Entering biscuits through a joint venture with Nabisco and Nichimen (1970)

How long is a borrowed shelf yours?

The essential thing about this joint venture is that when Yamazaki moved into confectionery, it supplied neither the technology nor the brand itself. It already had the ability to build plants and make volume; what it lacked was the contents and the name. It borrowed technology and trademarks from Nabisco of the United States and practical support from the trading house Nichimen, and put in manufacturing and distribution of its own — a division of roles that made sense in terms of sheer speed of entry. Judged against the aim of filling dealers’ shelves with something other than bread, whether the brand belonged to Yamazaki was a secondary question.

But a place held under a borrowed name lasts only as long as the lender’s intentions. In 2016, when Mondelez decided to handle sales in Japan itself, forty-six years of shelf space went back onto the negotiating table. What remained were Yamazaki’s own brands, such as Chip Star, and the equipment and people capable of mass-producing biscuits; from there Yamazaki Biscuits had to take the shelf again. Diversifying with a borrowed brand shortens the entrance in exchange for handing the exit to someone else. Both sides of that bargain are contained in these forty-six years.