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

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