Fuji Oil Asia Transforms Product Information into Revenue-Driving Assets with Centric PXM
Fuji Oil Asia leverages Centric PXM to unify fragmented data to fuel regional growth and eliminate governance risk.
10–15%
reduction in information retrieval lead time
Since deploying Centric PXM, we reduced lead time by 10–15% while significantly lowering the risk of outdated specifications reaching the market.
— Katsuhiro Nagayama , Director in Charge of Corporate Planning
Challenges
Product specs and recipes scattered across spreadsheets and PDFs
Outdated allergen and ingredient data create compliance risk
Manual retrieval of specs and recipes delays sales response
Inconsistent product information weakens B2B customer engagement
Results
Single source of truth unifies product and application data
10–15% reduction in data retrieval and presentation lead time
Only QA- and legal-approved specifications reach the market
Just seconds to distribute accurate sales enablement assets
Stronger positioning as a solution supplier supporting customer innovation
“Our primary challenge was data fragmentation. Product specs, features and recipe information lived in disjointed spreadsheets and PDFs were managed locally. This fragmentation directly impacted how quickly we could respond to customers and bring new recipe proposals to market.”
Katsuhiro Nagayama, Director in Charge of Corporate Planning at Fuji Oil Asia, recognized that further scaling required rethinking how product data moved through the region. From its APAC headquarters in Singapore, the company coordinates a vast matrix of product specifications and application recipes distributed to multiple countries and end-users, yet local teams had no centralized system to retrieve current product content.
Fuji Oil Asia needed a platform capable of matching the speed of its regional operations. Centric PXM™ now centralizes every spec and recipe into a single platform, enabling consistent scalable distribution of product information across APAC markets.
Pioneering plant-based food innovation in APAC
The Fuji Oil Group's products reach food manufacturers, convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurant chains, bakeries and pastry shops through a network of 35 companies in 15 countries. The group's portfolio covers four distinct business domains: vegetable oils and fats, industrial chocolate, emulsified and fermented ingredients and soy-based ingredients, each with its own set of product specifications, certifications and application recipes.
Fuji Oil Asia Pte. Ltd. sits at the center of this operation. Established in Singapore in 2012 as the APAC regional headquarters, the company manages eleven group companies and centralizes raw materials procurement, sales and application development for the region. The Asia R&D Center, founded in 2015, drives product and application innovation locally. Every product spec and recipe flowing to customers in the region passes through this hub.
Data fragmentation creating governance risk
Ownership of product data was split between departments, with no shared infrastructure connecting them. Product-related information sat with QA and R&D, recipes lived with marketing and local sales teams gathered what they needed for regional clients on their own. No single team had full visibility into the latest data.
“Local sales and marketing teams relied on highly inefficient manual processes, hunting through shared local folders or individual email histories to piece together the latest technical sheets and corresponding application recipes,” Nagayama shares.
The stakes went beyond slow turnaround. Fuji Oil Asia bears responsibility for ensuring that product specifications, particularly regarding allergens, raw material changes and content of key raw materials, reach downstream customers accurately and promptly.
“We lacked the infrastructure to ensure accurate, up-to-date product specifications were effectively communicated to our downstream customers," Nagayama adds. "That created a critical governance risk.”
Resolving the product-recipe data model disconnect
The company’s core requirement was to unify two fundamentally different data models within a single environment. “Products” carry detailed attributes like nutritional profiles, certifications and technical data sheets and “Applications” carry recipes. In most systems, these exist as separate worlds. For Fuji Oil Asia, they needed to be connected.
The company evaluated multiple approaches before selecting Centric PIM™ (Product Information Management) and Centric DAM™ (Digital Asset Management), both part of the AI-powered Centric PXM solution which comprise of Content Syndication and Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA).
For a B2B food company managing complex product specs, application recipes and technical documentation simultaneously, the integrated approach was critical.
The decisive factor was the platform's relational flexibility, the ability to map intricate relationships between product attributes and application recipes without forcing one data model into the shape of the other.
"We required the agility to deploy complex attribute data specific to the B2B food industry rapidly via out-of-the-box SaaS capabilities, without being bogged down by heavy, custom IT development," Nagayama elaborates.
What would have taken months of custom development, allergen declarations, nutritional profiles, certifications and technical data sheets, Fuji Oil Asia deployed on Centric PXM immediately.
Building the foundation for regional transformation
Together, Fuji Oil Asia and the Centric PXM implementation team redesigned how product data moves through the region.
“The Centric team demonstrated a profound understanding of our complex product matrices and APAC-specific business processes, providing data modeling frameworks based on industry best practices that elevated this project from a basic system implementation to a regional data transformation initiative."
QA and R&D teams which previously managed product information in isolation, now feed data into a unified platform that regional marketing, local sales teams and regional distributors access directly. Siloed file management is gone. For new product launches and seasonal campaigns, the company simultaneously distributes all relevant sales enablement assets, including images, videos, recipes, specifications and features, to APAC distributors in seconds.
"We have reduced the lead time spent on information retrieval and presentation drafting by 10–15% over the last year," Nagayama notes.
Critically, Fuji Oil Asia engineers an architecture that distributes only the latest and most accurate specification data approved by Quality Assurance and Legal. This significantly reduces the risk of outdated specifications entering the market and supports stronger compliance governance across the region.
The ingredient supplier to strategic solution provider
For Fuji Oil Asia's B2B customers, food manufacturers, food distributors, foodservice chains and retail bakeries, the impact extends beyond faster response times.
“Fuji Oil has evolved from a mere ingredient supplier into a solution provider," Nagayama observes. "Our customers receive real-time, accurate product data coupled with high-quality application visuals, drastically shortening their own R&D and commercialization cycles.”
This faster, more reliable exchange of product information strengthens collaboration and builds deeper, long-term customer trust.
Turning product data into business value
Looking ahead, Nagayama offers pointed advice for B2B food and beverage companies evaluating similar initiatives.
“In the B2B food business, success depends on enabling regional staff and distributors to access accurate product information promptly,” Nagayama emphasizes.
According to Nagayama, the case for unified product content management resonates beyond Fuji Oil Asia.
“Product information is a strategic asset. When properly structured and distributed, it becomes a driver of revenue, efficiency and competitive advantage. Establish a single source of truth before your time to market falls behind the competition.”