In 2019, we celebrated the 90th anniversary of Oriental Yeast’s founding, and are now working to achieve further progress in our two main business segments—food and bioindustry—as we approach our next major milestone of 100 years of doing business.

Oriental Yeast was essentially a venture company when it was established in 1929 as Japan’s first manufacturer of baker’s yeast. The company’s mission at that time was to ensure a dependable supply of good-quality domestically produced yeast to the country’s bread industry. Since then and up to the present day, Oriental Yeast has been at the heart of Japan’s bread market as the leading manufacturer of domestically produced yeast. Leveraging the expertise and technical innovations accumulated over that history, the company went on to supply various food ingredients besides yeast to a wider range of industries, including the mass-produced bread and confectionary industries as well as the restaurant and home-use ready-to-eat meals industries. Drawing from our extensive experience in the bread industry, we pay close attention to our customer base of food manufacturers and the consumers of their products while always pursuing even better quality.

Along with the food business, the company established its bioindustry business early on by utilizing its research on yeast. Today, this business offers a wide lineup of products and services covering upstream to downstream drug development research processes. For diagnostic agent raw materials such as enzymes and coenzymes, in particular, the business has secured high market shares. We have also been involved in cutting-edge research projects, including the development of laboratory animal diets and feeding devices used in the International Space Station. By supplying products and services to pharmaceutical firms and research institutes around the world, Oriental Yeast has been making positive contributions to medical treatment and people’s health worldwide.

By making the most of its vast stock of yeast strains, unique R&D capabilities, and close partnerships with customers, Oriental Yeast has been growing its businesses as a member of the Nisshin Seifun Group. As part of its efforts to help the Group achieve its long-term vision, Oriental Yeast is entering the yeast manufacturing industry in India, where demand for bread is growing. We are already constructing a manufacturing plant—the company’s first outside Japan—with plans to start production and sales in the summer of 2020.

Yeast has various functional and useful properties, but its potential is still not fully known. Starting from our longstanding quest to discover even more potential benefits of yeast, we will continue working to create new value without becoming complacent about the company’s solid position in the market. To accomplish our goal of contributing to people’s lives and health as a technologically driven company, we will maintain our commitment to customers by supplying the ingredients they need to produce high-quality and safe products.