Japan’s Calbee Announces Acquisition of Sweet Potato Processor
Calbee, Inc. announced in a press release that it has reached a definitive agreement for the purchase of stocks with J-GIA I Limited Partnership, which was founded by Japan Growth Investments Alliance, Inc. and are individual shareholders of Potato Kaitsuka Co. Ltd.
“We will make the company a wholly owned subsidiary, by acquiring all of the issued common stock and stock acquisition rights of Potato Kaitsuka,” states the press release.
Under the long-term vision announced in May 2019, Calbee aims to establish overseas markets and new food domains as growth pillars. The entry into the sweet potato business by making Potato Kaitsuka a subsidiary will strengthen their efforts to enter new food markets.
Potato Kaitsuka started operation in 1967 as a wholesale company specializing in sweet potatoes. Today, based mainly on their original brand of sweet potato, “Beni-Tenshi”, they engage in the sale of raw materials for baked sweet potato to retail stores, as well as the direct sales of baked sweet potatoes.
With the demand for sweet potatoes expanding due to the introduction and utilization of baking potato machines in retail stores, the amount of exports is also increasing in recent years, thanks to the rising recognition of baked sweet potato products in Greater China and South Asia.
The Ibaraki Prefecture, where Potato Kaitsuka is located, ranks second in terms of domestic sweet potato yields in 2018, and Potato Kaitsuka has a considerable share of this production.
“Through the acquisition, we will strive to expand our sweet potato business by utilizing both Potato Kaitsuka’s expertise and technologies for sweet potatoes and Calbee’s assets for potatoes such as variety development and storage technologies,” the company revealed.
While the acquisition of shares has no impact on consolidated results for the year ending March 31, 2020, the acquisition will contribute to improving the performance of Calbee Group over the medium- to long-term.
