CORPORATE PROFILE
Help create healthy and fulfilling lifestyles for customers and a sustainable society
Based on our management principle of "Always Putting the Customer First," we believe we have a social responsibility to "create healthy and fulfilling lifestyles for customers and a sustainable society" by providing customers of all ages with the flavor and value of Japanese tea.
To realize our long-term vision of becoming a Global Tea Company, we will continue introducing Oi Ocha to the world as a brand that represents Japan and continue connecting with tea culture in regions around the world; we will focus on creating new tea cultures and markets on a global scale, through the ITO EN Group's technologies and value chain. We will help create healthy and fulfilling lifestyles for customers in Japan and other parts of the world through the strong partnerships we have built with all those involved in the Group since our foundation.
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE
“ALWAYS PUTTING THE CUSTOMER FIRST”
ITO EN's definition of customers includes consumers, shareholders, retailers, suppliers, financial institutions and local communities. ITO EN believes that all parties that are involved with the ITO EN Group are customers and believes that earnestly handling customer feedback and requests and always putting ourselves in our customers shoes is fundamental to management. Going forward, we will thoroughly implement our management principle, "Always putting the customer first," considering the impact on the customer at every turn, as we continue to pursue new possibilities and take on new challenges.
1966
Innovative Packaged Tea
The founding of Japan Family Service, the origins of ITO EN, in 1964, was followed in 1966 by the establishment of the Frontier Tea Corporation, ITO EN’s predecessor. At the time, tea was sold in a limited number of specialty stores, primarily by weight, and customers would have to visit these stores to buy their tea. To make tea more readily available for purchase, the company developed a method of packaging tea leaves in smaller quantities. Packaged tea made it possible to sell tea at supermarkets and grocery stores, eliminating customer complaints about the inconvenience of only being able to purchase tea at specialty stores. After the company name was changed to ITO EN in 1969, it became a driving influence on the tea industry with breakthrough methods for preserving the freshness of tea leaves through vacuum processing and double packaging.
1984
Invented the world's first cannedSencha (green tea) Beverage
In Japan in the 1970s, the appearance of fast food and convenience stores brought about the rapid diversification, simplification and Westernization of beverages. This made it necessary to begin better matching green tea with the needs of times. ITO EN began developing its canned green tea in the hopes of allowing consumers to enjoy delicious green tea anytime, anywhere. After running about 1,000 trials over a 10-year research period, ITO EN developed its T-N Blow process, which involved spraying nitrogen to remove oxygen just prior to capping. In 1985, it launched the world’s first canned green tea, using this process to preserve the tea’s aroma and take advantage of its natural green color.
1989
Launched the Oi Ocha brand
An ITO EN commercial broadcast in Japan at the time used the colloquial phrase, “Oi Ocha,” that had a nice ring to it and conveyed a sense of comfort and a homelike environment. Looking for the next leap forward following the launch of its canned green tea, ITO EN decided to change the product’s name to Oi Ocha. Also, since bamboo had been used as water flasks since ancient times, that image was incorporated in the overall container design, which was given a bamboo pattern. The Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest was inaugurated in 1989. At the time, there were signs that Tanka, or traditional short-form poetry, was growing in popularity as more people began taking classes and writing their own poems. There were almost no opportunities for presenting these poems, however, and there was a growing desire for a venue in which people could introduce the results of their work. This is when ITO EN came up with the idea of using the Oi Ocha product itself as a medium for presenting people’s poems. The company believed that making the Oi Ocha packaging itself available as a presentation venue could represent a new kind of cultural activity ideally suited to modern times.
2019
No.1 tea beverage brand in terms of sales
Oi Ocha has been certified by Guinness World Records™ as the world's No.1 tea beverage brand in terms of sales.
*Sales results of largest natural healthy ready-to-drink (RTD) green tea beverage (latest annual sales)
2024
Developing Oi Ocha beverage ingredients to meet global quality standards
Through the Tea-Producing Region Development Project we have implemented over many years, we have developed world-class Oi Ocha beverage ingredients that meet quality standards in various countries. We have also started local production at production partner plants in Europe.
Japan’s Best-Selling Green Teas
Matcha
