Ezaki Glico, Japanese snacks maker, is aiming to make its Pocky biscuit into a RM3.34 bn (US$1 bn) brand.
The company with 92-year history is planning to grow overseas by promoting its stick-shaped, chocolate-coated Pocky pretzels in global markets. Ezaki Glico's overseas business has so far been only a tenth of its $3bn revenue.
Ezaki Glico aims to make its sales more than double to $1bn by 2020. It proposes to do this by relooking at its branding and marketing strategies for Pocky pretzels.
Reuters quoted Global brand manager for Pocky, Tsuyoshi Matsuki as saying: "Sales were left mostly up to local distributors in Malaysia.
"Now, we're going to the stores directly for marketing and maybe next year we'll start running TV commercials to give brand recognition and sales a boost."
In Indonesia the sales quintupled in 2013. Pocky's worldwide sales grew across 30 markets by a third to around $400 m in 2013.
Pocky faces challenges from its rivals Hershey's, Oreo and KitKat, which are popular in the West.
In Europe, Pocky is sold as Mikado, where it is in a joint venture with Mondelez International, the maker of Oreo snacks.
