Calbee, URC to open JV in April

Calbee, Japan's largest snack food company, has teamed up with Universal Robina Corp's (URC) to form a snack food joint venture as part of global expansion plans.The tie-up will be called Calbee-URC Inc. and will be 50-50 percent owned by URC and Calbee. The venture will have an initial capital of P600 million and is scheduled to start on April this year."We aim to achieve 4 billion yen of annual net sales within six years of business commencement. We believe the joint venture will contribute to Calbee's medium to long term business performance," the company said in a statement.Calbee commands a 52.3% share of the snack food market in the world's third biggest economy. Its sales for fiscal year ending March 2013 reached around P79.6 billion