History
of Yakult
Yakult
is a probiotic milk-like product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk
with a special strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus casei Shirota. It was
created by Japanese scientist Minoru Shirota, who graduated from the Medical
School of Kyoto University in 1930. In 1935, he started manufacturing and
selling Yakult. Official claims state that the name is derived from jahurto, an
older form of jogurto, the Turkish word for "yoghurt". Since then, Yakult
has also introduced a line of beverages for the Japanese market that contain
Bifidobacterium breve bacteria, and has also used its lactobacilli research to
develop cosmetics. More recently, the Yakult Honsha played a major role in
developing the chemotherapy drug irinotecan.
After its introduction in Japan and Taiwan, Yakult was first sold in Brazil in 1966, due to the large number of Japanese immigrants in the country, before it was marketed elsewhere. Today, Yakult is sold in 31 countries, although its bacteria cultures are provided from a mother strain from Japan regardless of production location.
Company
Visit Question list:
1)
As Yakult has a shorter span of storage, what is your quality control of the
production process?
Yakult
has done several ways to maintain the quality of its products. First, once the Yakult
are produced, they will be refrigerated in the freezer in order to prevent it
from going bad under warm temperature. Also, the Yakult Company supervises the super
market to store their product in the freezer too. If super market does not
follow to do the procedure, Yakult Company will stop supplying the products.
This issue can make sure the customers can buy the good quality product. If the
products in super market are overdue, they will be replaced by fresh products.
This is one of the after sale service of Yakult Company.
2)
We can only find the original taste or the light version of Yakult in HK, will
your company consider about other version of product?
Yakult Company will not consider about
other version of products at this moment since the daily production rate of the
factory is now near to maximum production capacity which one million bottle of
Yakult milk per day. If Yakult Company can build one more factory in future, it
will then consider about other version of products. If the company really wants
to produce other type of the product, it may consider using the factory in Shen
Zhen for production. However, the probability is quite low since Hong Kong
people love the products which are made in Hong Kong.
Yakult
Company has done several sample tests to improve the impression of their
products. At the beginning, Yakult Company has launched a low-sugar bottle of
milk in blue color which is used for testing the acceptability of the taste.
However, the results are not good since customers find the taste too strange
and sour. In fact, the all Yakult milk contains Lactobacillus bacteria which are
sour in taste. If the sugar level is too low, the taste of Yakult milk will become
too sour and not be accepted by the customers. Therefore, Yakult Company has
done several tests to make a balance and launch a new product which contain
less sugar in green bottle to market.
The
types of the product are various in different countries because the market
competition is different. For example, in Singapore, the market competition of health
and probiotic product is very great since there are many different types of probiotic
products in market. If Yakult Company only produce one type of product in Singapore,
it is hard to compete with other companies. Therefore, Yakult Company launch
different product in Singapore.
5)
Why Yakult Company does not produce a large volume of Yakult milk?
If
the volume Yakult milk is too large, it is hard for the customers to drink it in
one time, especially for children. Besides, once the bottle cover is open, the milk
will expose in the air which contains dust and bacteria. The dust and bacteria
will make the milk go bad. In order to maintain the good quality control on the
products, Yakult Company decides to launch a product with small volume in Hong
Kong so that customer can drink the milk in one time.
6)
In order to increase market share, have you considered product diversity
(produce different types of products) as your business strategy?
In
fact, in japan, there are different types of Yakult products. Some products are
for office lady while some products for children. These products are also very
popular in Japan. However, in Hong Kong, due to the limited production
capacity, it is hard for Hong Kong Yakult Company to launch different types of
product right now.
