The websites, to run in conjunction with the existing English website, will be in Mandarin, Dutch, French, German and Spanish and mean Danisco will have business and consumer online support for those in some of the countries where it has licensing agreements.
"The whole concept is supported by a global educational programme and marketing activities targeting consumers, health professionals and scientists, specifically in those countries where Danisco has licensed its Howaru trademark," the company said.
Partners
Danisco has licensed its Howaru collection of three probiotic strains to private-label and branded manufacturers in 10 countries including China, the Netherlands, Canada, Ghana, the UK, Slovenia and Chile.
Licensing partners include Marks & Spencer in the UK, Cheng Guan in China, Purity Milk in the US and Woolworths in South Africa.
The multilingual online presence is part of Danisco's plan to add value to its turnkey licensing support programme, also called Howaru.
Its English website has been up-and-running for several years and attracts more than 3000 hits per month.
B2B and beyond
Danisco communication manager, Nathalie Brosse, told NutraIngredients.com the new websites allowed Danisco to better meet the needs of its licensing partners as well as regional consumers.
"We have always received a lot of business-level and consumer feedback through our English-speaking website as well as it being a place for information to be dispersed about probiotics so we hope the new sites will perform as well," Brosse said.
"We, along with our licensing partners were getting increasing requests for information from consumers so this move is a response to that. Howaru.com is a way for us to add credibility to the ingredients and back up our licensing partners."
She said further websites were a possibility if demanded by existing and future licensing partners.
Strains
The Howaru strains are themselves licensed from Italian dairy group Fonterra, which isolated them in the 1990s. In 2001 Fonterra granted marketing and selling rights to Danisco at first in foods, and more recently in supplements.
Since then, they have been applied in a wide range of applications and with increasing use of human clinical studies to support their efficacy.
The strains have been used in bars, juice, spreads, confectionery products, ice cream and other food applications.
