Toyo Suisan (Maruchan) - Company History

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Financial history 1976–2026 — revenue, cost structure, balance sheet, cash flow and key ratios, year by year →

Founded 1953
Founder Mori Kazuo 森和夫
Founding location 東京都中央区
Core business at founding Exporting frozen tuna and wholesaling domestic marine products
Listed 1970
President Sumimoto Noritaka President since 2023 (age 60, as of 2026)
Current priority Overseas expansion · Capacity investment Raising North American instant-noodle output with the new California plant
Founding
In March 1953 Mori Kazuo (森和夫) established Yokosuka Suisan Co., Ltd. inside the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. It began by exporting frozen tuna and wholesaling domestic marine products, and then widened step by step into the trades next door to animal protein — a cold store in Kawasaki in 1955, fish ham and sausage in 1956 — changing its name to Toyo Suisan in that same year. Looking for earnings to offset marine processing, whose demand thins in winter, it stepped into instant-noodle production in 1961, and the year after that raised the Maruchan mark, taken from the childhood nickname of the founder’s eldest daughter. It was a late entrant all the same, three years behind Nissin Foods, which had opened the market in 1958, and when it listed on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1970 it held only 8 per cent of the market, fifth in the industry.
The Decision
The company has always confirmed demand by exporting before it built a plant. On top of the freezing and logistics of frozen tuna and fish sausage it laid the instant noodles of 1961 to assemble its business at home, began exporting to the United States in 1972, and moved to local production there in 1987 and again in 1989. In 1994 it spent about $97.8M (¥10bn) on a third US plant, at Irvine in California. What it chose there was not the road of holding up Japanese quality, but the road of pushing the product all the way towards the pricing and the taste that would dissolve into the food budgets of a growing low-income immigrant population. In the same order its US plants have grown to four, and the next is a plant of its own in Mexico, where bag noodles are growing.
Today
The consolidated source of earnings is not Japan but North America. Of consolidated revenue of $3.4B (¥537bn) and operating profit of $542.5M (¥86bn) in the year to March 2026, the overseas instant-noodle business earned $1.6B (¥248bn) of sales and $402.1M (¥64bn) of operating profit — more than seven-tenths of the profit. Its margin of 25.6 per cent is far above the 10.0 per cent of the domestic instant-noodle business. That earning power has thickened the cash on hand, which reached $1.7B (¥257bn) at the end of March 2025. The company is now turning the store towards raising output at the new California plant, holding up capital expenditure of more than $822M (¥130bn) over three years and a total payout ratio of 70 per cent, and has switched to a policy of piling up no more cash. It is a broad food company that also holds chilled foods and cold storage, but the substance of the profit is cheap instant noodles sold in North America.
Competition
At home it has never once stood first. Nissin Foods opened the market with Chicken Ramen in 1958 and got there ahead of it, and at the time of the 1970 listing Toyo Suisan stood fifth, behind Myojo Foods, Sanyo Foods and Acecook. The reversal happened in the United States. Around 1994, when Toyo Suisan and Nissin Foods brought their third US plants on stream one after the other, prices collapsed, every maker but Campbell withdrew, and what was left was a war of attrition in which the leader changed month by month. Toyo Suisan built its advantage on cheapness, and came to hold more than six-tenths of the 5.1 billion servings eaten in the United States each year and about eight-tenths of Mexico. In Japan it remains second, carrying Akai Kitsune and Midori no Tanuki, but in Mexico it has settled in as an everyday food at under ten pesos a serving — cheaper than dried pasta or tacos.

Timeline

1953–1972From frozen-tuna exports at Tsukiji to an instant-noodle maker

  1. 1953Mori Kazuo founds Yokosuka Suisan inside the Tsukiji fish market
  2. 1953Begins exporting frozen tuna and dealing in domestic marine products
  3. 1955Acquires a cold store in Kawasaki and enters refrigeration
  4. 1956Starts producing fish ham and sausage; renamed Toyo Suisan
  5. 1957Head office moves to Konan, Minato ward, Tokyo — its present site
  6. 1960Merges with Tokyo Suisan Kogyo, acquiring the Yaizu plant
  7. 1961Begins producing instant noodles, three years after Nissin
  8. 1962Adopts the Maruchan mark, named for the founder’s daughter
  9. 1966Acquires Marukyo Shokuhin Kogyo, now Kofu Toyo
  10. 1967Opens the Fukuoka plant
  11. 1970Lists on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange
  12. 1971Acquires Date Shokuhin, later Fukushima Foods

1972–2013Building a commanding share of the overseas instant-noodle market

  1. 1973Moves up to the first sections of the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya exchanges
  2. 1975Begins producing fresh noodles
  3. 1983Takes an equity stake in Shuetsu, the pickles maker
  4. 1986Adopts the TS mark as part of a corporate-identity programme
  5. 1987Establishes Pacmar, Inc. in Washington state
  6. 1989Establishes Maruchan Virginia, Inc. on the east coast
  7. 1993Establishes Imari Toyo in Saga prefecture
  8. 1994Completes the third US plant, at Irvine, California
  9. 1997Establishes Mitsuwa Dairy in Kobe
  10. 2000Affiliate Yutaka Foods lists on the TSE second section
  11. 2003Tsutsumi Tadashi becomes the third president
  12. 2007Absorbs Tago Seihyo by merger
  13. 2009Buys in listed subsidiary Fukushima Foods via a share exchange

