Bangalore, July 8, 2010: Japan-based Shimadzu Corporation and Toshvin Analytical, India, celebrated the 40th anniversary of their partnership in India with a series of customer appreciation events in Mumbai, New Delhi and Gujarat in India. Present at all the three events were Mr Osamu Ando, Director, Shimadzu Corporation, Japan. He was the chief guest at all three events and Mr Tsuguo Kishida, Managing Director, Shimadzu Asia Pacific, Singapore, and Mr Senya Imamichi, Managing Director, Shimadzu Analytical India also attended the events.

Speaking at the event, held in Mumbai, Mr Ando said, “Shimadzu wants to spread its business in all sectors. We invest a substantial amount on R&D for better instruments, accessories and software. In the future, you will be seeing a lot of new products being launched by Shimadzu.”

Started in 1970, the partnership between Toshvin and Shimadzu has been extremely successful in establishing Shimadzu as one of the leading analytical instruments brands in India with a dominant market share for UV & FTIR spectrophotometers and GC and GCMS systems. Toshvin, closely supported by Shimadzu India’s Customer Support Centre for application support, is exclusively responsible for marketing and servicing a range of Shimadzu’s analytical instruments.

Currently, Toshvin supports an installed base of over 7,000 Shimadzu instruments and has more than 5,000 customers all over India. Commenting on this occasion, Mr Ando said, “This year marks yet another milestone with Toshvin, our oldest marketing partner in India. We enjoy a unique and close collaboration that has helped us effectively support our customers in India. Along with our other marketing partners: Spinco Biotech, Swan and Amkette, Shimadzu has become one of the leading brands in the market. India is an extremely important market for Shimadzu and we remain committed to working closely with Toshvin and our other partners to support our customers here.”

Mr Nakul Toshniwal, Managing Director of Toshvin Analytical commented that “Thanks to the support of our esteemed customers, we have reached this unique milestone in our partnership with Shimadzu. We are committed to supporting and partnering with our customers as they take India to greater heights in the areas of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, industrials, scientific research and academia.”

The events also marked the launch of Shimadzu’s new Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer GCMS QP 2010 Ultra. In keeping with Shimadzu’s long standing tradition of regularly introducing products incorporating the latest technology and market leading specifications, the new GCMS has the highest sensitivity and scan speed in its class of single quadrupole GCMS systems as compared to all other GCMS systems available in the market today, and incorporates innovative technology for high throughput and critical analysis.

Mr Nakagawa, Manager, Shimadzu Application Development Centre, Kyoto, made a detailed presentation on the new product to the customers attending the event. Mr Manoj Kantak, Vice President, Toshvin Analytical stated that “We are excited about the launch of the new GCMS QP 2010 Ultra from Shimadzu, which brings the latest technology to our customers in India. The capabilities and versatility of this new GCMS will increase the range of applications for which our customers can use the system. We already enjoy a leading market share for GCMS systems in India and are confident that this new product will help us further expand our market share.” The new GCMS will be available to customers in India from August 2010.

Commenting on the importance of India in Shimadzu's overall strategy Mr Kishida, said, “ Most Japanese companies come to India after China. India is very important for Shimadzu. Half of our overall business comes from India. We have kept a future total target business of $120 million out of which $60 million business would come from India.” The company has also hopes that its pharmaceutcial business would constitute 60 percent of its total business. “Apart from pharma, we will look at research and Government institutes. Food is a huge market in India and we will tap that sector too.” added Kishida.