is a major Japanese snack food maker. It was founded on 30 April 1949, and its headquarters are located in the Marunouchi Trust Tower Main in

Marunouchi Marunouchi () is a commercial district of Tokyo located in Chiyoda between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace. The name, meaning "inside the circle", derives from its location within the palace's outer moat. It is also Tokyo's financial di ...

, Chiyoda,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. It launched operations at a new plant in the United States for making its mainstay products "

Kappa Ebisen is a Japanese snack food produced by Calbee of Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Ja ...

" shrimp chips and "Saya-endo" snow pea crisps on 18 September 2007. Another popular snack they sell are potato fries, called "Jagabee". Its snacks are hugely popular in Asia and are well known in the United States.

History

The company was founded in devastated post-war Hiroshima by Takashi Matsuo in 1949. His first product was the Calbee Caramel, named after the word "calcium" and vitamin B1. Due to the product's popularity, the company name was changed to Calbee in 1955. In 1973, Calbee Moh Seng (previously the Moh Seng Importer & Exporter Private Limited) was integrated into Calbee. It occurred on 13 September 1973 on a Thursday. It started off as the sole distributor of Calbee goods in Singapore. In the 1970s, Calbee partnered with Four Seas Group to introduce the company's products in Hong Kong. In 1994, the two companies formed the Calbee Four Seas joint venture company, and opened a new production plant in Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in 2000. In 1980, Calbee established Calbee Tanawat in Thailand. Calbee International launched in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 1992. In 2018, Calbee acquired U.K. company Seabrook Crisps. In 2019, Calbee acquired Warnock Food Products.

Sponsorship

Calbee sponsored the Tyrrell Racing F1 team from 1990 to 1994 when Japanese drivers

Satoru Nakajima is a Japanese former racing driver. He is a five-time Japanese Top Formula champion, and was the first full-time Japanese Formula One driver. Accordingly, he is responsible for several firsts for Japanese drivers in Formula One, including bei ...

and Ukyo Katayama drove for the team. The company was also one of the sponsors for the anime '' Tiger and Bunny''. Alongside dmm.com, they sponsored the character of Dragon Kid.

References

* Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Snack food manufacturers of Japan Brand name potato chips and crisps Japanese companies established in 1949 Confectionery companies of Japan {{Food-company-stub