20NOV 2014

VOL.69
France

Nutrition & Santé Inaugurates New Factory in France

New Factory inauguration in Revel, France

Otsuka Group member Nutrition & Santé (N&S) opened its latest factory for slimming and sports bar foods, in its motherland of Revel, South of France, where the company was established 42 years ago.

Meaning of "SEIKA"

Village officials, as well as guests from Japan participated together in the "Cherry tree planting", a tradition in Japanese ceremonies

This new factory, named SEIKA, meaning "achievement" or "success" in Japanese, will be N&S Group's 9th factory, but also the first new factory after having been acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical in early 2009.

In that sense, SEIKA is a revolutionary factory, a landmark and a milestone in terms of production mindset, technology and quality.

SEIKA solves multiple issues at once. The factory design allows improvement in quality, higher and stricter hygienic environment, much faster and flexible production changes leading to 70% more capacity even when reducing the lines from 3 to 2. The factory layout allows additional line expansion, which can happen in a few years, if we continue to grow at the current speed.

"Never give up and continue to strive on course"

Mr. Hiroshi Inaka, Head of Global Production, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, performing the traditional Japanese Daruma ceremony

The factory was inaugurated with all employees of the 4 factories and Headquarters of Nutrition & Santé, with 2 symbolic Japanese traditional ceremonies: the Cherry tree planting and the Daruma spirit infusion. Daruma is a Japanese good luck charm, that brings out the "never give up on dreams" and "continue to strive on course" spirit.

SEIKA will mainly supply protein bars for slimming and sports dietary purposes. Effective intake of protein is not only an issue for consumers with sports and slimming objectives, but has a much wider opportunity in the future applications. SEIKA will continue to support European consumers with protein bars to keep them healthy and active.