TOPIC

Stories behind top Asian brands

Stories behind top Asian brands
From Tiger Balm and Po Chai Pills to Vitasoy and Camel flasks, many of the region's most famous brands have become symbols of Asia to the rest of the world. We chart the fascinating histories of Asia's top brands - their often humble beginnings, their ups and downs, and the ways they are facing the challenges of the future.
Sanrio will announce the winner of the 40th edition of its character ranking contest at the end of June. Illustration: @sanrio/Instagram
Japan

Why a Sanrio popularity contest has Gen Z divided

Each year millions vote in the popularity contest, with this year’s showdown – between two long-time rivals – fiercer than most.

Food and Drinks

Recap | Meet the ‘Bourdain of China’, find out why Jeff Goldblum loves Pocky and more

Food and Drinks

It’s Pocky Day! How yearly celebration of the Japanese snack began

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Food and Drinks

It’s Lee Kum Kee like you haven’t seen before: in US ramen chain’s dishes

Hong Kong’s Lee Kum Kee sauces get a fresh spin in three new items on the menu at US ramen chain Kyuramen, including omelette rice with oyster sauce, and a miso ramen with Chiu Chow-style chilli crisp.

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Hong Kong’s Lee Kum Kee sauces get a fresh spin in three new menu items at US ramen chain Kyuramen’s restaurants. Photo: Kyuramen
Hong Kong culture

Jet Li used an umbrella from this 139-year-old company to fight

Hong Kong-based Leung So Kee Umbrella Factory is one of the oldest handmade umbrella makers in China, weathering storms from political instability to Japanese competition – but Jet Li was too much.

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China property

Japan’s Nitori joins host of Asian retailers expanding in Hong Kong

Japanese furniture retailer Nitori Holdings, which opened its first outlet in Hong Kong on Wednesday, plans to gradually expand its footprint to 20 across the city in the coming years, according to a top executive.

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Food and Drinks

Would you buy 100 packs of cookies to find a ‘lucky’ one? How a craze began

Koala’s March cookies from South Korea’s Lotte are popular around Asia and there are more than 600 koala designs, including an ‘eyebrow koala’ said to bring good luck. Fans have gone to great lengths to find one.

Lotte’s Koala’s March have become a hit in Asia since their launch in 1984. The filled cookies come in more than 600 different designs, including an “eyebrow koala” said to bring good luck that fans go to great lengths to find. Photo: Shutterstock
Food and Drinks

The story of Japanese whisky giant Suntory’s coveted Yamazaki single malt

Japanese drinks company Suntory started making whisky 100 years ago and now vintage bottles of its Yamazaki single malt command huge prices – if you can get your hands on one.

Hong Kong culture

How Hong Kong’s iconic Diamond Restaurant lives on as a gourmet food brand

Thanks to the founder’s daughter and grandson, the Diamond Restaurant name lives on as a gourmet food brand – even after its five Hong Kong outlets closed down in 2002.

Lunar New Year

Bunny branding: 5 companies with hare-y logos all set for Year of the Rabbit

Forget Playboy’s bow-tied icon: the rabbit symbolises longevity, peace and prosperity in Chinese and Asian cultures, and has a long history as a brand symbol.

A bowl of White Rabbit candies, arguably one of China’s most recognisable cultural exports. Photo: AFP
Food and Drinks

White Rabbit ice cream, handbags, cocktail – iconic Chinese candy evolves

White Rabbit Creamy Candy, a mainstay of the Lunar New Year treat box, has an 80-year history but isn’t resting on its laurels, launching new flavours and ice cream. A Hong Kong bar sells a White Rabbit cocktail.

White Rabbit candy ice-cream. Photo courtesy of Hao Productions
Food and Drinks

Staying original helps 107-year-old Hong Kong coconut sweet brand thrive

Yan Chim Kee started selling coconut sweets in Hong Kong in 2015. Descendants of its founder say sticking to its original formula while adding new products has been key to its longevity.

Top Hong Kong brands

The story of Watsons: from licensed opium dealer to Asia’s biggest pharmacy

Watsons today is Asia’s leading retail health and beauty chain. It’s an empire that was built on selling opium and opiates in colonial Hong Kong, writes Patrick Chiu in this excerpt from a forthcoming book.

