Internationally, Yakult is one of the biggest probiotic brands, and is considered to be the world's ‘original’ probiotic company.
The firm only entered the US market in 2007, and sales have since remained regional but are expanding rapidly. Yakult USA said as of March 2009 it will be selling its product in a number of retailers in Texas, including Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway.
The company said its product is “poised to be one of the leading probiotic drinks on the market”.
Data from market researcher Euromonitor have placed the pro- and prebiotic drinking yogurt market in US at $312.5m in 2008, up from $24.9m in 2003. In Canada there was no market until 2007, but it grew from $28.5m that year to $42.9m in 2008.
Yakult, a Japanese firm, is today worth $2.3bn, and sells 25 million bottles of its Yakult beverage per day in 30 countries and regions around the world.