Behind the Group: Eiichi Kitazono

Eiichi Kitazono , General Manager of Biolier Business Department, works as part of Teijin’s functional food ingredient business, Biolier. He has been with us for an incredible 25 years, and has seen first hand how we have grown in terms of #innovation, #diversity and #sustainability.

Biolier is a new, innovative business integrating our globally renowned expertise both in materials and healthcare. As General Manager, Kitazono’s role is to grow the functional food ingredient business to one of the main pillars of our future business. Biolier, a combination of ‘bio’ and ‘sommelier’, emphasizes its status as one of a few companies involved with #synbiotics, which synergistically combine the functions of #prebiotics and #probiotics. With its mission to give Teijin a presence as a leading supplier of scientific evidence-based food ingredients, it contributes to enhancing people’s Quality of Life (#QOL), true to Teijin’s corporate philosophy for the modern world.

Kitazono’s curiosity about new #technology is what motivates him to move forward when facing new business challenges. His ambition to change the world for better is also to play a part in leading through challenges in developing new business: demonstrating his push to align with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs). Particularly ‘Zero Hunger’ and ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’ are relevant.

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Kitazono is leading Teijin’s functional food ingredient business, Biolier, which has been pushing #BARLEYmax ? prebiotics since 2016. It was in the early 2010s, when Kitazono was conducting market research, that he noticed booming coverage on the relationship between #health and bacteria in the #intestines in leading publications such as Nature and Science.

Describing it as a gut feeling that made him think gut bacteria could be a potential business venture for Teijin, he started to take more time to understand the market.

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“It might seem like food is too far from the wheelhouse of a company that specializes in chemistry and synthetic fibers, but if one of our core competences is fibers, why should we not apply our analytic and scientific skills to #dietaryfibres?” asks Kitazono.

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Although synthetic fibers and dietary fibers are vastly different, Kitazono realized the importance of scientific evidence behind promoting health-food products, and knew that with its significant expertise in pharmaceuticals, Teijin was the ideal place to vet products scientifically. It also drives him to play a part in continuing Teijin’s social #innovation - something he respects about the past.

Just under a decade ago, in 2014, Kitazono’s search for the ideal foundation product for Biolier brought him to a renowned expert in Australia - which was possible because of Teijin’s global, cross-country attitude to working to create a better society for the modern world.

It was through sheer coincidence, during a meeting originally concerning a completely different topic, which led to BARLEYmax?. Kitazono recognized the potential viability of such an innovative product with its clear superiority to standard grains. With beta-glucan, dietary fibre, resistant starch, protein, vitamins and minerals, and with a lower Glycemic Index and better digestive #wellbeing the scope for greatness was vast.

He proposed the idea of adding dietary fibers to the roster of Teijin high-performance fibers to Teijin executives with BARLEYmax? and thus Teijin’s functional food ingredient business was launched. Biolier has spent the past several years expanding a lineup of prebiotics and probiotics, including lactic acid and bifidobacterial products, and forging agreements for distribution into new markets. Looking to the long term, Kitazono sees big things.

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“Our long-term ultimate goal is to contribute to the safe and stable food supply, whose interest is mounting due to the recent climate change and geopolitical conflicts.”

Find out more about our BARLEYmax?.