Mitsubishi Corporation Life Sciences to boost market share in health food with consolidation of subsidiaries
The three subsidiaries are MC Food Specialties, Mitsubishi Shoji Foodtech, and KOHJIN Life Sciences Co.
The consolidation will take place by April 1 next year.
Mitsubishi Corporation Life Sciences itself is 100% owned by Mitsubishi Corporation, which has businesses spanning across environment and infrastructure, medical, energy, and industrial finance industry.
In response to queries from FoodNavigator-Asia and NutraIngredients-Asia, a spokesman from Mitsubishi Corporation Life Sciences said that the firm intended to invest in the development of health food such as nursing care food after merging resources of its subsidiaries.
Some of the health food applications include seasonings, sugar alcohols, bakery ingredients, polysaccharide thickeners, and functional ingredients.
“The Japanese food market is gradually shrinking because of depopulation, so we need to give priority to the development of a unique new product with additional values and functions that is good for health and enriches lifestyles, such as a nursing care food. We do so by combining management resources such as technology, products owned by the three group companies,” he said.
“The three companies have already established the ‘one-company’ management system virtually in 2016.”
“However there are still divided and overlapped functions, and we intend to streamline those functions and strengthen strategic business areas by allocating our resources.”
To expand its market share in the health food segment, the company also intends to upgrade the use of its technology from basic research to applied research and applications.
The spokesman added that as the standard of living improves in China and South East Asia, consumers are demanding healthier, safer, and tastier functional foods.
Venture into health food
Mitsubishi Corporation Life Sciences was set up on November 2012.
Its main services and products include pharmaceutical raw materials and intermediates; agrochemical raw materials, intermediates, and products; cosmetic raw materials; food ingredients and additives; and health ingredients and products.
Following the consolidation of its subsidiaries, Mitsubishi Corporation Life Sciences Holdings Limited will become the holding company of the three new companies.
The new consolidated company is set to achieve the sales figure of at least 100 billion yen.
