Area Development
Yakult U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Japan-based Yakult Honsha Co., started production of Yakult, its leading probiotic drink, at its newly constructed state-of-the-art California production plant. The California plant, located in Fountain Valley, Orange County, California, had been under construction since June 2012.

The company’s new plant which includes 76,800-square-feet of floor space, situated on 8.891 acres, will have an initial production capacity of turning out 400,000 bottles per day of the probiotic dairy beverage Yakult.

The company said “this plant will allow the company to supply the North American market with Yakult produced in the United States instead of importing from Mexico, to meet expected future growth of its business, and to provide a more stable supply source. The sales of Yakult have been increasing steadily over the years. In 2013, sales averaged about 182,000 bottles a day, a 112.6 percent increase over 2012.”

“Thanks to the amazing growth of Yakult around the United States, we are happy to open our first U.S. factory. The new facility is located in Southern California and will produce 400,000 bottles a day, every one of them packed with billions of Yakult’s exclusive probiotic strain, L. casei Shirota,” the company said on its website.

In an earlier press release, the firm noted that being located "In the heart of Orange County, Fountain Valley is ideal because it is in close proximity to Los Angeles, which is our biggest market now."