2014–2026Overseas noodles lead the company, and Maruchan goes global

  1. 2014Imamura Masaya becomes the fifth president, from the sales side
  2. 2015Overseas noodles earn a 15.7% margin against 8.1% at home
  3. 2020Pandemic home-eating demand lifts profit to a record
  4. 2023Sumimoto Noritaka named president — the first change in nine years
  5. 2023Net profit reaches $396.4M (¥56bn) in the year to March 2024
  6. 2024Record again: ordinary profit $553.8M (¥84bn)
  7. 2025Announces a new instant-noodle plant in California
  8. 2025Interim briefing addresses private-label rivals in North America

Founding Story

1953–1972From frozen-tuna exports at Tsukiji to an instant-noodle maker

Toyo Suisan began in 1953 as a fish trader inside the Tsukiji market, and within eight years it had walked step by step into the businesses next door — cold storage in 1955, fish ham and sausage in 1956, and instant noodles in 1961. It entered noodles three years behind Nissin Foods and gave the brand a family nickname; the late arrival and the homely name would together define everything that followed.

A marine-products trading house founded at Tsukiji as Yokosuka Suisan

In March 1953 Mori Kazuo (森和夫) incorporated Yokosuka Suisan Co., Ltd. inside the Tsukiji fish market in Chuo ward, Tokyo, and began exporting frozen tuna and dealing in domestic marine products[1]. The “Yokosuka” in the name came from Mori’s birthplace, the city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa prefecture; the firm was founded as a marine-products trading house with an eye on the food demand of Japan’s post-war reconstruction. Its first business ran on two tracks at once — the export trade in frozen tuna, and wholesaling domestic marine products into the market — and it started life as a dealer in fish at a time when the country was short of food and fish meant animal protein. In December 1955 the company acquired a cold store in Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, and entered the refrigeration business[2]. That store was the origin of what would later become the cold-storage segment, and the first step towards bringing the storage and logistics of marine products in-house.

In June 1956 Toyo Suisan began producing fish ham and sausage[3]. Fish sausage was then spreading through Japan as a cheap source of animal protein, and the move marked the start of a diversification that looked beyond selling fresh fish towards processed foods. The company changed its trade name to Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. in 1956 (the year of the change in the official record)[4], and in August 1957 moved its head office to its present site at Konan in Minato ward, Tokyo[5]. Four years after its founding it had assembled the three pillars it would keep — marine-products trader, processed-food manufacturer, and cold-storage operator.

Entering instant noodles and establishing the Maruchan brand (1961–1972)

In July 1960 Toyo Suisan merged with Tokyo Suisan Kogyo Co., Ltd. and acquired that company’s Yaizu plant[6]. The firm was expanding, and the merger widened both its processing base and the reach of its marine-products supply network. Then, in April 1961, Toyo Suisan began producing instant noodles[7]. It was entering three years after Nissin Foods had launched Chicken Ramen in 1958 — a late arrival in the instant-noodle market. But in May 1962 Toyo Suisan began using the Maruchan mark[8], giving its noodle brand an identity of its own. Maruchan is said to derive from the childhood nickname of Mori Kazuo’s eldest daughter, Yoshiko (佳子), and it took hold as a warm, familiar, family-sounding name.

Through the 1960s the company built production sites for instant noodles and processed foods across the country: a new Saitama plant in February 1964[9], a new Sagami plant in March 1965[10], the acquisition in June 1966 of Marukyo Shokuhin Kogyo Co., Ltd. of Tamitomi, Yamanashi prefecture (now Kofu Toyo Co., Ltd., a consolidated subsidiary)[11], a new Fukuoka plant in April 1967[12], and the establishment in July 1969 of Hachinohe Toyo Co., Ltd. in Hachinohe, Aomori prefecture[13]. On the strength of flagship products such as Akai Kitsune (赤いきつね, “red fox” udon in a cup) and Midori no Tanuki (緑のたぬき, “green raccoon-dog” soba — both the forerunners of the mainstay range launched from 1978) and later Maruchan Seimen (マルちゃん正麺, its premium non-fried ramen), the Maruchan brand took second place in the Japanese instant-noodle category behind Nissin Foods. In September 1970 Toyo Suisan listed its shares on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange[14], adding the second sections of the Osaka and Nagoya exchanges in September 1972[15] and moving up to the first sections of all three in August 1973[16] — the scale of a listed company reached twenty years after founding.

Read the full history in Japanese →

Notes

  1. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  2. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  3. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  4. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  5. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  6. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  7. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  8. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  9. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  10. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  11. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  12. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  13. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  14. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  15. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩
  16. Toyo Suisan, securities report for the 77th term (FYE March 2025), corporate history section↩

References & sources

  1. Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. investor relations — the interim results briefing Q&A of 31 October 2025 (official PDF) and the annual securities reports, including the corporate-history section.

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