Ezaki Glico

Updated on Jan 08, 2024

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Native name 江崎グリコ株式会社 Traded as TYO: 2206 Founder Riichi Ezaki		Type Public (K.K.) Industry Food manufacturing

Romanized name Ezaki Guriko Kabushiki-gaisha Key people Katsuhisa Ezaki (President and CEO) Stock price 2206 (TYO) JP¥ 5,610 +40.00 (+0.72%)10 Mar, 3:00 PM GMT+9 - Disclaimer Headquarters Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan CEO Katsuhisa Ezaki (Jun 1982–) Founded 11 February 1922, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan Subsidiaries Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd, Mutual Prosperity Association Profiles Facebook YouTube Twitter

Tvc glico pretz 2015 30 sec

Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd. (江崎グリコ株式会社, Ezaki Guriko Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese food company headquartered in Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka. It does business across 30 countries, in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

Overview

Ezaki Glico's primary business is manufacturing confectionery products such as chocolate, chips, chewing gums and ice cream, and dairy products. Additionally, Glico manufactures processed foods such as curry stocks and retort takikomi gohan pouch, and dietary supplement products. Glico's main competitors are Meiji Seika, Lotte, Morinaga, Fujiya and Bourbon Company in confectionery business, and House Foods, Meiji and S&B Foods in processed food business.

Ezaki Glico's main financier was Sanwa Bank, which was merged into the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. Ezaki Glico is a member of Midori Kai, a group of companies whose main financier was Sanwa Bank.

Corporate message

"Good Taste and Good Health" (おいしさと健康, 1971—1992)

"A Wholesome Life in the Best of Taste" (1992—, message in Japanese "おいしさと健康" is still in use)

Japan

In 1919, Riichi Ezaki created a caramel candy product containing glycogen extracted from oyster. The caramel candy product was named "Glico," a shortening of the word glycogen. The sales copy of this product was "300 Meters in a Single Piece," and a running man was painted on the package. On February 11, 1922 Riichi started selling Glico products at Mitsukoshi Osaka branch.

Later, in 1922, Riichi established a company, Ezaki Glico Co., Ltd. Its Osaka Factory and Tokyo Factory were destroyed during the World War II, and they were reopened in 1951.

In 1984, Glico Morinaga case, a series of criminal incidents targeting Japanese major food manufacturers, occurred. Ezaki Glico was one of the victims. Katsuhisa Ezaki, President and CEO, was kidnapped but escaped by himself. Ezaki Glico was blackmailed and its office was burned by the criminals.

Overseas

Ezaki Glico has been expanding its business overseas. At first, in 1932, Ezaki Glico established its factory in Dalian, China. After the World War II, in 1970, Ezaki Glico started its business in Thailand, establishing Thai Glico Co., Ltd. Later, in 1982, Generale Biscuit Glico France S.A. was established and started sales of Mikado (Pocky) in France. Ezaki Glico established Ezaki Glico USA Co., Ltd. in 2003. Additionally, it established PT Glico-Wings in 2013 and PT Glico Indonesia in 2014, both of which are Indonesian companies.

Products

Ezaki Glico manufactures a wide variety of products. Just major products are listed here.

Confectioneries

Glico, caramel product. In addition to the standard flavor, there are caramel flavor and crashed almond flavor products.

Pocky, chocolate-coated pretzel sticks, which come in many other flavors. The total sales from 1966 exceeds 10 billion packages. In Europe, this product is sold with "Mikado" brand.

Pretz, pretzel sticks, which come in many other flavors.

Almond Chocolate, almonds coated by chocolate.

Caplico, frosting-dipped waffle biscuits in the shape of ice cream cones that come in either chocolate or strawberry flavor.

Bisco, wheat germ crackers with yogurt cream using special yeast.

BREO, an oral care candy that was developed for cleaning the tongue and breath.

Dairy products

Pucchin Pudding, the world's best-selling pudding product. Its characteristic is a special package with which consumers can efficiently move the contents on a plate.

Ice-cream products

Giant Cone, ice cream in a large cone with crisp chocolate and nut toppings.

Panapp, vanilla ice cream in a handy long cup with fruit sauce fillings in the centre.

Papico, sherbet that comes in tubes.

Ice no Mi (アイスの実), bite-sized round ice candies. Ezaki Glico promoted this product by an extremely realistic CG character, Aimi Eguchi, who was created using facial features from members of the pop girl group, AKB48.

Calorie Control Ice Cream series, which uses lower-calorie sweetening agents maltitol and sucralose in place of sugar and starch syrup often used in ice cream. Tofu is also used to replace dairy products to lower the amount of calories.

Processed foods

Ni-dan Juku Curry, cubed-type Japanese-style curry stock.

Donburi-tei, instant donburi retort pouch product.

Baby formula

ICREO Balance Milk, a powdered baby formula manufactured by Icreo Co., Ltd.

Ezaki Glico's large neon sign located above Dotonbori in Osaka has been a landmark of the city since its initial construction in 1935. It bears the Glico running man on a blue race track, as well as some of Osaka's other landmarks in the background. The giant neon sign has been revised on several occasions in order to celebrate events such as the World Cup and to bolster team spirit for Osaka's baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. As the sign is quite well known, it has long been a popular photo stop for tourists as well as locals.

Ezaki Glico was also the main sponsor of the anime series Tetsujin 28 (1963—1966, the original Japanese version of Gigantor).