Yakult reaches customers through home delivery and stores.
Yakult makes fermented milk drinks, including Yakult, and other foods. It reaches household consumers through home delivery by Yakult Ladies and through retail stores, with regional production and sales operations overseas.
One bottle arrives at home; another is bought in a store
Yakult Ladies visit customers, while retail stores put products on their shelves. These are two routes through which Yakult’s overseas business reaches consumers.
Two routes from the business to the consumer
A simplified view of overseas distribution, following the products.
Regional production and sales
Expansion built around local production and local sales
Regional production and sales
Expansion built around local production and local sales
Products move onward↓
Yakult Ladies
Deliver to customers
↓
Consumers at homeReceive a home delivery
Regional production and sales
Expansion built around local production and local sales
Products move onward↓
Retail stores
Sell through shops
↓
Consumers in storesChoose and buy at the store
This is not a map of factories or sales companies. Some sales countries are managed by a neighboring operating company. Route widths do not represent sales shares.
Stores account for about six in ten bottles sold overseas
January–December 2025, excluding Japan. Sales volume by channel.
Overseas sales channels
Yakult Ladies41.2%Stores58.8%
Yakult Ladies deliver to customers; stores offer products for shoppers to choose and buy. Alongside manufacturing the drinks, Yakult needs access to consumers through both routes.
Building production and sales around local markets
The first overseas operation began in Taiwan in March 1964 (supplementary results, p.15). The country list on p.16 also shows markets managed by neighboring operating companies. The number of sales countries therefore does not equal the number of factories or operating companies.
The overseas supplementary data records 49,491 Yakult Ladies and 1,029,862 stores delivered to, both excluding Japan and measured at the end of December 2025 (p.16). Both people and stores are part of the distribution network.
Comparing Japan and overseas in the same financial year
DATA VIEW
Food-and-beverage sales by market
Year ended March 2026. JPY million, before consolidation adjustments.
Overseas¥240,024m
Japan¥229,604m
DATA VIEW
Operating profit on the same segment basis
Year ended March 2026. JPY million, before consolidation adjustments.
Overseas¥36,318m
Japan¥27,668m
The adjustments from all segment totals to the consolidated group were −¥11,617 million for sales and −¥20,125 million for operating profit. The profit adjustment includes head-office administrative costs and elimination of royalty income.
The scope behind roughly 38 million bottles a day
The roughly 38 million worldwide figure is the company’s broad snapshot, not an overseas consolidated-subsidiary measure. Bottles are also sold through stores, so dividing the worldwide count by 80,000 would not measure the sales of an individual Yakult Lady.
THE VIEW AFTER THE NUMBERS
What the numbers suggest
Yakult combines making drinks with a distribution network that reaches consumers. In calendar 2025, Yakult Ladies accounted for 41.2% of overseas sales volume and stores for 58.8%.
Built around local production and local sales, the overseas food-and-beverage business exceeded Japan in both sales and operating profit for the year ended March 2026. Behind the familiar bottle are several connections: home-delivery representatives, retail shelves and regional production and sales operations.
Mizuno’s Japan operating-profit increase exceeded the consolidated increase in the year ended March 2026. The company says more direct selling, centered on Sportstyle shoes, lifted Japan’s gross margin. Meanwhile, tariffs raised costs in the Americas and a weak Korean golf market weighed on Asia and Oceania. Regional earnings reflect who buys the products, the route to the customer and the costs the company bears.
