Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto Co., Inc.

Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan
Native name	味の素株式会社
Romanized name	Ajinomoto Kabushiki-gaisha
Type	Public (K.K.)
Traded as	TYO: 2802
Industry	Food industry
Founded	1917 (1917) (as S. Suzuki & Co. Ltd.)
Headquarters	Chūō, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Masatoshi Ito (President & Chief Executive Officer)
Products	seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids and pharmaceuticals
Revenue	¥1,172 billion (FY 2013)
Operating income	¥71 billion (FY 2013)
Net income	¥48 billion (FY 2013)
Total assets	¥1,091 billion (FY 2013)
Total equity	¥691 billion (FY 2013)
Number of employees	27,518 (2013)
Slogan	Eat Well, Live Well
Website	Ajinomoto Group

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (味の素株式会社, Ajinomoto Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese food and chemical corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids, and pharmaceuticals. In particular it is the world's largest producer of aspartame, with a 40% global market share.

The literal translation of Aji no Moto is “Essence of Taste,” used as a trademark for the company’s original monosodium glutamate (MSG) product.

Its head office is located in Chūō, Tokyo.

Ajinomoto operates in 26 countries, employing around 27,518 people as of 2013. Its yearly revenue in the fiscal year of 2013 stands at around US$12 billion.

Products

Ajinomoto products

Monosodium glutamate

Ajinomoto’s main product, monosodium glutamate (MSG; グルタミン酸ナトリウム) seasoning, was first marketed in Japan in 1909, having been discovered and patented by Kikunae Ikeda. He found that the most important compound within seaweed broth for common use was actually a glutamate salt, which he identified with the taste umami, a word meaning 'pleasant taste' or 'savoriness'. As the simplest such salt for human consumption, the popularity of MSG helped the company rapidly expand to other countries, with Ajinomoto U.S.A., Inc. established in 1956.

Before the eventual publicity, the conglomerate was founded on Ikeda's work: it was the first to suggest that industrially purified glutamic acid salts, residues or analogues, originally found in seaweed or dried fish-based broth, might have a characteristic taste of its own. That idea was rapidly connected to the much older Japanese, culinary term of umami. This led to early adoption of MSG as a culinary agent in Japan.

Aspartame

Ajinomoto is the world's largest manufacturer of aspartame, sold under the trade name Aminosweet. It acquired its aspartame business in 2000 from Monsanto for US$67 million.

Glutamine

Ajinomoto supplies the amino acid L-Glutamine.

History

Lysine price-fixing (1990s)

Ajinomoto was a member of the Lysine price fixing cartel in the mid-1990s. Along with Kyowa Hakko Kogyo, and Sewon America Inc., Ajinomoto settled with the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division in September 1996. Each firm and one executive from each pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain to aid in further investigation. Their cooperation led to Archer Daniels Midland settling charges with the US Government in October 1996 for $100 million, a record antitrust fine at the time. The cartel had been able to raise Lysine prices 70% within their first six months of cooperation.

2000 to 2008

By mid-2000, Ajinomoto's acquisition of NutraSweet and 'Euro-Aspartame' from Monsanto had been completed.

In early 2001, Ajinomoto was involved in a scandal in majority-Muslim Indonesia when it emerged that a pork-based enzyme had been used in its production of MSG.

In January 2006, the company bought the cooking sauce and condiments manufacturer Amoy Food from the French dairy product company Groupe Danone, which had run the division as the "Amoy Asian food unit". At the time of the acquisition, Ajinomoto was the largest Japanese maker of seasonings.

Lawsuits against Asda (2008–2010)

In 2008, Ajinomoto sued British supermarket chain Asda, part of Wal-Mart, for a malicious falsehood action concerning its aspartame product when the chemical was listed as excluded from the chain's product line along with other "nasties". In July 2009, a British court found in favour of Asda. In June 2010, an appeal court reversed the decision, allowing Ajinomoto to pursue a case against Asda to protect aspartame's reputation. At that time, Asda said that it would continue to use the term "no nasties" on its own-label products, however, the suit was settled out of court in 2011 after Asda removed references to aspartame from its packaging.

2010 to present

In late 2012, the Company sold its Calpis beverage unit to Asahi Breweries for US$1.5 billion.

In 2013, the Company acquired the contract manufacturing organization Althea Technologies for US$175 million in a bid to expand biopharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States.

Corporate governance

As of April 2013, the president and CEO of Ajinomoto Group was Masatoshi Ito.

Ajinomoto’s chairman since June 2005, Kunio Egashira, died on April 7, 2008. Egashira had previously served as the company's president from June 1997.

Organization

According to the Global Corporate website, there are three major types of subsidiaries based on the products they produce: Seasonings and Processed Foods, Frozen Foods and Amino Acids; the number of subsidiaries in each category number 27, 9 and 12, respectively, and most are geographically defined entities.

North America

Ajinomoto North America, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ajinomoto Co. It is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina and covers operations in the United States, Mexico and Canada. According to the company, it is the "only pharmaceutical L-amino acid manufacturer in the United States."

Chemicals units

Ajinomoto has three divisions devoted to chemical manufacture outside of the amino acid manufacturing area: NaturalSpecialities and Tensiofix are subunits of Omnichem, which is headquartered in Belgium.

See also

• Ajinomoto Stadium
• Calpis
• Monosodium glutamate
• Aspartame
• Aspartame controversy
• Motoko-chan no Wonder Kitchen, a mid-1990s Super Famicom video game that advertises the company's then-current products

External links

• Ajinomoto Group - Global
• Ajinomoto - English