Welcoming the New Year 2026
Happy New Year!
I would like to extend my greetings at the start of this new year.
Introduction
In 2025, the global economy faced ongoing uncertainty from political and geopolitical risks, resulting in a year of slower growth overall. Despite this environment, major U.S. stock indexes reached record highs, while Japan’s stock market remained resilient and traded at historic peak levels. In the Japanese economy, significant wage increases were achieved, and consumer spending showed a gradual recovery trend. However, prices for groceries and other goods remained elevated due to inflation, and households’ thriftiness is still deeply rooted.
For our business operations, sales volumes for dairy products overall remained sluggish in Japan, but overseas we saw recovery in Guangzhou Yakult Co., Ltd. and Yakult (China) Corporation and signs of bottoming out in PT. Yakult Indonesia Persada. In 2026, we will work together as one company toward stabilization and renewed growth in Japan and further expansion overseas.
Business Initiatives
In our food and beverages segment (Japan), we rolled out Yakult 1000 Toshitsu Off (Yakult 1000 with fewer calories, less sugar) nationwide through the home delivery channel in January 2025. This product helps us acquire new customers and reconnect with those who had stopped purchasing due to concerns about sugar content, calories, and sweet taste. People’s awareness and understanding of the product have been gradually increasing. In 2026, we will strengthen our relationships with customers by enhancing digital communication in addition to in-person interactions. In the retail store channel, we launched Y1000 Toshitsu Off in April 2025, and in November we introduced New Yakult Peach Flavor as a limited-time offering. With promotional activities and value dissemination activities gaining momentum, we believe we will begin to see an uptick in overall retail store sales volumes going forward. In 2026, we will enhance the presence of our products in retail stores through effective merchandising proposals and further promotional activities.
In our food and beverages segment (overseas), 2025 was a year when sales volumes in each quarter exceeded the previous year, showing tangible signs of steady recovery overall. Yakult U.S.A. Inc. and Yakult Vietnam Co., Ltd. maintained strong performance, Guangzhou Yakult Co., Ltd. and Yakult (China) Corporation recovered, and PT. Yakult Indonesia Persada showed signs of stabilizing. Yakult S.A. De C.V. (Mexico) was affected by slower consumption but is beginning to rebound.
Additionally, we rolled out new products at various locations. In 2024, we launched peach flavor in Guangzhou Yakult Co., Ltd , Yakult (China) Corporation, Yakult Nederland B.V, Yakult Belgium N.V./S.A, Yakult Europe B.V, Yakult UK Ltd, Yakult Deutschland GmbH and Yakult Italia S.r.l. and mango flavor in Yakult Danone India Pvt. Ltd., and in 2025, we introduced muscat flavor in Guangzhou Yakult Co., Ltd, Yakult (China) Corporation and Yakult S.A. De C.V. (Mexico) mango flavor in PT. Yakult Indonesia Persada, and peach flavor in Yakult S/A Ind. E Com. (Brazil). In January 2026, we will also launch a muscat-flavored product in Hong Kong Yakult Co., Ltd. These products capture customer interest, encourage them to try our products, and contribute to boosting sales volumes. In 2026, we will continue to implement various sales strategies, increase the number of locations achieving stable growth, and lift overall performance.
Medium-term Management Plan
In conjunction with our full-year financial results announcement in May 2025, we disclosed our Medium-term Management Plan (2025–2030). We have established three key themes: (1) Expand business domains and evolve business model, (2) Pursue co-creation with local societies and evolution of our global expansion, and (3) Evolve management foundation that supports growth. We will achieve renewed growth by leveraging our strengths of evidence-based probiotics grounded in research and development, community-rooted sales organizations, and the global Yakult brand to address these three priority themes.
Furthermore, we have formulated a non-financial strategy as a crucial element of strengthening our foundation toward maximizing corporate value. To further leverage our strengths in intellectual capital, manufactured capital, and social & relationship capital, we will intensify our efforts in human capital and natural capital. We will achieve our evolution into a healthcare company by 2030, and aim for further advancement toward our 100th anniversary five years thereafter.
We look forward to your continued support this year.
Hiroshi Narita,
President and Representative Director
Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd.
