A New Goal of Becoming a Global Brand for Feed Additives

After seeing rapid growth in the animal business in South Korea, EASY BIO successfully entered the global market for animal feed, worth 400 billion US dollars  , with its feed additive solution in 2013. The solution is the fruit of EASY BIO’s proprietary technology and knowhow acquired while competing successfully in the South Korean market against multinational firms, and continues to prove to be a success story for EASY BIO. With the launch of the SCBU (Solution Creation Business Unit) in 2013, the company expanded its overseas distribution network and recruited local employees in China, Thailand Vietnam and others to simultaneously push with globalization and localization. In 2016, the local joint venture firm PII Nantong was established in China and U.S.A. During the same year, a joint venture firm Esys Bioferm, Inc.¹⁾ was established as part of a move towards equity participation in the Canada-based firm, GNC Bioferm Inc. with whom EASY BIO has had a strategic partnership for over 20 years. This move was made to develop multi-enzymes used in animal feed while growing the company’s business. Since the establishment of the joint venture Pathway Intermediates International²⁾ in 2011, EASY BIO has had a close cooperative relationship with the U.K.-based Pathway Intermediates Limited³⁾, which it later acquired in 2018. This was when EASY BIO started to be more aggressive in investments and M&A’s in the global market. To boost local sales, EASY BIO Thailand³⁾,⁴⁾ was established in 2017, followed by Pathway Intermediates Vietnam Co., Ltd⁴⁾ and Pathway Intermediates USA, LLC.³⁾ in 2019. For the Chinese market, a representative office was first set up before establishing a local subsidiary. In 2019, Pathway Intermediates was launched as a global brand for animal nutrition. This allowed all the solutions developed by EASY BIO in South Korea, Canada and U.K. to be supplied to markets around the world under the single brand of Pathway Intermediates for a more efficient brand strategy.

¹⁾ 2016, Equity participation in GNC Bioferm, Inc., followed by liquidation.
²⁾ 2019, 100% of equity stake of U.K.-based Pathway Intermediates Limited is acquired.
³⁾ 2020, Became an EASY Holdings’ subsidiary after human resource allocations.
⁴⁾ 2019, Changed company name to Pathway Intermediates (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

2020, A Year for Another Jump Forward

With feed additives (Pathway Intermediates) and specialized piglet feed (I-feed) as key business areas, EASY BIO started anew as a new company on May 1, 2020 by carrying spinoff with the existing corporation of EASY HOLDINGS. This move was made to increase efficiency in the vertically integrated EASY HOLDINGS animal businesses, and to implement aggressive growth strategies in the global market with a focus on competitive business categories of EASY BIO.
The animal industry has grown continuously as one that provides food security and pleasure in life. The 400 billion US dollars  market for animal feed will continue to see at least a 3% per annum growth, thanks to the growth in the economy and population centered around developing countries. It is anticipated that the global market for feed additives will continue to see high growth of 6% per annum to become a market worth more than 44 billion US dollars. The new trends in the animal industry, including the fourth industrial revolution, incorporation, a move towards environment-friendliness, animal welfare and sustainability while moving away from antibiotics, will continue to accelerate the growth of the global animal feed and feed additive industry. EASY BIO seeks to build on its growth by capturing the potential and scalability of the animal resource industry.
Pathway Intermediates, the business division for feed additives, will play a major role in securing sustainability in the industry. By continuing to establish overseas subsidiaries and local production hubs, tailored products will be supplied to key regions. An integrated research network formed by the Bio-Resource Institute in South Korea, the Pathway Research Centre in the U.K. and the Canada-based research institute specializing in enzymes will provide a future growth engine for EASY BIO to become a company known for ‘total solutions’. Strategic investment and M&A’s will also be used to make the company a well-established mid-sized firm in the global additives market by 2025. The company has a vision to become a global leader in the industry by 2030.
The business division for specialized piglet feed, represented by I-feed will further confirm its status as a leader in the animal resource industry in South Korea. The strategy focusing on the superior quality of the products will be reinforced through proactive collaboration between EASY HOLDINGS that have the technologies and knowhow in the animal industry and the infrastructure for the feed additive business of EASY BIO, as well as the multiple years of knowhow. To live up to its reputation as the number one brand for specialized piglet feed in South Korea, the company will expand its production and distribution infrastructure to grow together with the company’s many customers. By mid-2020’s, foray into international markets will be proactively pushed for to become a global partner in success.

