Hakodate Wine, a long-established winery in southern Hokkaido, goes overseas under Yoshimura
Hokkaido's Hakodate Wine has joined the food group Yoshimura Food Holdings, launching a new set-up to take wines made from Hokkaido grapes abroad.
Yoshimura Food Holdings, a Japanese food holding company, has announced that it will acquire all the shares of Hakodate Wine, a winery in Nanae, Hokkaido, and make it a subsidiary. The acquisition date was given as 30 June 2026. The seller is Yakult Hokkaido Chuo (Hakodate), a subsidiary of Yakult Honsha, best known for its lactic acid drinks. The purchase price has not been disclosed. Yoshimura plans to strengthen its domestic wine business using Hokkaido-grown grapes, widen sales channels through its networks in Japan and abroad, and push ahead with expansion overseas.
A winery rooted near Hakodate
Hokkaido is a large island at the northern tip of Japan. Nanae lies just outside Hakodate, a port city at the island’s southern end. Hakodate Wine is rooted in Donan, the southern part of Hokkaido centred on Hakodate, and makes fruit wines and liqueurs as well as grape wine. For the fiscal year ended March 2026, it reported sales of 514 million yen, an operating profit of 6 million yen and net assets of 914 million yen. Profit is small relative to sales, but the company has a solid asset base. How it raises profitability under its new parent will be the thing to watch.
Yoshimura, a group that brings regional food companies together through M&A
Yoshimura Food Holdings has bought up one small regional food manufacturer after another, many of them struggling with a lack of successors, and supported them with group-wide sales and production. Its acquisitions so far include Sakaegawa Shuzo, a sake brewery in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture; a Japanese food manufacturing and sales company in Singapore; and a company importing and selling commercial kitchen equipment in Malaysia and Singapore. By joining a group with sales bases in Asia, Hakodate Wine looks to have a more realistic route for getting its wines beyond Japan than before.
A new region for Japanese wine
When people think of Japanese wine, they have traditionally thought of places such as Yamanashi Prefecture in central Honshu. Grape growing and winemaking are now also thriving in cool Hokkaido. This acquisition is one example of the reshaping of Japan’s drinks industry: a regional winery that was one business within a large beverage group is moving to a food group with an eye on exports.
If you would like to enjoy this story in Europe, try looking for “Hokkaido” or “Hakodate” on the lists of specialist Japanese wine shops and Japanese food importers. It is also interesting to compare how wines from grapes grown in the cool north resemble, and differ from, wines from Europe’s cooler regions. They are also recommended with seafood typical of Hokkaido, such as scallops and white fish. It will also be worth watching which market Yoshimura starts exporting to first.
Sources
- M&A Online, “Yoshimura Food Holdings <2884> makes Hakodate Wine, a winery under Yakult Honsha <2267>, a subsidiary” https://maonline.jp/news/20260604a
Sources
This article was written by The Sake Wire editorial team, summarising the public sources listed above. Images are our own.
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