SATO closes office

FORT LAUDERDALE – The Japanese company SATO Global Solutions, which had big plans to reinvent retail, has closed its business operation and Fort Lauderdale office. The defunct company’s technology is being leveraged by a new SATO company, StoreAdvise, in Dallas.

SATO Global Solutions opened its headquarters in downtown Fort Lauderdale in May 2015. The company renovated a space in the 110 Tower for its North American headquarters and once employed up to 50 people.

Only a handful of people remain working remotely in South Florida, according to Keith Sherry, CEO of StoreAdvise. But SATO will open a satellite office in Fort Lauderdale for those employees in the coming months, he said.

When asked about the status of the company in May, SATO North America head Goro Yumiba replied in an email that “the company had to make a difficult decision regarding its business direction. As a startup, the company had diversified its approach in too many directions, and has decided to re-direct its business.”

In 2017, Gov. Rick Scott visited the office touting his “jobs” agenda and highlighted SATO’s expansion in Fort Lauderdale. In 2015, SATO was awarded tax benefit incentives if it met investment and job creation criteria, according to Broward County’s economic development agency.

David Coddington, vice president of business development for The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, said SATO invested $4.2 million in renovating the Fort Lauderdale office and met its requirement of creating 35 new jobs. But they didn’t collect any money, he said.

“They were approved for $245,000, but they never applied for it,” Coddington said.