—Entering the New Year 2025—
I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
Introduction
During last year, 2024, growth in the global economy held firm against a backdrop of slowing inflation and a recovery in trade, among other factors. In Japan as well, growth in domestic demand was strong and the economy gradually picked up. Meanwhile, stocks in both the US and Japan appeared to reflect the economic situation, remaining at high levels. We hope that stock markets will demonstrate even greater dynamism during 2025.
In our Japanese business last year, the number of bottles sold for Yakult 1000 and Y1000 levelled off and made no further headway. Overseas, Yakult S.A. De C.V. (Mexico), Yakult U.S.A. Inc., Yakult Philippines, Inc., Yakult Australia Pty. Ltd., Yakult Vietnam Co., Ltd., and Europe region continued to perform well. In Guangzhou Yakult Co., Ltd., Shanghai Yakult Co., Ltd. and Yakult (China) Corporation too, the overall picture was an upward trend of improvement, with the number of bottles sold during July to September (the third quarter for our overseas businesses) exceeding the previous year’s figure for the first time in 11 quarters.
In 2025 the Company will continue to engage in activities with confidence based on its corporate philosophy and make concerted efforts to realize sustainable growth.
Initiatives of Each Segment
In the food and beverages (Japan), the number of bottles of Yakult 1000 series products (Yakult 1000 and Y1000) sold during 2024 trended at around three million bottles per day. In 2025, we will increase product exposure further than ever before and revitalize our activities to return to an upward trajectory.
In the home delivery channel, we started selling Yakult 1000 Toshitsu Off (low-carb version of Yakult 1000) in a limited geographical area from November 2024, and from January 2025 we are rolling the product out nationwide. We believe that the rollout of this product will enable us to attract new customers and to reapproach customers who stopped consuming our products due to concerns about sugar content, calories, or sweetness.
In the retail store channel, we will strengthen sales promotion activities mainly for Y1000 and continue persistent value dissemination activities to increase the total number of bottles sold in all stores while proposing the effective creation of sales spaces. In addition, we believe that high demand exists for a low-carb version of Y1000 as well, so we will roll this out as a new product once the necessary preparations have been completed.
As we continue last year’s efforts to reiterate the value of Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota to customers, we believe that the Yakult 1000 series products will lift the domestic food and beverages business as a whole in both the home delivery and retail store channels.
In the food and beverages (Overseas), the number of bottles sold in our overseas business as a whole during July through September 2024 (the third quarter for our overseas businesses) exceeded the same period of the previous fiscal year for the first time in a long while. Some of our overseas companies are still on the path to recovery, but the number of companies that are growing reliably is definitely increasing. Our overseas results as a whole are likely to fluctuate at around the same level as last year for a while, but we aim to gradually increase them by having the respective companies pursue a range of sales activities.
The aspiration of people all over the world to stay healthy endures even as the times change. I strongly feel once again that our mission is to respond to this aspiration based on the Company’s corporate philosophy. As a means of doing that, we will further focus on public relations activities such as plant tours that allow us to directly convey to customers our thoughts about Yakult’s corporate attitude and products, and promote understanding of the science of bacteria among customers.
Our Next Medium-term Management Plan
On March 31, 2025, our current four-year medium-term management plan comes to an end. We will make the next medium-term management plan public when we announce our full-year financial results in May 2025. I look forward to informing stakeholders of the course the Yakult Group will be following, including our key strategies for Japan and overseas, financial targets and indicators, and non-financial initiatives.
Conclusion
Fiscal 2025 will be the fifth year of our long-term vision, “Yakult Group Global Vision 2030”, bringing us to its half-way point. We will make it a year in which we show concrete accomplishments so that we can achieve further growth under our new medium-term management plan.
This concludes my New Year’s message.
I would appreciate your continued support this year.
Hiroshi Narita,
President and Representative Director
Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd.
