- Below is the content from the press release--
Announcement of the integration of the automatic menu generation app
To promote a data service business based on food preference analysis
(Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Kenya Okushi; hereinafter referred to as "Nichirei") acquired all shares of Meenu Corporation (Head office: Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture; Representative Director: Nobuyuki Miyake; hereinafter referred to as "Meenu") on 31 August 2021. (Head office: Okayama City, Japan; Representative Director: Nobuyuki Miyake; hereinafter referred to as "Me:new") on August 31, 2021. As a result of this acquisition, from November 1, 2021, Nichirei will integrate "conomeal kichen", an application for automatically generating meal plans operated by Nichirei, with "me:new", an application for automatically generating meal plans operated by Me:new, in order to promote a data service business based on food preference analysis. We will continue to promote our data service business based on food preference analysis.
With changes in working patterns, women's activities and the aging of society, people are increasingly looking for ways to reduce the amount of time they spend preparing meals at home. At the same time, there is a growing need for healthier meals, including balanced nutrition and food allergies, and many consumers are struggling to prepare daily menus.
To help solve these issues, Nichirei launched "conomeal kichen", a smartphone application that automatically generates and proposes menus based on users' food preferences, as one of its new businesses in November 2020. Users no longer have to worry about menu planning and can enjoy meals with sophisticated recipes while reducing the burden of household chores through planned and efficient shopping and cooking based on the menu.
On the other hand, "me:new" is also an app that automatically generates menus and has been in service since January 2014. The two apps have many things in common: 1) they use AI (artificial intelligence) to analyze users' food preferences, 2) they propose menus consisting of main meals, main dishes, side dishes, etc., and 3) they propose menus not for a single day but for multiple days (up to a week for me:new).
In order to strengthen its menu suggestion service based on food preferences, Nichirei has decided to integrate the two services, believing that the best way to do so is to collaborate with me:new, which has been launched earlier and has a great deal of knowledge and common features. As a result of this integration, the service of "conomeal kichen" will be terminated at the end of October 2021, and "me:new" will continue as the service.
Nichirei provides value through frozen foods that combine taste and convenience, as well as low-temperature logistics services that form the infrastructure of the food industry. As food needs become increasingly diverse and personalization is expected to progress, Nichirei and Meinu will not only strengthen their value proposition through products and logistics services, but will also actively work to provide new value in the form of a data service business based on research into food preferences and tastes. Nichirei and Meinu will also actively work to provide new value in the data service business based on research into food preferences and tastes.
Nichirei Corporation, a major frozen food company, has acquired MeNew Corporation, the company behind MeNew, an app that automatically creates menus for up to one week, which won the Grand Prize in the Feeding and Eating category at the BabyTech® Award Japan 2020. Nichirei Corporation, a major frozen food company, has acquired Me:new, an app that automatically creates menus for up to one week, which won the Grand Prize in the food service category. The two companies have announced that they will integrate their respective apps and promote a data service business based on food preference analysis. The app will continue to be called "me:new". Let's take a look at the details from the press release.