Tokyo, April 1, 2008 - Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has established two factories in Thailand, the greatest stronghold in the overseas food business, for strengthening our food business in Thailand and Asian countries.
1) Geared toward Japan. A new production line for processed food products packaged in pouches was built at Ajinomoto Co., (Thailand) Ltd., Nongkhae Factory. The production of new line-ups of Cook Do with the ingredients will begin.
2) Geared toward Thailand. A new factory of Birdy canned coffee that is sold by Ajinomoto Sales (Thailand) Co., Ltd., was build, enabling production increase and self-manufacture of the coffee extract.
This establishment of factories was advanced with the aim of expansion of business by creating high value-added products through reviewing from the aspect of raw material procurement as well as manufacturing. For Cook Do, a further improvement of product quality will be enabled by utilizing the raw material procurement of Ajinomoto Co., (Thailand) Ltd. and the high-quality pork material of Thailand. For Birdy canned coffee, a stable quality improvement will be secured by internalizing roasting/extracting technology as well as being able to meet increased demand.
The Ajinomoto group has established a new factory for processed chicken frozen food products in Thailand and has also increased its production line of processed pork frozen food products in November 2007. Including these two investments and the construction of two new factories this time, the overall facility investment comes to 11.2 billion yen.
The Ajinomoto group established Ajinomoto Co., (Thailand) Ltd. in 1960, and began sales of AJI-NO-MOTO in 1962. After that, it has expanded its food business into multiple business domains including seasonings, instant noodles, frozen foods, and beverages. And there are 7 group companies in Thailand at the present. In 2006, the Ajinomoto group's overseas food business sales were 127.7 billion yen (11% of Ajinomoto group's sales of 1 trillion and 158.5 billion yen). Asian region sales account for 78% of overseas food business sales, and Thailand is a major country where such sales are generated. The Ajinomoto Group companies in Thailand will pull the Ajinomoto Group overseas food business through the expansion of not only Thailand's domestic business but surrounding countries in Asia, and also functioning as manufacturing bases for products with high quality and value-added for the Japanese market.