Company visit 4 - Yakult

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.

 Besides, Yakult Company has two subsidiaries centers which are responsible to distribute the product to whole Hong Kong stores or super markets. The two subsidiaries centers are located in Shatin and Kwan Tong respectively. Kwan Tong’ center is responsible for distributing the product to East Kowloon and Hong Kong Island while Shatin’s center is responsible for New Territories. Each day, Yakult Company will assign a staff to these two centers to check the expiry date of the product. If the products are overdue, they will be returned to main company and destroyed. At the same time, visiting these two centers can help to estimate the demand of Yakult milk by checking the sale information in the distribution center. Therefore, it can help planning of production of milk so as to maintain the sufficient supply of milk in the market.

 

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.

 

 

 3) HK people and the media have an impression of too much sugar contains in Yakult. How does your company deal with this?

 

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.

 4) Why are the types of the product various in different countries?

 

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.