The Launch of I-feed and the Foray into the Market for Piglet Feed

As with human newborn babies, piglets do not have a fully developed body or immune system and are vulnerable to environmental changes or disease. In order for these baby piglets to grow healthily and provide animal products that give ‘pleasure in life’, a dedicated feed is needed.
Drawing on its knowhow of various functional substances and dairy products gained in its feed additive business, EASY BIO entered the market for specialized piglet feed. The plant was constructed in 2001 and the brand I-feed was launched in 2004. Since then, the brand has seen rapid growth based on the proprietary technology and quality of the products to become number one in its category in South Korea by 2010.
As a leading brand for feed for piglets in South Korea, I-feed continues to maintain its stance in the market while growing the market as a whole. Through collaboration with the feed additive business, high value-added newborn piglet feed that serves special functions was developed and a growth program for healthy baby piglets has been distributed. I-feed also successfully launched its feed for newborn piglets in the Philippines and is now gearing towards another success story in the global market, by leveraging the global network of EASY BIO.

Following the Establishment of the Company, South Korea’s First Formulation Software is Adopted.

Good animal feed strikes the right balance between nutrition and profitability. Only feed produced with optimal nutrition and at minimal cost can promote the healthy growth of animals while guaranteeing the survival of the farmers and the overall industry. But getting this balance right requires sophistication as the nutritional content and price of over hundreds of individual ingredients must be assessed, to formulate animal feed.

The animal industry in South Korea underwent rapid growth in the 1980’s but the methods and techniques of feed formulations was still lagging behind. With its establishment, EASY BIO introduced the Least Cost Formulation Program, which calculates the optimal formula of animal feed at minimal cost to the South Korean market. This program has opened an era where nutrition and profitability could both be achieved, while saving costs of 5.4 billion US dollars across the animal feed industry across South Korea. To this day, EASY BIO continues to be a leader in the market for formulation software for animal feed with an economic advantage that contribute to healthy growth of animals.

The Start and Success of the Feed Additives Business

Animal feed contains all the necessary nutrients needed for growth, such as carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals. But as the animal industry grows and the consumer demand for environment-friendly animal products and animal welfare diversifies, the need for functional feed additives also emerged.
Feed additives are added in small amounts for nutrition or specific purposes. They increase the efficacy and economics of the feed while providing the functional biological substances to the animals to provide added value to the animal industry and animal products. EASY BIO entered and continues to engage in the feed additives business to contribute to the production of high value-added animal products that can provide the pleasure in life, as well as to the improvement of digestion of feed and immune function of the animals. The company has also adopted for the first time in Asia the use of phytase as a solution to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus excretion that pollute the environment, as well as nutritional supplements and products that promote digestion and absorption of nutrients, to become a success case in the global animal market.

The Start of EASY BIO’s Research Innovation

EASY BIO established the Bio-Resource Institute, its corporate research institute in 1995 with the belief that global competitiveness in the company’s future food business lies in powerful research innovation. The institute conducts global-scale research in the field of animal productivity, improved health, environmental preservation, fermentation and microorganism engineering using its proprietary technology, and has built a model for artificial organs to provide future solutions and new substances. To become a leader in the global feed additive business, the company established a joint integrated research network with Pathway Research Centre, a basic science and molecular biology research institute of the U.K.-based Pathway Intermediates Limited, as well as with the enzyme research institute, GNC Bioferm which is a sister company of EASY BIO.