Message from Director of the Board,Senior Executive Officer of Health Science Strategy

May 31, 2024

Aiming to Be One of Asia-Pacific’s Largest Health Science Companies by Leveraging Our Proprietary Materials and Technologies, Including LC-Plasma

Toru Yoshimura
Director of the Board,
Senior Executive Officer
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited

A unique approach that addresses building a foundation of health and individual health issues

The Kirin Group is aiming to be a global leader in CSV and is committed to resolving social issues through business. As can be seen from the impact of COVID-19, the social issue of health is an area of great significance in terms of both social and economic value. Our Group’s expertise in fermentation and biotechnology, honed through more than a century of experience in the beer industry, enabled us to enter the pharmaceutical market 40 years ago. Now, we are applying these technologies to the Health Science domain to tackle global health challenges.

Furthermore, what we value in resolving health issues is our Group’s unique approach to enhance innate human capabilities. This strategy involves pursuing both the “building a foundation of health” approach that targets immunity, which is important to all people regardless of race, gender, or age, and the resolution of individual health issues such as lifestyle disease and brain function.

Maximizing strengths and synergies of each company and accelerating progress forward as one Group

The strength of our Group’s Health Science domain is our ability to maximize our Group’s capacity for operating our businesses in the three domains of Food & Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, and Health Science. In addition to the fermentation and biotechnology mentioned earlier, we are also maximizing the demonstration of our consumer relationship-building skills cultivated in the Food & Beverages domain and our knowledge in the Pharmaceuticals domain in the Health Science domain. Particularly since establishing the Health Science Business Department in 2022, collaboration between operating companies has become smoother not only in R&D but also in various other areas, and each company involved in the Health Science domain is heading toward a shared goal with a sense of speed.

For example, businesses utilizing LC-Plasma, our Group’s unique material, collaborated with Group companies and domestic and overseas partner companies to develop a varied lineup so that more consumers can easily take part in “immune care” any place at any time. There is now a total of 59 products from 16 companies that are infused with LC-Plasma in Japan and is sold as a finished product in 11 countries around the world.

As a result of several Group companies’ efforts, including Kirin Beverage, which labels the Health Science domain as a growth driver, creating a new market; Koiwai Dairy greatly contributing to the production of yogurt and LC-Plasma bacteria; Kyowa Hakko Bio, which has played an important role in global regulatory compliance and sales; FANCL building a foundation for consumer contact in health foods; and the Group working to spread products from partner companies in a variety of categories, we achieved a sales revenue of 20 billion yen in 2023.

Going forward, we hope to further enhance Group initiatives like the above and to promote business with a greater sense of speed. In 2024, we will be focusing on expanding our brand business based on B2C consumer business, which is one of our Group's strengths, further strengthened by the acquisition of Blackmores in 2023. By concentrating our resources in areas of strength, we will maximize the strengths and synergies of each operating company to achieve business results as quickly as possible. Additionally, we will aim to become one of Asia-Pacific’s largest health science companies contributing to solving the health issues of many customers in Asia-Pacific, including Japan.

However, this will be supported, as always, by the Group's unique R&D capabilities and its ability to build relationships with customers. We will also utilize our new knowledge acquired from Blackmores to develop functional materials and products that meet consumer needs and will strengthen each organizational capability necessary to deliver them. As part of these efforts, we will continue to prioritize the revitalization of Kyowa Hakko Bio and the building of their strong operating base as a priority issue, and we will concentrate on promoting structural reform and our specialty businesses, as well as rebuilding the trust in our business.

Grow the Health Science domain into a new pillar of support for the Kirin Group

The Health Science domain is a new business within our Group. There is difficulty in not rushing to grow the business well, but we are taking it on with comprehensive support from our Group and the fiery passion of those involved in the business. Even I, who was appointed the president of the Health Science Division this spring, am feeling a strong sense of mission and excitement. This is because, beyond the health value we will provide by making the most of our Group’s unique strengths, are the joy and smiles of our consumers. To start, we will bring health and smiles to more consumers around the world by establishing an operating base in the Asia-Pacific, improving profitability while accumulating organizational capabilities, expanding into areas expected to achieve new growth and be profitable in the medium- to long-term, including North America, and improving our product and service portfolio through innovation. We will deliver health and smiles to even more consumers around the world. Then, with this in mind, we will grow the Health Science domain into a new pillar that supports our Group’s operations.