Yakult Danone plans India expansion as probiotics awareness grows
The facility currently produces 200,000 65ml bottles of the probiotic drink daily, and plans are underway to raise this to 300,000 bottles a day.
Yakult Danone India MD Minoru Shimada said that although over 35 million bottles of Yakult were consumed globally, India had initially proven to be a challenging market because of limited awareness about the benefits of probiotics.
He told the media in India that the company had been focusing on educating consumers, and is “pleased to see that more and more Indian consumers are making Yakult a part of their daily diet for its health benefits”.
Fresh capital
While he did not reveal how much would be spent in order to achieve the targeted manufacturing capacity increase, Shimada said fresh capital would help the firm meet the growing demand from Indian consumers, and strengthen its presence in new and existing cities.
Apart from greater manufacturing capacity, the company also plans to heighten its presence in the country by going beyond its top metro markets and into its second- and third-tier cities.
At present, Yakult Danone India’s products are available via retail and home delivery, and company wants to expand its retail presence in the near future.
“Since the brand needs expansion, we are going for phase-to-phase expansion,” Shimada said.
The Probiota series is growing, and in October 2017, Singapore will host the first ever Probiota Asia event. Building on the success of the annual global Probiota and Probiota Americas events, Probiota Asia will focus exclusively on this high growth market and the challenges it faces.
Save the date: 11-13 October 2017
