Ajinomoto
| Ajinomoto Co., Inc. 味 の 素 株式会社
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| legal form | Kabushiki kaisha (KK) |
| ISIN | JP3119600009 |
| founding | 1925 |
| Seat | Chūō , Japan |
| management | Takaaki Nishii (President and CEO ) |
| Number of employees | 31,312 (2015) |
| sales | 1.185 trillion JPY (2015/16) 9250000000 EUR |
| Branch | Food, Pharma |
| Website | www.ajinomoto.com |
Ajinomoto KK ( Japanese 味 の 素 株式会社 ; English Ajinomoto Co., Inc. ) is a Japanese company in the food industry that primarily produces flavors, spices and oils. His best-known product, monosodium glutamate , is so successful that the word “Ajinomoto”, literally “essence of taste”, is used as a generic name (comparable to “Maggi” ) in Japan regardless of the manufacturer. Monosodium glutamate is widely used in cooking in East Asia.
history
In 1908, the scientist Ikeda Kikunae found a method for producing crystalline monosodium glutamate and discovered its taste-enhancing effect ( umami ). Together with the entrepreneur Suzuki Saburōsuke , he founded a company for industrial production in 1909. It was initially called Suzuki Seiyakusho , later Suzuki Shōten . In 1914 production began in a factory in Kawasaki , in 1917 Suzuki Shōten was registered as a public company, and in the same year expansion overseas began with the opening of an office in New York. After another name change in 1932, the company has been called Ajinomoto since 1946.
Ajinomoto began producing oils in the 1930s, and after the Second World War the company continued its international expansion, especially in Asian markets. In the 1980s, the production of amino acids as a raw material for the pharmaceutical industry began. In 1991 Ajinomoto joined the beverage manufacturer Calpis , which was completely taken over in 2007.
Product range (selection)
Amino acids and amino acid derivatives
Enzymes
Source: 2006 annual report
subsidiary company
The Ajinomoto Group includes numerous companies in 21 countries, including Ajinomoto Europe SAS as the regional company for Europe, Africa and all of Russia with a total of over 2000 employees, which also includes the German subsidiary Ajinomoto Foods Deutschland GmbH, based in Hamburg. In Japan, the subsidiary Kunōru Shokuhin KK (English name: Knorr Foods Co. Ltd.) holds the rights to the Knorr brand .
Sponsorship
The naming rights of the Tōkyō Stadium , home of the football clubs FC Tokyo and Tokyo Verdy , were sold to Ajinomoto in 2003 for five years. During this time the multifunctional stadium with around 50,000 seats was called Ajinomoto Stadium .
Web links
- Official Website (Japanese)
- International corporate website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Corporate Overview , at www.ajinomoto.com , accessed May 12, 2016.
- ↑ Ajinomoto 2016 Consolidated Results ( Memento of May 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2016.
- ↑ Converted at the rate on the balance sheet date, May 12, 2016.
- ↑ AJINOMOTO ( Memento from December 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Annual report 2006 (PDF; 1.7 MB).
- ↑ http://www.ajinomoto-europe.com/en/introduction.html .
- ↑ http://www.ajinomoto-europe.com/en/affiliates.html .
- ↑ http://www.knorr.jp/home.html straight-line | url = http: //www.knorr.jp/home.html | date = 2018-08 | archivebot = 2018-08-22 15: 17:50 InternetArchiveBot}} (link not available).