ITOCHU Chemical Frontier Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Tsutomu Miyazaki, President and CEO; hereinafter "ICF") announced today that has agreed to a strategic investment in Maypro Group LLC, (headquartered in New York, USA; Steve Yamada, Chairman; May Yamada-Lifton, President/CEO; hereinafter "Maypro"), one of the leading international companies of health food ingredients who develops, manufactures, and markets health food ingredients. This investment gives ICF a 25% stake of Maypro, becoming ICF’s equity-method affiliate.

The global health food ingredients market is experiencing steadily growth due to the global population growth, aging population, and increasing health consciousness, reaching a revenue size of US$184.4 billion* in 2023. Among these, the U.S. is driving the growth of the health food ingredients industry as the world’s largest market, accounting for about 37%* of the global market.

Maypro, since its establishment in the U.S. in 1977, has been engaged in the supply of scientifically proven health food ingredients (general-purpose ingredients such as amino acids and natural extracts, as well as proprietary branded ingredients) and the manufacturing and marketing of finished products in the U.S., Japan, China, and other countries. The company's strength lies in its long experience and know-how, covering the entire value chain from selection, marketing, publicity, and sales of health food ingredients, as well as its ability to provide products that meet consumers' needs based on consumer feedback obtained through the sales of its own products and OEM products. In recognition of these achievements, the company has won four NutrAwards from NEXT™ Innovation Summit™ (now NEXTY Award), the U.S.-based health food ingredients trade show, and has established a strong position in the U.S. nutrition industry. Over the years, Maypro has also contributed to the popularization of products such as coenzyme Q10, chondroitin, and glucosamine, which are now widely recognized as one of the major health food ingredients worldwide.

ICF has been developing life science businesses in the fields from daily living to prevention/pre-symptomatic state, diagnosis/treatment, and prognosis and expanding not only in the B-to-B area but also in the B-to-C area contributing to consumers' health enhancement. In this field, ICF consider the food-science area (functional food ingredients, health foods, etc.) to be a focus area, and have long sold health food ingredients such as Collagen and GABA. To further expand and strengthen our business, ICF believe it is essential to establish our business from the market-oriented perspective and further expand our business overseas. By combining the know-how Maypro has cultivated in the U.S. market over the past 47 years with the ITOCHU group's worldwide network, we believe we will be able to provide high-quality ingredients and products that accurately meet the needs of consumers worldwide.

ICF is expanding its business domain by developing and evolving downstream businesses closer to consumers to meet diversifying needs in line with changes in society.


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