The Driving Force behind High-Quality, High-Appeal Product Creation

Research and development is the life source of a manufacturer. This concept can be described as Suntory's starting point, dating back to the Company's foundation. Over the years, we have accumulated technologies and expertise in such areas as the use of microorganism and enzymes, distillation, food-processing and analysis in the process of developing various products, beginning with alcoholic beverages.
Today, we continue to deploy these technologies and expertise to raise a constant challenge to the creation of unprecedented new products. Our success is evidenced by market-leading Suntory products in many beverage categories. Notable examples include Suntory Oolong Tea and BOSS canned coffee.
In recent years, we have produced and introduced such innovative products as iemon, a green tea beverage employing a tea leaf pulverizing technology, -196°C, a chu-hi produced with a technique for instantaneous freezing at -196°Celsius, Macadia, a new liqueur with a stress on health, and Magnum Dry, a happoshu made by fully extracting the flavor from malt with a high-temperature, high-pressure water system.
In 2004, we adopted "Water for Life, Suntory" as our corporate message, established the Institute for Water Science to conduct research on water itself and pursued research concerning the development of various products, including natural water. We also completed our Products Development Center in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, a huge consumer market, during the term, and we are currently pursuing product development here that responds even more vibrantly to customer requests.
At the same time, Suntory has also pursued research in the field of organic chemistry through a foundation and subsidized outside research since 1946 in accordance with our principle of "returning corporate profits to society". These activities reflect our desire to contribute to society by promoting life science research for the common good of all humankind.

Taking up Challenges in Pursuit of Dreams

In researching technologies concerning plants, which are our raw materials, and microorganisms such as yeast, we have focused particular attention over the years on achieving "good taste". These activities eventually led us to results in new fields, including the discovery of new health materials and health effects and the development of new flower varieties.
Suntory has positioned health as a major theme for the next generation. We are pursuing development of health foods made with original materials such as sesamin and arachidonic acid and promoting research on various aspects of health, including antioxidation and blood flow promotion, at the Institute for Health Care Science we established in March 2001.
We are also applying the technologies we have accumulated over the years to the flower business. We currently handle over 100 garden products. The popular Surfinia, for example, a petunia variety known for sparking a gardening boom, has established a place as a staple item in the global flower marketplace. In June 2004, we succeeded in developing the world's first "blue rose" through the application of biotechnology. This result stemmed from 14 years of challenging a dream through research efforts dating back to 1990.
As these examples illustrate, Suntory is deploying its strengths as a comprehensive beverage and food producer to conduct wide-ranging R&D activities. We intend to continue this pursuit of challenges based on our R&D results in various fields in order to provide products with higher quality and to make dreams come true.