TOKYO — Yamazaki Baking Co., Japan’s largest baking company, is cutting in half the number of items it produces, and instead is focusing on its best-selling products, according to an article in The Daily Yomiuri.
The move, which will cut the number of products Yamazaki makes to less than 1,000 from more than 1,800, comes in the wake of the earthquake earlier this year in Japan. Since the earthquake, Yamazaki has shifted focus toward capitalizing on improved efficiency, said The Daily Yomiuri.

Yamazaki Baking makes more than a dozen major brands of sliced bread, but production output declined following the March 11 earthquake. To improve production output, The Daily Yomiuri noted that Yamazaki has reduced the number of products it makes, and at one point the company was producing only 200 items, a figure that has since recovered to more than 800.

Yamazaki has decided to continue streamlining its overall product line to cut costs as prices of flour and other raw materials remain relatively high.