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Sojitz Group and NittoBest Enter Daily/Prepared Food Production and Meat Processing Business

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Feb. 28, 2017
Sojitz Corporation
Sojitz Foods Corporation

Last year, Sojitz Corporation (“Sojitz”) and Sojitz Food Corporation (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuzuru Kamioka) established Japan Best Foods Co, Ltd. (“JBF”) in Vietnam, together with NittoBest Corporation (Head Office: Sagae-shi, Yamagata; Representative Director: Kazuhiko Ohnuma; “NittoBest”), a wholesale frozen foods manufacturer. Through JBF, they now plan to start a daily/prepared food production and meat processing business in the country from this upcoming March.

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【Concept image of the daily/prepared food and meat processing plant】

JBF will build a manufacturing plant for the business, equipped with a state-of-the-art automation system, within Sojitz Group’s Long Duc Industrial Park in Vietnam. The business will sell daily/prepared foods to local retailers and processed meats to both local retailers and restaurants, starting with sales of daily/prepared foods to Aeon Group’s Ministop convenience stores. After that, they will move into sales to other local retailers such as Aeon Vietnam’s general supermarkets and Aeon City Mart, a chain of small-scale supermarkets in the country. By continuing to expand the business, they aim to reach 3-4 billion yen in sales within the next 10 years.

This business model is designed for synergy with the other parts of Sojitz Group’s food value chain in Vietnam. It will not only support Sojitz Group’s raw material procurement and operations in Vietnam; it will also support the retailer and restaurant-targeted sales of Huong Thuy Manufacture Service Trading Corporation, Sojitz’s food wholesale subsidiary in the region, as well as utilize the sophisticated distribution infrastructure of four-temperature logistics subsidiary, Newland Vietnam Japan Joint Stock Company. Sojitz also plans to conduct a comprehensive study together with Aeon Group, to examine other ways their two companies might help improve quality of life for Vietnamese consumers.

NittoBest is considering using this food and processed meat business as a launch pad for a cooked frozen foods business, to meet the needs of Vietnam’s increasingly diverse diet.

Vietnam’s retail industry has continued to modernize in recent years, coming to include supermarkets and convenience stores as the country’s economic growth brings increased spending power to consumers. However, technological innovation in the daily/prepared foods industry is still behind that of other countries, and Vietnam is trying to accelerate the development of infrastructure geared towards the further development of the country’s food-related markets, including that of retail.

Sojitz Group will contribute to the expansion and development of Vietnam’s food product market by providing advanced products and services through this business, together with NittoBest. At the same time, we aim to help raise customer satisfaction in the country.

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【Map showing JBF and surrounding area】

Company Overview – NittoBest

Established July 1948
Head Office 4-27, Saiwaicho, Sagae-shi, Yamagata
Representative Director Kazuhiko Ohnuma
Main Businesses Manufacture and sale of frozen foods, daily foods, canned foods, bagged foods, chilled foods, retort pouch foods

Company Overview – Japan Best Foods Co., Ltd.

Established April 2016
Start of Operations March 2017 (scheduled)
Head Office Road N3-1, Long Duc IP, Long Duc ward, Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province, Vietnam.
Representative Director Michio Serizawa
Ownership NittoBest (51%), Sojitz Foods (30%), Sojitz (19%)
Main Business Manufacture and sale of daily/prepared foods, processed meats
Facility Overview

Plot area: 9,962m2
Building area: 1st floor - 3,629m2; 2nd floor - 2,703m2

Production scale:
Daily (prepared) foods – max 100,000 items per day
Processed meats– max 3 tons per day
Site location:
a little less than one hour from Cat Lai Port—Vietnam’s largest container terminal—and the new Long Thanh International Airport scheduled to open in 2025
Main products:
rice balls, boxed lunches, sushi, sandwiches, salads, noodle dishes

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