The new product, known as Amino Collagen NMN, will be launched on next Monday (September 8), the company announced.
Citing data from Japanese market research firm Fuji Keizai, Meiji said that NMN was a booming category in Japan.
“The NMN supplement market size in Japan was around JPY 7.9 billion (US$53.3m) in 2023, but it has expanded to approximately JPY 14.9 billion (US$100.5m) in 2024, spreading mainly via e-commerce.”
Combining NMN with collagen could be a popular formulation not only for the domestic market, but also overseas, it said.
This is because there is also strong interest in NMN in markets such as China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, with China leading the pack.
This is based on Meiji’s internal research on the number of times Japanese language labeled NMN products are scanned using the translation app Payke, which allows individuals to read product information printed in Japanese just by scanning the products’ barcode.
Meiji’s Amino Collagen powder debuted in 2002 and has since entered various Asian markets, and the company said it hoped to expand share in the global collagen market by formulating collagen with NMN.
“More and more people are purchasing NMN products when traveling to Japan and other destinations.
“We aim to expand our market share in the global market by launching NMN - a category which is expected to expand in the future.
“We will do so by developing products not only for e-commerce sales but also for sale in retail stores. In response to inbound demand, we are combining NMN with amino collagen, which is popular in Japan and overseas.”
The new product, which comes in powder form, is said to be made from fish collagen and contains 5,000mg of collagen peptides and 250mg of NMN per serving.
Authenticity and differentiation
The company is also printing an authenticity mark on the product packaging to differentiate it from counterfeits.
The authenticity mark consists of the words “AminoCollagen”, which is visible under a magnifying glass.
Meiji’s nutrition business, which falls under its wider food business, has been seeing a decline in revenue recently.
In its Q1 results released on August 6, net sales of its nutrition business was down by 4.5% to JPY 29.1 bn (US$196.2m).
The decline mainly came from its domestic market, with sales down 5.3% to JPY 26.2 bn (US$176.6m), while overseas business climbed 2.9% in sales to JPY 2.8 bn (US$18.9m).
Its main nutrition products are sports nutrition and infant formula, while collagen consisted a small proportion.
During the period, sales of its infant and enteral formula business fell 7.6% to JPY 15.7 bn (US$105.9m) , while that of its sports nutrition also dropped 1.3% to JPY 13.3 bn.
Its infant nutrition business has suffered from decreasing demand in Japan, while its sports nutrition brand SAVAS has seen a mixed performance, with its protein powder business decreasing in sales due to intensifying market competition, while sales of its milk products were said to have grown steadily.