TAGS: Skin Care Hair Care Decorative Cosmetics
We recently interviewed Takao Ando, President & CEO, Sanyo Chemical Industries on the company’s competitive strengths and future plans to serve increasing demand of performance chemicals around the globe, especially in cosmetics industry.
He shares about Sanyo Chemical’s performance chemicals technologies and their exclusive R&D approach combining market needs and products performance. Ando also shares about their aim to help cosmetics formulators achieve excellent performance in their products.
Read on…
#1 Can you tell us who is Sanyo Chemical?
TA: Sanyo Chemical is a Japanese chemical manufacturer, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. We manufacture and sell over 3,000 types of specialty chemicals across the world, with sales offices in Japan, China, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.
Guided by our Company Motto: “
Let us contribute to building a better society through our corporate activities”, Sanyo Chemical strives to improve the quality of life through our performance chemicals. We aim for perfection in safety and thorough legal compliance, as well as promoted dialogue with all our stakeholders since the company was established in 1949.
Our number one priority is to achieve profit while contributing more to society. At Sanyo Chemical, we are focusing our effort on both globalization of our business and the innovation of our products.
#2 You are famous in Japan for your R&D capability, with an approach combining market needs and products performance, can you elaborate?
TA: At Sanyo Chemical, we focus and encourage, Research and Development to better help our customers. One of our key strategies for growth is to be able to offer high-end quality products to the market. We employ more than 2,000 people around the world, and 30% of our workforce is assigned to R&D.
Throughout the years, we have launched many innovations, and it has led us to develop a single approach to our R&D, which is called the “
NeeSeeds Oriented Approach”.
We achieve diverse performance by combining the needs with multiple seeds: existing technologies, products, and know-hows. When we develop a product A, we use the current seed (technology) and enhance it to meet the requirements of product A’s needs. The new developed seed become a new technology which can be used to develop new products.
The NeeSeed Oriented Approach
An example of our “NeeSeeds Oriented Approach” can be seen in our
super absorbent polymers. These are mainly used for
diapers, but we have expanded the application of the technology to alkaline batteries and lithium batteries. Another example is in painting material, where we develop dispersant for polyurethane emersion. The same technology can be applied for
mascara in cosmetics as well.
#3 Sanyo Chemical manufactures approx. 3,000 types of specialty chemicals, what markets do you serve?
TA: Sanyo Chemical’s core competence is an interface control technology cultivated in surfactant technology. We are introducing performance chemicals to the world by
combining organic synthesis and polymer design technologies.
We currently offer solutions to satisfy the needs of six main markets:
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Healthcare and cosmetics
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Adhesives and coatings
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Textile
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Housing and environment
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Electronics, and
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Automotive
#4 Can you tell us more about how your company can help the cosmetics industry?
TA: We develop cosmetics materials and consumer cosmetics, such as surfactants for hair care applications, skin care and make-up applications. We also offer our customers aqueous thickeners based on natural-derived ingredients to answer the market challenges of performance chemicals while being respectful to the environment.
In 1978, we developed
super absorbent for diapers as the world’s first, we enhanced the technology and adapted it to now become part of
SALANJUL thickeners for the cosmetics market.
Our products help cosmetics formulators achieve excellent performance, and we always try to better serve our customers by developing new cosmetics raw materials answering their needs.
#5 Do you have any ongoing projects to which formulators can look forward to?
TA: Our recent agreement with
Nippon Shokubai has enabled us to produce synergetic effects by leveraging both companies’ strengths and corporate cultures. We aim to become one of the
leading functional chemical manufacturers in Japan.
One of the focus business areas is to strengthen our cosmetics offering with performance raw materials and customer-focused proposal capabilities. Our R&D teams provide technical support for customers and propose formulas which they can use with our products. Our Beauty and Personal Care department is working on the launch of our very own cosmetics brand that supports women living their best lives with glowing skin.
Another exciting project we have been working on, is a new generation of lithium-ion batteries. We are going to launch the world’s very first all-polymer lithium batteries. Lithium batteries currently use some metals and can show defects, especially regarding flame retardancy. All polymer battery is more reliable and flexible. The new batteries will be using surfactant and interface control technology from Sanyo Chemical.
#6 What are Sanyo Chemical’s ambitions for the future?
TA: For the past few years, the demand for higher performance products has been increasing around the globe, even in emerging countries. We see the opportunity for our performance chemicals to serve these new demands.
Under these business environments, Sanyo Chemical Group has set the long term goal with a vision set for 2027: “We have grown to be a unique, global, and highly profitable company, where all our employees proud themselves, find meaning in their work, and contribute to society”.
Our company culture is to really focus on offering quality and performance products to our customers while contributing to building a better society. During the Covid-19 situation, many of our employees have been working from home. This is very unconventional for the Japanese society, but I changed those rules.
Find Out the Complete Range of Surfactants by Sanyo Chemical Industries:
» Learn to Choose the Right Surfactant for Facial and Hair Care Applications!
About Takao Ando
Born in Osaka and graduated with Honorary Ph.D. in Engineering from Osaka University, Takao Ando joined Sanyo Chemical Industries, Ltd. in 1977. He held various positions from R&D to strategic management, and gained a wide perspective on globalization through his overseas experience. Since 2011, Takao Ando has been the president and CEO of Sanyo Chemical and is committed to driving the company with a growth mindset and contribute to a better society.