Obituaries

Lee Man-tat, head of Lee Kum Kee sauce empire, dies at 91

Lee Man-tat is credited with turning Lee Kum Kee into a household name in Hong Kong, with the company’s products now sold in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Lee Man-tat, chairman of Lee Kum Kee, died on Monday. Photo: SCMP
Consumers

Explainer | Here’s why Vitasoy needs to tame the China boycott crisis after stock losses

Vitasoy shares plunged 10 per cent last week in the aftermath of a leaked internal memo and a backlash by consumers in mainland China. Can the firm behind the city’s venerable brand tame the crisis?

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Soy milk drinks produced by Vitasoy are displayed on a supermarket shelf in Hong Kong. Photo: AFP
Hong Kong innovators

Most Hongkongers have used Red A Plastic’s products, even if they don’t know it

Star Industrial’s Red A Plastic products are in many a Hong Kong household, and its plastic cups were made famous by Chow Yun-fat film Prison on Fire. These days, its customers include food businesses and hospitals.

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Japan

The story of Kikkoman, Japan’s most popular soy sauce

Founded in 1917 when eight Japanese soy sauce makers decided to work together, Kikkomen is now Japan’s favourite soy sauce and popular all over the world.

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How Hello Kitty became the poster kitten for uber-cute

Hello Kitty, the cat with no mouth, was born in 1974, and by 2014, was worth US$8 billion a year. Her face is seen on everything, from toys to pencils and even water dispensers.

Hello Kitty plushes in Hello Kitty Island Museum & Cafe in JeJu, South Korea.
Asian cinema: Japanese films

The story of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, anime film legends

From My Neighbor Totoro to The Wind Rises, Studio Ghibli has produced some of the biggest anime hits in the world. Its co-founder Miyazaki’s love of art shines through in its animated productions.

Food and Drinks

11 things you may not know about historic Asian brands

From Singapore's Tiger Balm to Japan's Cup Noodles, many of Asia's top brands are now loved the world over. Here'll you find the fascinating histories of Asia's top companies and the hardworking people that built them.

Food and Drinks

15 things you may not know about historic Hong Kong brands

Despite being a small city, Hong Kong has had a huge impact in the world of business, and many of its home-grown companies are now international names. Here are some of their stories.

15 things you may not know about historic Hong Kong brands
Beauty

From minnow to mighty empire: jeweller Chow Tai Fook’s story

Initially just a goldsmith, Chow Tai Fook opened its first stores in Hong Kong and Macau before the second world war and now has more than 4,000 worldwide. Along the way the company changed the gold and jewellery industry.

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An employee arranges gold bangles inside a Chow Tai Fook store. Photo: Bloomberg
Japan

How Casio G-Shock was born: ‘I wanted a watch impossible to break’

Casio invented the unbreakable G-Shock watch, now in its 37th year of production, but before that it had pioneered electronic calculators, and launched digital watches, musical instruments, cameras and a pocket-sized TV.

Singapore

Yeo’s: a canned history of the Singapore food and drinks giant

From humble beginnings in Qing dynasty China, Yeo Hiap Seng moved to Singapore in 1937. After World War II, Yeo’s started making canned food, soymilk, and other drinks, and has been expanding ever since.

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Sex and relationships

How Malaysia’s Karex became world’s largest condom maker

Karex started life as a rubber company in Malaysia in the 1920s, turned to making condoms in the 1980s, and today supplies most of the big brands around the world, including Durex.

Karex is the largest condom producer in the world, having started as a rubber processing business in what is now Malaysia in the 1920s. Photo: Alexandra Radu
Japan

How Yamaha went from a watchmaker to a world beater

Yamaha is best known for motorbikes and musical instruments, but it has made everything from boats to warplane parts and the first CD recorder in the more than 130 years since watchmaker Torakusu Yamaha started making reed organs.

Patrick Coste with his Yahama 1200 Super Tenere bike during his trip to Morocco, in Timbuktu City in Mali, 2012.CREDIT: Patrick Coste
The Philippines

How these Filipino brands took over the world – from San Miguel to Jollibee

Filipinos have made a home all over the world, and as their most trusted brands have followed, they’ve earned legions of loyal new fans along the way

Food and Drinks

How Lotte went from making gum to a global leisure giant

Formed by a Korean migrant in Tokyo in 1948 to produce chewing gum, Lotte today is a global retailing, hospitality and leisure conglomerate

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