How it started
Founding and early years
The company was founded in devastated post-war Hiroshima by Takashi Matsuo in 1949, initially under the name Matsuo Food Processing Co., Ltd. His first product was the Calbee Caramel, named after the words "calcium" and vitamin B1, nutrients that many people were lacking at the time. Due to the product's popularity, the company name was changed to Calbee Confectionery Co., Ltd. in 1955, and later to Calbee, Inc. when the headquarters were relocated to Tokyo.
In 1964, Calbee launched Kappa Ebisen, a shrimp-flavoured cracker that became the company's first major national hit. The product's advertising slogan, "Yamerarenai, tomaranai" (やめられない、止まらない, "Can't stop, won't stop"), became one of the most recognised advertising phrases in Japanese commercial history. Kappa Ebisen eventually achieved annual sales of ¥10 billion.
Expansion
In 1973, Calbee Moh Seng (previously the Moh Seng Importer & Exporter Private Limited) was integrated into Calbee. 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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Calbee, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2