Company Visit - Yakult

Company Visit - Yakult

Date: 12 March,2014

Company Background

Yakult is a Japanese probiotic mike-like product which was created by Japanese scientist Minoru Shirota, who discovered that lactobacilli were effective in suppressing harmful bacteria within the intestines, in 1930. After 5 years, he started the manufacturing and Yakult had sold to the public.

In 1969, Yakult operated their business in Hong Kong. The first factory was located at Kwun Tong and the current factory is moved to Tai Po. Yakult used to employ “Yakult Mama” for direct marketing strategy to sell the drink in the first selling. However, this trend was not suitable for Hong Kong and changed to sell at supermarket now. In 2011, Yakult has published a new production line in Hong Kong for producing a new flavor of Yakult – Yakult LT.

Today, Yakult is sold in 34 countries to suit 30 million demands for each day.

Q&A

1. Apart from Yakult and Yakult LT, is there any new product development for future to grasp the market opportunities on healthy beverages in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong’s Yakult still not consider to build up new product because they do not have enough place for production. One of the reasons is the limited land in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the demand in Hong Kong is exceedingly high which has more than 1 million per day. The current factory needs to operate each day for fulfilling that huge demand.

2. Since the size and container shape of Yakult’s beverages is obviously different from other companies, what are the benefits for Yakult to apply this design?

The primary concern is the issue of hygiene avoiding contamination. A bottle of Yakult would not have any cover if the larger Yakult was not finished. For this situation, the risk of infection with other bacteria would increase and the number of live probiotic bacteria would be destroyed by various air-borne bacteria. Therefore, using a smaller bottle for storing Yakult is more hygienic than a larger bottle. Moreover, the nutrient of one small bottle is enough to suit our healthy each day. As a result, if drinking one smaller size is not enough, we can drink double or above small size rather than a larger size.