How Instant Ramen Became An Instant Success | Billion Dollar Breakthrough

in 1958 a new food was invented with the goal to help end hunger in japan the inventor knew it had to be delicious non-perishable easy to prepare and inexpensive that food was this 29 cent pack of instant ramen every day 290 million people eat instant noodles they've even been eaten in space roger reportedly the astronaut said i enjoyed it but you don't get billions of dollars in sales and a sanrio merch tie-in just by accident so how did a 48 year old businessman who knew almost nothing about making noodles start a multi-billion dollar industry momofuku ondo was an entrepreneur with a wild resume everything from selling textiles to charcoal and he even started a school at one point now ando's story has admittedly gotten a bit mythical over time there's even this adorable children's book written about him and an incredible animated short film about his origins it's called samurai rules and it's probably the coolest hour story page a company can have and i think you can see the resemblance but anyway to really understand how that giant box of ramen ended up in your grocery store we have to go back to 1940s japan [Music] after world war ii japan faced widespread famine and had its worst harvest season in decades a nissan spokesperson would later state that at the time people were starving and queueing for noodles at street stalls because of strict rationing laws and a ban on selling street food thousands of unsanctioned open-air markets started to pop up it's estimated that factory workers got more than half of their vegetables on the black market at the time japan relied heavily on the wheat provided by the u.s during its occupation ramen and gyoza both made from surplus wheat flour were considered stamina food because they were high in calories and kept you full but at the time there was a big push to use the us provided wheat to make bread ando as inquisitive as ever wanted to know why the government wasn't using more of that wheat flour to make noodles which were much more common in japan he said if you change your diet you are in effect throwing away your traditions and cultural heritage ando thought that ramen that was more accessible and easier to prepare could be a solution to japan's hunger problem but in response he was basically told if you think it's a good idea then do it yourself so he did but this was no easy task ando had basically no noodle making experience and remember that checklist he had to figure out how to bring great flavor and texture to instant food after a year of experimenting he finally had his breakthrough according to my favorite anime samurai noodles the development process looked a little bit like this which is pretty epic basically after watching his wife make tempura he realized that frying the noodles was key frying extracted their moisture so they could be stored for long periods of time and they've rehydrated with hot water that's how we got this iconic break of noodles what you'll love is that you can serve your family in three minutes and for just pennies what i find so interesting about ando's invention was that it wasn't an accidental breakthrough he thought instant noodles would be a success and he worked for a year to find the solution looking back he said the experience of hardship and suffering strengthened me to succeed in a critical time in 1958 ando released chicken ramen and changed his company's name to nissen which you probably recognize ando played a direct role in trying to sell instant ramen reportedly setting up a sales booth in tokyo to give customers a chance to try the new product at first it actually cost more than five times the price of fresh noodles but the taste and convenience made it a huge hit [Applause] it was nicknamed magic ramen because it was ready to eat in just a few minutes it was now over a decade since the end of world war ii japan's economy had started to improve it was a surplus of wheat flour and people were going back to working long hours these were the perfect circumstances for instant ramen to succeed chicken ramen sold 13 million packages in its first year and sales in japan skyrocketed growing by billions in just a decade as its popularity grew dozens of companies started manufacturing instant noodles in 1968 instant ramen was estimated to hit three and a half billion servings but andre wasn't done inventing at age 61 it was time to make instant noodles even more instant nissan introduced cup noodles in 1971 and like chicken ramen it was a huge hit in fact it was so popular that nissan couldn't meet demand even though they were making 650 000 cups a day you can see how noodles in a cup completely overtakes packaged noodle sales by 1989. today cup noodle sales are more than double packaged no sales in japan [Music] and ander was still involved with the company in 1998 the japan times wrote that even as he celebrates his 88th birthday this year honda was still keen to invent new variations on his instant noodles today hundreds of instant noodle flavors are introduced in japan every year but it wasn't just a hit in japan china is currently the largest market eating over 40 billion servings a year but south korea leads in per capita consumption with a staggering 75 servings per year that's a lot of instant ramen here in the us the original nissan top ramen was introduced in 1972 most people are like corey they love eating all those noodles and top ramen six years later the washington post wrote now the noodles are threatening to replace tv sets as japan's hottest export to this country i ando was even awarded the key to the city in la and in 1989 the new york times wrote the growing u.s appetite for asian style ramen can no longer be ignored it became a fixture in u.s supermarkets despite being a new type of food for a lot of americans today instant ramen consumption in the us is over four and a half billion servings per year and over a hundred billion serving globally and in case you were wondering ando finally retired at age 95. nissan the company ondo founded reported over 450 billion yen in revenue in 2019 or about 4.3 billion dollars it's now led by ando's son koki but despite its commercial success ando didn't forget his original goal to help end hunger in 1997 ando helped start what's now called the world instant noodles association its purpose is to improve the instant noodle industry and provide emergency food aid since its founding the organization has helped donate hundreds of thousands of instant noodle servings ando once said it is never too late to do anything in life you can have a new beginning even at the age of 50 or 60 and he really lived his life with that mindset whether or not you believe every detail of the samurai noodle story instant ramen completely changed the way that people ate a centuries-old food you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 726,617

Rating: 4.9119072 out of 5

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, ramen, top ramen, noodles, instant noodles, food, food brand, retail, japan, cup noodles

Id: ASlx70G2x-c

Length: 7min 34sec (454 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021