JAPAN: Takara Shuzo calls time on soft drinks – report

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 5 September 2006

The soft drinks unit of Japanese company Takara Holdings is to withdraw from the category, according to local reports.

Nikkei Report said today (5 September) that Takara Shuzo Co. will cease soft drink operations at the end of this year. No sources were cited in the report, however.

The paper claims that the company has suffered as consumers have become increasingly attracted to healthier drinks. Takara Shuzo enjoyed its greatest success with Surioroshi Apple, a fruit pulp drink, which it began marketing in 1993.

The company has struggled since, however. Last year, sales at the company reached JPY12.3bn (US$106.2m), around a third of total sales ten years earlier, the paper noted.

The company will stop selling its range of 80 soft drinks at the end of December, Nikkei Report said. Some employees of Takara Shuzo will be moved to a new subsidiary marketing functional foods for the group.

Sectors: Soft drinks, Water

Companies: Takara