, built around flavours it says shoppers won't find anywhere else.
Daimaru Umeda's basement sits a few minutes' walk from Hanshin Umeda and Hankyu Umeda, two of the country's other biggest depachika, so refreshing the food floor in phases rather than all at once lets the store keep offering something new through the run-up to the year-end gift season without shutting the floor down. Leading with two nationwide debuts and a Kansai exclusive, rather than importing brands already familiar from Tokyo, is the more defensible way to hold local shoppers' attention on a floor where the competition is a subway ride away.