(Yicai) Dec. 12 -- Yakult Honsha, a Japanese beverage giant best known for its probiotic milk Yakult, will shut its factory in Shanghai and relocate production to its plants in Tianjin and Wuxi as part of a business reorganization to enhance its competitiveness and management efficiency in China.

Yakult remains committed to its policy of continuing to develop and grow its business in China, the Tokyo-based company announced on Dec. 6. The firm aims to expand via more efficient operations and maximize the potential of the Chinese market, it added.

Yakult's China arm has begun dissolving its subsidiary Shanghai Yakult Dairy, with the unit's sales department and other operations to be gradually transferred to a new local branch, the parent company noted.

Yakult began production at its first Chinese plant in Guangzhou in 2002 and established Yakult China Investment in Shanghai in April 2005. The company owns six plants in the country, having built a network of 53 local branches over the past two decades.

Amid intense competition in China's probiotic market and changing consumer preferences, Yakult's average daily bottle sales tumbled to 4.8 million last year from 7.6 million in 2019.

Editor: Martin Kadiev