Increasing oil prices and the gashapon industry
Zakzak reports that the increasing oil prices recently are starting to hurt the 30 billion yen gachagacha/gashapon industry as rising costs for the production of the plastic containers to keep the gashapon in are starting to thin their profits.
Even the biggest gashapon maker Bandai who has about 65% market share has changed the 65mm containers that they’ve always used to 50mm containers since April this year so as to save costs.
Yujin which is under the other major gashapon maker Takara Tomy who owns 35% market share is also considering switching from their usual containers that use a combination of both soft and hard plastics to using containers made of only soft plastics to save in costs.
The gashapon market had been expanding at every year hitting a peak of 33.5 billion yen in 2005, but shrank to 30.5 billion yen in 2006, and with the problems of increasing oil prices also adding to the problem, gashapon makers have no choice but find ways to cut costs.
