VS Series
Zuma v Nobu
London's glamorous Japanese dining rooms, compared
Zuma leads on 5 of the five measures that matter most: turnover, pre-tax profit, profit margin, growth and net assets. Zuma is the biggest by turnover at £203m, against £9m at Nobu. Zuma keeps more of every £100 it takes, £14.74 as pre-tax profit.
The year ends are up to 12 months apart, so this compares each company's most recent filing rather than the same twelve months. Zuma files group accounts that include subsidiaries; Nobu files for a single company, which flatters the group on size.
Accounts compared: Zuma to Dec 2024 · Nobu to Dec 2025
Who they are
Zuma
Azumi Limited · 04163938Zuma is a restaurant brand serving contemporary Japanese food, which it describes as authentic but not traditional.In brief: restaurant brand · contemporary Japanese dining · robata grill and sushi · London and internationalFull profile →Nobu
Nobu London Limited · 03310818Nobu London runs the London restaurants of Nobu, the Japanese restaurant brand created by chef Nobu Matsuhisa and known for Japanese cooking with Peruvian ingredients.In brief: restaurant business · Japanese-Peruvian dining · Nobu brand · LondonFull profile →The Numbers
| # | Company | Turnover | Change | Pre-tax profit | Margin | Employees | Pay per head | Turnover per head | Net assets | Bank and cash | Accounts to | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ZumaAzumi Limited | £203m | -1.0% | £30m | 14.7% | 2,149 | £28,000 | £94,000 | £73m | £28m | Dec 2024 | Group |
| 2 | NobuNobu London Limited | £9m | -4.2% | £0.2m | 2.4% | 110 | n/d | £86,000 | £1.5m | £2m | Dec 2025 | Single company |
Ranked by turnover. Click any column to sort. The leader on each measure is highlighted. Movements are against each company's own prior year. Pre-tax profit is filed except where marked (est.).
Category winners
The Takeaway
- Zuma converts the most of its turnover. Of every £100, £14.74 reaches pre-tax profit, against £2.35 at Nobu.
- Zuma is the largest on the top line, £203m of turnover, 21.5x Nobu's £9m.
- Zuma is growing fastest, turnover -1.0% on its own prior year. Zuma and Nobu went backwards.
- Zuma is the biggest employer with 2,149 people; Zuma pays the most per head, an average staff cost of about £28,000.
- Zuma has the largest balance sheet, net assets of £73m.
Who keeps the most of every £100 of sales?
Zuma keeps the most: £14.74 of every £100 of turnover becomes pre-tax profit. Nobu keeps the least, £2.35.
Every profit figure here is the one the company filed.
The chart splits each company's turnover into £100: what goes on people, on interest and on everything else, and what is left as profit.
Out of every £100 of turnover
Each column is £100 of that company's own turnover, so companies of any size compare on one scale; the figures are pounds out of each £100, not millions. Companies run from the best margin to the worst. Payroll is staff costs, financing is interest paid, other running costs are everything else, and profit is pre-tax profit, filed or estimated as marked in the table. A loss is not an extra cost: it is the part of the costs that runs past the £100 line, marked with a red bracket. Hover over any segment for its figure.
Who is the biggest, and does the comparison hold?
By turnover the order is Zuma (£203m), Nobu (£9m).
By headcount, Zuma leads with 2,149 employees.
The comparison holds with the dates stated plainly: Zuma to Dec 2024, Nobu to Dec 2025. The bases differ: group accounts include the businesses a company owns, single-company accounts do not.
Turnover on the latest filing
Who is growing fastest?
Zuma grew fastest, turnover -1.0% on its own prior year, ahead of Nobu (-4.2%).
Turnover change on each company's own prior year
Who employs the most, who pays the most, and who brings in the most per head?
Zuma employs the most, 2,149 people, against 110 at Nobu.
Zuma has the highest average staff cost, about £28,000 a head.
Zuma brings in the most turnover per employee, about £94,000, against £86,000 at Nobu. It says as much about the business model as the workforce: a marketplace or a wholesaler needs far fewer people per pound than a restaurant or a gym.
Who owns each one?
Ownership as recorded on the Companies House register of people with significant control, in the bands the register uses.
What does the full ledger show?
| Measure | Zuma | Nobu |
|---|---|---|
| Registered name | AZUMI LIMITED | NOBU LONDON LIMITED |
| Company number | 04163938 | 03310818 |
| Incorporated | 2001 | 1997 |
| Accounts filed | 8 September 2025 | 31 May 2026 |
| Turnover, prior year | £205m | £10m |
| Pre-tax profit, prior year | £41m | £0.6m |
| Staff costs | £61m | n/d |
| Payroll share of turnover | 29.9% | n/d |
| Employees, prior year | 2,118 | 117 |
| Dividends paid | £40m | n/d |
| Charges outstanding | 6 | 0 |
A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d; a zero in a filing is treated as not disclosed. Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, above that to the nearest million.
Zuma v Nobu: common questions
Who is the biggest of Zuma or Nobu?
Zuma, with turnover of £203m in the year to December 2024.
Which makes the most profit?
Zuma: £30m pre-tax in the year to December 2024.
Which employs the most people?
Zuma, with 2,149 employees in its latest accounts.
Zuma or Nobu: which is bigger?
Zuma, with turnover of £203m against £9m at Nobu on their latest filings. On margin, Zuma keeps more of each £100 as pre-tax profit. The full head to head is in the VS Series. Read the VS page →
Where do these figures come from?
Each company's latest accounts filed at Companies House. Each links to its full Spark Intel profile, which names the filing it comes from.
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