The Baking Industry: Shikishima Baking Company and Fujipan are eyeing the absolute champion, Yamazaki Baking Company, with an eagle eye on them.

The battle for supremacy in the world of bread, which is becoming a staple food

Three different kinds of bread sold by three different companies are now lined up in front of a FRIDAY reporter. They are “Chojuku” by Shikishima Baking (Pasco), based in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture; “Honjikomi” by Fuji Pan, also based in Nagoya; and “Royal Bread” by Yamazaki Baking, based in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Each of these three products has gained a strong fan base and is vying for supremacy in the bread world.

The oldest of the three, “Honjikomi,” launched in 1993, is characterized by its chewy texture. When toasted, the bread offers a contrast in texture: crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Japanese people, who eat rice as their staple food, tend to prefer bread with a high moisture content because they produce less saliva than Westerners. Honjikomi” is designed to meet this need, and is intended to be a bread that can be eaten like freshly cooked white rice.

Unlike “Honjikomi,” which emphasizes texture and is easy to eat, “Royal Bread,” the last bread to be released in 2012, has a rich flavor with a mellow buttery aroma that spreads in the mouth as soon as you bite into it, and you can taste the delicious wheat flavor as you chew it. The price is also higher than the other two products.

Chozojuku,” released in 1998, is the overwhelming number one bread in the world at the moment, surpassing Honjikomi and Royal Bread. The greatest feature of this bread is its outstanding wheat aroma. Like “Honjikomori,” when toasted, it maintains the same crispy outside and chewy inside texture, and has both an aroma and a hint of sweetness. The result is a supreme bread that is delicious both baked and as is.

In 2011, the consumption of bread per household exceeded that of white rice on a sales price basis, and this year there was a historic rice shortage dubbed the “Reiwa rice riots. Bread is now becoming a staple food for the Japanese people.

Shikishima Baking, the leader in the bread industry, is a long-established company founded in 1920. Until the launch of “Chojuku,” the company had been at the forefront of the bread-making industry for about 80 years. So what makes “Chojuku” so “supreme”?

The most distinctive feature is Pasco’s (Shikishima Baking Company’s brand name) originally developed and patented “Cho-Riu” method. When the “Super Ripe” was first developed, Shikishima Baking adopted the “Yudane method” to achieve the moist and chewy texture that Japanese people prefer. This method involves kneading flour, sugar, salt, and other ingredients into a paste by boiling water to prevent moisture from escaping from the dough.

However, this method had its drawbacks. It was not suitable for mass production at bakeries because of its inconsistent quality. To improve this situation, Shikishima Baking’s development team spent six months adjusting the ratio of flour and boiling water, and developed a method of baking bread that allows it to mature slowly at a low temperature. This is the ‘super-ripening method.

The revolutionary product development has made Shikishima Baking Company a huge company with annual sales of 161.7 billion yen, even though it is not listed on a stock exchange.

The Overwhelming Comprehensive Strength of a Champion

On the other hand, the “super-ripeness” boom was a bitter pill to swallow for Fuji Bakery, which was founded in 1922.

Five years before “Chojuku,” Fujipan had launched “Honjikomi,” which was based on the same concept of “crispy on the outside and sticky on the inside,” but it was overtaken by the latecomer, “Chojuku. The reason for this may be due to differences in manufacturing methods, but I think the difference was also due to marketing power, including the stylishness of the packaging. The packaging of “Honjikomi” was made up of red and yellow colors, which are often used for conventional bread, while “Chojuku” was made up of blue colors, which had not been used before. This “novelty” had a big impact on consumers.

Fuji Pan, which boasts annual sales of 288.2 billion yen, has used its development capabilities to create a variety of innovative products, but has often been outpaced by latecomers in terms of marketing power. A symbolic example is the “Snack Sandwich” launched in 1975.

It was a sandwich consisting of ingredients pressed between two slices of bread with the ears removed. It was very popular when it was first released, but today, Yamazaki Baking Company’s “Lunch Pack,” released nine years later, is more famous. This is because Yamazaki Baking Pan invested more heavily in advertising. Currently, Fuji Pan is trying to be creative by printing the phrase ‘the original since 1975’ on its packages, but its momentum is inferior to that of Lunch Pack” (Market Advisor Hideo Amano).

Yamazaki Baking Company, the absolute champion with annual sales of 1.175 trillion yen, has been actively incorporating the appeal of other companies’ hit products into its own products.

Yamazaki Baking has also incorporated the blue packaging of its then-revolutionary “Chojuku” into its “Royal Bread.

Another characteristic of the company is that it does not focus on a single product as its weapon, but rather develops a wide variety of products. Taking bread as an example, Shikishima Baking Company focuses on “Chojuku” and Fuji Pan on “Honjikomi,” while Yamazaki Baking Company has a diverse lineup of more than 10 types of breads alone,” says the company’s president.

Mr. Chihiro Matsubayashi, a confectionery expert who is familiar with the distribution of sweet breads and snacks, says, “Yamazaki Baking’s strength is that it holds all aspects of product distribution.

Since the company’s founding, we have followed a business model of ‘making, transporting, and selling our own products. By delivering products to convenience stores nationwide with our own trucks, we are able to capture consumer needs and use them to understand market trends and marketing. With our nationwide distribution network, we are also expanding our sales channels to hospitals, universities, and other retail outlets.”

Yamazaki Baking produced this season’s number one hit product.

The “thin-skinned egg bread” was launched in January of this year and became a huge hit, selling 12 million packages in seven months. Until now, most of the ‘thin crust series’ had been of the sweet bread type, such as chocolate, cream, tsubuan (sweet bean paste), and peanut. However, with the expansion of the demand for home-cooked meals after the COVID-19 crisis, the company decided to make side dish breads in the “Thin Skin Series. Influenced by the long-selling “Lunch Pack,” they were convinced that they could sell the product if they used eggs.

(The same front) With their overwhelming marketing power and nationwide distribution network, were Shikishima Baking Company and Fujipan helpless against the absolute champion?

The Neo series of Fujipan products, such as the Neo Butter Roll, is gaining momentum. The Neo series, such as the Neo Butter Roll, has been gaining momentum. Currently, we are further strengthening the lineup by horizontally expanding it to include brown sugar, whole wheat, and rye,” said Takero Kawada, a reporter in charge of flour milling at Nikkan Keizai Tsushinsha.

Shikishima Baking is expected to develop revolutionary products since “Chojuku”.

The ‘Chojuku shock’ in 1998 shook the industry. If Yamazaki Baking can create a new shock in the future, backed by its strength in development, we will be able to see the back of Yamazaki Baking.

The two companies in pursuit of the champion are vigilantly sharpening their claws to reach the pinnacle of the new era.

From the October 18-25, 2024 issue of “FRIDAY