Ting Hsin International Group () is a

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese-owned

corporate group A corporate group or group of companies is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of groups are often managed by an account manager. The concep ...

established in 1958. It owns various food brands such as the

instant noodle Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by flash frying cooked noodles, and this is ...

maker Master Kong, Wei-Chuan Food Corporation and

Dicos Dicos (stylized as dico͘s, ) is a Chinese fast-food restaurant chain owned by the Tianjin Ding Qiao Food Service. The chain ranks third among China's top three fast-food enterprises, as it has almost as many restaurants as McDonald's. The chain ...

History

Taipei 101 and noodles

The company was founded in 1958. In July 2009, it became the largest private shareholder in

Taipei Financial Center Corporation The Taipei Financial Center Corporation () is a Taiwanese company notable for its ownership of Taipei 101. Lendlease was the company's retail consultant in 2003. Ting Hsin International Group was its biggest shareholder, with a 37% stake, in 2010. ...

, which owns

Taipei 101 Taipei 101 (; stylized as TAIPEI 101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a supertall skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. This building was officially classified as the world's tallest from its opening in 2004 until the 2009 ...

. The company is owned by the Wei family of Taiwan, and in 2009, was the largest maker of instant noodles in China.

Leaving certain industries (2014-2020)

The company in 2014 was run by four of the Wei brothers. In 2014, the company announced it would no longer produce cooking oil after a tainted oil scandal. Several former executives were indicted later that year, including former chairman Wei Ying-chung. In 2014 not only did it suspend operations at Ting Hsin Oil and Fat, but also Cheng I Food Co Ltd. The company Wei Chuan, which was Taiwan's second-largest manufacturer of food then, face share value drops after the parent company apologized for food safety lapses. In 2014, Ting Hsin International Group said it would sell its Taipei Financial Center Corporation shares to raise cash for around $770 million. Over the next three years, the company had difficulty selling its TFCC holdings, with Blackstone Group talks not ending fruitfully, and the Taiwanese Ministry of Finance voting against a deal with a Malaysian investment company. Sometime around 2018

ITOCHU is a Japanese corporation based in Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka and Aoyama, Minato, Tokyo. It is one of the largest Japanese ''sogo shosha'' (general trading companies). Among Japanese trading companies, it is distinguished by not being descend ...

purchased 37% of Taipei Financial Center Corporation, which it spent USD$670 on. A new chairman, Jason Lee, was appointed in 2014. In August 2014, Ting Hsin acquired China Network Systems (CNS), a cable provider, from

MBK Partners MBK Partners (MBKP) is a North Asian focused private equity firm. According to Forbes, MBK Partners is one of the largest private equity firms in Asia, managing $25 billion worth of assets. Overview MBK Partners was founded in 2005 by Michael ...

, Limited. To further stem losses in 2015, the company approved the sale of its Matsusei supermarket chain. After the food safety scandal, the share of the Ting Hsin International Group subsidiary Wei Chuan, known for its milk brand, increased from holding 40 to 25 percent of the local milk market. The division said it was considering about increasing operations in China that year, in 2017. In 2017, it began building a new plant in China. After controversy concerning food dilution, on 3 January 2017, Ting Hsin announced that its board of directors had dissolved the company's affiliate manufacturer of instant noodles, Master Kong (Taiwan) Foods Co., Ltd. Master Kong was entirely dissolved, withdrawing from production in Taiwan.

FamilyMart is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. It is Japan's second largest convenience store chain, behind 7-Eleven. There are now 24,574 stores worldwide in Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Its ...

sued to end its partnership with Ting Hsin in 2019, which would end a 15-year joint venture. Ting Hsin International Group was the top seller of instant noodles in the world in 2017, with a 15% share of the market.

Food scandals and boycott

Ting Hsin Oil and Fat in late 2013 was found to have purchased tainted food products from Chang Chi Foodstuff since 2007. In November 2013, Wei Ying-chung (魏應充), former chairman of three subsidiaries of Ting Hsin International Group, was indicted on charges of fraud as part of an investigation into the 2013 Taiwan food scandal. Wei Ying-chung is the third of four Wei brothers controlling the Ting Hsin group. On 9 October 2014, prosecutors launched an investigation into the 2014 Taiwan food scandal alleging a unit of Ting Hsin International Group over sale of tainted cooking oil. Prosecutor Tsai Lee-yee (蔡麗怡) said Ting Hsin unit Cheng-Yee Food Co. (正義股份有限公司) was investigated over allegedly mixing

animal feed Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word ''feed'' more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input to ...

oil with

cooking oil Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and may be called edible oil. ...

and then selling it for human consumption. After the revelations, the Taiwan public boycotted Ting Hsin items, with a number of local governments, restaurants, traditional markets and schools refusing to consume the conglomerate's products. On 16 October 2014, Ting Hsin announced that it will leave Taiwan's oil market and donate NT$3 billion toward food safety under the supervision of Juantai Financial Group (潤泰集團) Chairman Yin Yen-liang ( 尹衍樑). The Changhua District Court granted a request to detain Wei Ying-chung on 17 October. On 21 October, prosecutors said according to Ting Hsin's Vietnamese oil supplier Dai Hanh-Phuc 戴幸福, the majority of animal feed-grade oil imported by Ting Hsin may be used in the China market. In response, consumers in China called for a united boycott against Ting Hsin products. In November 2014, Ting Hsin's products were tested for

Agent Orange Agent Orange is a chemical herbicide and defoliant, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides. It was used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It ...

since an unnamed source told authorities that the oil Ting Hsin imported from Vietnam may contain traces of the herbicidal weapon. In November 2015, six former managers of Ting Hsin International Group, including former executive Wei Ying-chung, were found not guilty of breaching the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation by selling substandard lard-based cooking oil. The verdict attracted immediate criticism from both the public and politicians. Wei began serving a two-year prison term for another fraud charge in July 2017. In 2018, the Taiwan High Court in Taichung overturned the 2015 verdict and sentenced Wei to 15 years in jail.

References

{{reflist

External links