- Overview of the Kao Group
- The Kao Group's Operations and Main Product Brands
- The Chemical Division's Research, Production and Supply System
- Target Industries
- R&D and Basic Technology
- History of Kao's Chemical Business
- Chemicals Major Affiliates
The Kao Group's Operations and Main Product Brands
Four Business Fields Enriching Daily Living for People All Over the World
Kao is involved in general consumer products in three business fields: Beauty Care, Human Health Care, and Fabric and Home Care. We also provide a wide range of chemical products meeting the industry's needs. Through these operations, we hope to enrich daily living for people everywhere through "Yoki-Monozukuri" dedicated to consumers and customers.
Beauty Care
Kao offers a full range of beauty care products to help consumers look and feel their best. These range from cosmetics brands like Kao Sofina, Kanebo and Molton Brown, carefully marketed to maintain their solid brand equity and uniqueness, to skin and body care products and hair care products such as shampoo, conditioner and styling agents. Kao Professional Salon Services GmbH (KPSS) provides hair coloring, permanent wave products and styling agents from the Goldwell brand and others, to hair salons through Europe and North America.
Sofina
Cosmetics brand offering a new skin physiological approach to skin care. Launched in 1982, the Sofina brand is a favorite of many Japanese consumers and is also popular in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Kanebo
Prestige cosmetics brand that became part of the Kao Group in 2006. Widely available in department stores and other outlets in Japan, Asia, Europe and North America, Kanebo is popular with consumers around the world.
Molton Brown
Luxury brand Molton Brown was established in London in 1973, selling products made from specially selected natural ingredients. Well-known at leading department stores and directly operated shops and as a hotel and airline amenity brand in over 70 countries around the world.
Bioré
Gentle facial foaming cleanser Bioré was launched in 1980, and extensions to the product line ranging from makeup remover to body wash have been added over the years. A favorite skin care brand among consumers in Japan, other Asian countries, and Americas.
Asience
Asience, a premium hair care brand launched in 2003, is specially formulated to represent the beauty of Asian hair. Marketed later in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, Asience is very popular among Asian women.
Jergens
Jergens has been a favorite skin care brand of American women of all ages since 1901. The brand is enjoying revived popularity now with its line of innovative, new-concept products.
John Frieda
John Frieda is a global premium hair care brand well known in major North American and European centers such as London, Paris and New York. Its sophisticated and fashionable brand image has won it a strong following among young women.
Goldwell
Goldwell, a German brand used in high class hair salons. European hair artists consider it the most trusted and reliable name among professional use products.
Human Health Care
In the human health care field, Kao brings to market products intended to help consumers live healthfully and in comfort. Cooking oils and functional beverage products were developed after several years of research into lipid metabolism. Other products in this field range from sanitary products, developed through Kao's own research into high-function (non-woven) materials and physiological phenomena, like Laurier sanitary napkins and Merries disposable diapers for babies to oral care products like Pyuora and Clear Clean, Bub bath additives and others.
Laurier
Laurier, on the market since 1979, is a high-quality sanitary napkin brand that lives up to its reputation for giving peace of mind even when flow is heavy. The product has continued to evolve over the years, and Laurier F, a product developed from the dermatological perspective launched in 2004, is a high value-added product appreciated by consumers everywhere in Asia.
Merries
Merries, a completely new type of disposable diaper using many new functional materials such as super-absorbent polymers and breathable sheets, was launched in 1983. Today, it is considered a trusted brand in Taiwan too and is popular there.
Fabric and Home Care
Fabric and Home Care products developed over the years through Kao's unique technologies offer quality, functionality and ease of use. These include Attack, the leading laundry detergent, Humming fabric softener, Haiter bleach and other fabric care products, as well as home care products like Family and CuCute dishwashing detergents, Magiclean household cleaner, Quickle and others, which are sold in Japan and throughout Asia. Kao also keeps up with changes in social and consumer trends with high value-added products that take a new approach for cleaner, more comfortable living.
Attack
Attack, the leading laundry detergent brand, is a product known to every Japanese consumer. Thanks to continuous improvement of the product to improve quality and usability since it was launched in 1987, it has built an established reputation among consumers in Asia and Oceania.
Haiter
Haiter, the brand with the largest share of the laundry bleach market in Japan, began to be exported to Hong Kong and Singapore in the 1960s. It's sold in many Asian countries today and is a favorite of consumers.
Magiclean
Household cleaner Magiclean, on the market since 1971, is also sold in countries like Thailand and Taiwan, where it was been adapted for local household conditions. The brand has become synonymous with household cleaner and is popular among many households today.
Chemicals
Kao is also active in the industrial products field, producing many chemical products meeting the diverse needs of various industries. These range from fats made from natural fat ingredients and fats and oil derivatives made from those fats, surfactants, functional polymers, aroma chemicals and many other products developed through the coordinated efforts of our R&D and business divisions. These are provided as ingredients not only to Kao Group companies but also to users all over the world in the paper and pulp, foods, drugs, civil engineering and construction, IT materials, electronics and other industries.
KALCOL (Oleo Chemicals)
KALCOL, fatty alcohol produced by Pilipinas Kao, Inc. and Fatty Chemical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., comes in various formulations and formats. It is widely used as an added ingredient or in compounds.
EMAL (Surfactants)
Kao's representative brand of anionic surfactants. Used in a wide range of industrial applications from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics, as a base cleansing ingredient for liquid cleansers and as an emulsifier for emulsion polymerization for resin compounds.
MIGHTY (Performance Chemicals)
The MIGHTY brand is well known throughout the construction industry as a superplasticizer for concrete. Used for producing high-strength, water-resistant concrete, Mighty is used for building expressways and skyscrapers all over the world.
TUFTONE (Specialty Chemicals)
TUFTONE is Kao's excellent performance color toner for color copying pioneered the use of high-performance polyester resin as a binder. Provides excellent color reproduction that makes high-quality color copying possible.
