Ajinomoto and Honen merge operations

Honen Corp. and Ajinomoto Oil Mills Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of seasoning maker Ajinomoto Co., will integrate their operations on April 1, 2002 to cope with a rise in edible food imports, the companies said on Thursday. Honen and Ajinomoto Oil will set up a holding company into which they will transfer shares and become wholly owned subsidiaries. The two companies will jointly streamline product development, production and distribution, and cooperate on marketing them by making use of their established brands. The Japan Times reports that domestic manufacturers of edible oil are trying to improve international competitiveness following a substantial cut in import tariffs that was made in 1996. In the 2000 business year, which ended in March, Honen, the nation's second-largest maker of cooking oil, chalked up a consolidated net profit of 1.43 billion yen (Euro13m) and a pretax profit of 3.01 billion yen (Euro27.34m) on group sales of 85.99 billion yen (Euro781.275m). Ajinomoto Oil released unconsolidated results for the year, including a pretax profit of 776 million yen (Euro7.05m) and a net profit of 168 million yen (Euro1.526m) on sales of 36.80 billion yen (Euro334.352m).