Wei Chuan Foods () is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of Chinese condiments, canned goods, drinks, and frozen goods. Its more popular, widely recognized products include canned pickles,

soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and '' Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''Asp ...

and

oyster sauce Oyster sauce describes a number of sauces made by cooking oysters. The most common in modern use is a viscous dark brown condiment made from oyster extracts,The Times, 22 January 1981; ''Cook Accidentally on purpose'' sugar, salt and water thick ...

s, and frozen

dumpling Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fi ...

s and

wonton A wonton () is a type of Chinese dumpling commonly found across regional styles of Chinese cuisine. It is also spelled wantan or wuntun in transliteration from Cantonese () and wenden from Shanghainese (). There are many different styles of ...

History

The predecessor of Wei-Chuan Food Corporation was founded in 1953 by Huang Lieh-ho as part of

Hotai Motor Hotai Motor Co., Ltd. () is a Taiwan-based automotive centric conglomerate. It is the largest automobile company and appliance distributor, and one of the largest financial holding companies in Taiwan. Traditionally, Hotai is regards as one of th ...

Group as Hotai Chemical Engineering Corporation, to produce MSG and soy sauce to enrich the everyday lives of people. In believing that the dairy industry could improve the living standard and nutrition standard of citizens and thereby promote rural economic development and compensate food inadequacy, Wei-Chuan established the dairy product department in the beginning of the 1960s out of the company's insistence on establishing a “public company”. This started the diversification of Wei-Chuan into an integrated food manufacturing company. Today, the founder Huang Lieh-ho was also called the “Father of the dairy industry” in Taiwan for this reason. With the food business diversification planning of Huang, Wei-Chuan became the largest food processing and manufacturing company in Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1998,

Ting Hsin International Group Ting Hsin International Group () is a Taiwanese-owned corporate group established in 1958. It owns various food brands such as the instant noodle maker Master Kong, Wei-Chuan Food Corporation and Dicos. History Taipei 101 and noodles The compa ...

became the largest (40%) shareholder following an ownership and management fight within the founding Huang family. Huang family and Hotai Motor divest its 33% shares after losing the biggest shareholder status. One of the joint ventures, Formosa Flexible Packaging, was move back to Hotai Motor Group. Huang family maintained majority ownership of

Wei-Chuan USA Wei-Chuan USA was founded by the original parent company Wei-Chuan Food Corporation of Taiwan in 1972. Wei-Chuan USA's corporate logo includes five red circles which represent the five basic flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Wei-Chu ...

, which owns the right to Wei-Chuan brand in the US, Europe, and Australia. As part of the agreement, Wei-Chuan divest its investment from Wei-Chuan USA in 2000. Thus Wei-Chuan and Wei-Chuan USA became separate entities with different ownership groups. In Taiwan, the company was often seen as the chief rival of

Uni-President Enterprises Corporation Uni-President Enterprises Corporation () is an international food conglomerate based in Tainan, Taiwan. It is the largest food production company in Taiwan as well as Asia, and has a significant market share in dairy products, foods and snacks, ...

Wei-Chuan USA

The

division was founded in 1972 and operates manufacturing and distribution centers in

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. Its products are similar to its parent company's. Wei-Chuan USA's corporate logo includes five red

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

s which represent the five basic

flavor Flavor or flavour is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception. Flavor or flavour may also refer to: Science *Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to Lis ...

Sports

Wei-Chuan formerly sponsored the

Wei Chuan Dragons The Wei Chuan Dragons () are a professional baseball team in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) that originally existed between 1990 and 1999. In 2019, negotiations regarding the franchise's revival and return to the CPBL took ...

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

team. The team was formally the leader in championships before its dismiss in 1999 by the company's new parent company Ting Hsin International. In 2019, it is announced that Wei-Chuan will re-joined the Taiwanese Baseball League by reestablished Wei-Chuan Dragons in 2020.

References

Brand name condiments Food and drink companies established in 1972 Chinese cuisine Taiwanese brands Manufacturing companies based in Taipei Food and drink companies of Taiwan {{food-product-stub

History

Wei-Chuan USA

Sports

See also

References