Samyang Specialty

Samyang Group, Celebrates 100th Anniversary with New Corporate Purpose and CI Announcement

- Over 450 guests, including key figures from the business community and client companies, attended the anniversary event. President Kim Gun-ho unveiled the corporate purpose and future vision.
- New corporate purpose: "Unlocking the Potential of Life. Changing the Future of Humanity."
- Samyang introduced a new CI reflecting its aspirations for the global market in collaboration with world-renowned designer Neville Brody.
- Launch of a second-half corporate advertising campaign highlighting the group's century-long achievements and specialty business.

■Photo 1. Samyang Holdings Chairman Kim Yoon giving a speech at the Samyang Group 100th- anniversary ceremony.

Samyang Group, celebrating its 100th anniversary, hosted a commemorative ceremony to reveal its corporate purpose, future vision, and new corporate identity (CI) that will lead the company for the next century.

On October 1st, Samyang Group (Chairman: Kim Yoon) held its 100th-anniversary celebration at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul. The event was attended by over 450 guests, including major business figures, key domestic and international clients, and current and former employees. The ceremony began with an opening video, followed by a CEO speech, the announcement of the new corporate purpose and CI, a future vision presentation, a celebratory performance, and a banquet.

Samyang Holdings Chairman Kim Yoon expressed his gratitude, saying, “I sincerely thank our customers, partners, and colleagues, past and present, for believing in and standing by Samyang over the past 100 years. While our achievements are significant, the responsibility to shape the next 100 years weighs even more heavily on us. Today marks a meaningful opportunity to reaffirm our goals for a new era, and we are determined to start writing the next chapter of Samyang's history.”

Samyang Group unveiled its new corporate purpose: "Unlocking the Potential of Life. Changing the Future of Humanity," and its vision to become "a global partner transforming the future of humanity through specialty materials and solutions."

■ Photo 2. Samyang Holdings President Kim Gun-ho presenting the future vision at Samyang Group's 100th-anniversary ceremony.

The presentation of the new corporate purpose and future vision was led by Kim Gun-ho, the eldest son of Chairman Kim Yoon and Samyang Holdings’ President. Kim Gun-ho explained, “For the past century, Samyang has contributed to national economic development by providing prosperity and convenience to the public. Going forward, Samyang will discover the limitless potential in everyday life and become a company that changes the future of humanity. We aim to take a more proactive and pioneering role, not merely responding to customer demands but leading them by proposing new possibilities.”

He added, "Samyang, which started as a farm to feed a hungry nation 100 years ago, has grown through continuous innovation and is now venturing into global advanced industries such as semiconductors and gene therapy. Across all of Samyang's business areas—chemicals, food, pharmaceuticals, and packaging—our future vision centers on creating healthier and more convenient lives through Health & Wellness and Advanced Materials & Solutions."

Samyang Group also unveiled its new CI, created in collaboration with Neville Brody, a globally renowned designer in the fields of branding and typography. The new CI embodies Samyang's confidence, built on a century of accumulated technology and expertise, and its commitment to the global market. The logo is a refined, typography-based design that conveys Samyang's identity. Samyang plans to establish a unified visual system, including typography, to ensure a consistent corporate image for the Samyang brand.

In conjunction with its 100th anniversary, Samyang Group has also launched its second-half corporate advertising campaign. The campaign includes two ads: "Celebrating 100 Years" and "Growing and Growing." While the first half of the year focused on digital media with the campaign "That Feeling Might Be Because of Samyang," which sparked curiosity about the company, the second-half ads celebrate Samyang's 100-year journey and showcase its evolution into a global leader in the specialty materials industry.

The "Celebrating 100 Years" ad features a memorable scene where power lines seen from a train window are played like guitar strings, playing a birthday song. The "Growing and Growing" ad showcases Samyang's specialty materials business, from the sugar factory to Korea’s largest allulose production, from eco-friendly plastics to polycarbonate production, and from developing biodegradable surgical sutures to gene therapy delivery systems. The "Celebrating 100 Years" ad airs in October, while "Growing and Growing" will be broadcast in November.

Samyang Group, since its founding on October 1, 1924, has consistently grown while striving to enrich and simplify people’s lives through a diverse range of industries, including food, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. It laid the groundwork for modern industries in Korea by establishing corporate farms to modernize agriculture and transforming barren land in Manchuria into industrial farmland. In 1955, Samyang built Korea's largest sugar refinery in Ulsan, solving the sugar shortage and contributing to economic development. In 1969, Samyang entered the polyester business, establishing a large-scale plant in Jeonju and growing into one of the world's top 10 chemical fiber companies.

In the 1980s, Samyang expanded into new materials and petrochemicals, building Korea's first polycarbonate production plant in 1989 and the world’s largest TPA (Terephthalic Acid) plant. In the 1990s, Samyang entered the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, becoming the first Korean company to develop biodegradable surgical sutures in 1993 and the first in the world to mass-produce the anti-cancer compound paclitaxel using plant cell cultures in 1995. Today, Samyang has cemented its position as a global specialty company with innovations such as the alternative sweetener allulose, eco-friendly bio-plastic materials derived from plant resources like isosorbide, and gene therapy delivery systems such as SENS.

■ Photo 3. Samyang Group's new CI (Legacy Blue and Black, 2 versions)