Yakult Honsha Co. said Tuesday it has established Shanghai Yakult Marketing Co., which will sell its mainstay Yakult drink starting in March in major Chinese coastal cities.
Yakult will expand its marketing area, which currently includes Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing, to such cities as Tianjin, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The new company is aiming to sell 70,000 bottles a day of the fermented milk drink in its first year, rising to 700,000 in three years.
Capitalized at about 410 million yen, the firm is funded entirely by Yakult China Co., which oversees Yakult's Chinese operations.