Sushi & Sake talks to Calpis USA President, Jun Kuranari

We asked President Jun Kuranari of Calpis USA Inc to explain the secret behind the rapid increase of the drink's popularity in North America which started with Japanese and spread to other Asians and Americans in general.

SS: How many years ago did Calpis Co Ltd begin?
(1) Calpis Co Ltd of Japan was founded in October of 1917, so this year marks the 90th anniversary since its founding.
Incidentally, the concentrated beverage, “Calpis,” came into existence in 1919 on the day of the Star Festival (“Tanabata”), July 7. The polka dot pattern represents the Milky Way. 
(2) America’s Calpis USA, Inc. was established as a subsidiary company in California in December of 1991, and from that time, the company has handled imported beverage products from Japan.

SS: How many different varieties of products does Calpis USA deal with, and what are their companion markets?
For business, we have three product lines. Known as “A-B-C,” they are: various Ameal products (for the dietary supplement market); Beverages (CALPICO brand beverage products for Asian grocery stores and food service markets); Calsporin products (for animal feed additives, organisms, and broilers).
Currently the profits from the Calsporin products are largely contributed.
There are about 30 varieties of beverages in the Beverage product line.

SS: To what extent have the sales of Calpis expanded?
As for Ready-to-Drink (RTD) beverages, sales of plastic bottled products exclusive to the American market have grown greatly and are showing 50-60% annual growth for the past few years.

SS: About how many brands have been added since the founding of the company?
Beverage products exclusive to the American market are all under the umbrella of the “CALPICO” brand. In addition, we have the experience of importing functional health beverages (such as “KEN-CHA-OH”) as Japanese imports.

SS: What are the reactions of consumers to the beverage products your company is selling?
Several times last year, we conducted customer surveys, and what we learned about our RTD beverages was that the taste of the original types, as well as the fruit types, were evaluated very highly. Among Americans in particular, there is a tendency for customers to get used to lactic acid drinks by drinking fruit type beverages first, and for repeat customers to transition to the original type.

SS: What is lactic acid bacterium?
The original milk sugar (or lactose) in the milk decomposes and the bacteria which creates lactic acid is called lactic acid bacterium. In the food industry, it has a history of being used in the production of yogurt and cheese. 
Lactic acid bacterium itself inhabits a person’s intestines, and is called “beneficial bacteria.” It is said to be useful for things like disease prevention.
As a matter of fact, it is also used in the brewing process of Japanese and has practical uses. The lactic acid bacterium, which produces lactic acid, restrains unwanted bacteria, and creates an environment in which the action of the yeast is put to maximum use. We also understand another function of lactic acid bacterium is in another fermentation process of sake whereby milk protein is decomposed, giving energy to the yeast. Calpis Co Ltd recognized this function and could develop this unique fermentation method.

SS: What about a market for lactic acid bacterium?
It can probably be divided into largely three groups. 
Processed products which use lactic acid bacterium. For example: Yogurt, cheese, and Calpis (a combination of lactic acid bacterium and yeast).
Functional raw materials that allow lactic acid bacterium to decompose milk protein.  For example:  Ameal Peptide.
The lactic acid bacterium itself:  organisms called Probiotics. Today we sell acidophilus bacteria in tablet form in the refrigerator cases of natural food stores.  Our company also handles Probiotics, as livestock feed additives; which, without the use of antibiotics, is applied to the production of broilers and such.
Note:  In Japan, Calpis Co Ltd discovered that the acidophilus bacteria L-92 strain has the ability to prevent the symptoms of hay fever, so we sell it as a countermeasure against allergies.

SS: What are some of the things you are paying attention to regarding the distribution of products in America?
With fresh food products we match the degree of freshness, but with processed food there is an expiration date, so we must be mindful of this.  
(1) When a product is developed, an expiration date, based on science and with a high standard of safety, is established. On this point, because Calpis Co Ltd has an established criterion of strict safety standards, and even more than other companies, Calpis makes use of an early expiration date.
(2) In order to maintain the fresh taste, we oversee the selection of the ingredients and the selection of the containers, and we carry out the management of the production as well as the conditions of distribution.

The origin of “Calpis”
The founder, Kaiun Mishima (a Buddhist Priest) learned of fermented milk in Mongolia, and when he reproduced it in Japan, in order to express the high nutritional value and the tastiness, he used “Cal” for calcium, and he used the word “pis” (from the compound Sanskrit word, “salpilmanda”) to express the tastiness of processed milk products.
Incidentally, because Sanskrit is an old language (Fifth Century B.C.) used in Buddhist and Hindu sutras teachings, there are some Japanese and English words derived from it. From the same origin for the Sanskrit word meaning “give,” (“Dana, dona”) come the Japanese word for husband, “danna“ and the English word, “donor” both of which are still in use today.