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Stories behind top Hong Kong brands

Stories behind top Hong Kong brands
From Chow Tai Fook and Lee Kum Kee to Vitasoy and Camel flasks, many of Hong Kong's most famous brands have become symbols of Asia to the rest of the world. We chart the fascinating histories of Hong Kong's top brands - their often humble beginnings, their ups and downs, and how many home-grown companies are now international names.
Mongkok fishballs
Food and Drinks

Video | How this Mong Kok fish ball shop keeps its prices low

After decades of supplying restaurants across the city, the Mong Kok fish ball specialists are finally selling direct at a fraction of the price.

Food and Drinks

How this Hong Kong maker of authentic shrimp roe noodles is leading a comeback

Food and Drinks

A US$24 dried plum? Hong Kong seller preserves tradition while modernising

Food and Drinks

With Taipan closed, where to buy snow skin mooncakes in Hong Kong

Here are six places from bakeries to hotels offering snow skin mooncakes in flavours including durian, egg custard, pistachio and chocolate.

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Shang Palace Durian Snowy Mooncake Duet Photo: Kowloon Shangri-La
Food and Drinks

How a Hong Kong chilli sauce became a sandwich favourite 8,000km away

Réunion Island’s famous bouchon gratiné, made from a baguette, dumplings, chilli sauce and cheese, reflects the island’s mix of inhabitants.

Food and Drinks

What is hoisin sauce? How the condiment spread from China to Trader Joe’s

Originating in southern China, hoisin sauce is now found in supermarkets from the US to Japan and is even used in cocktails and desserts.

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Timepieces

Meet Hong Kong’s teenage watchmaker Ricky Hong, who’s already making waves

The watchmaking prodigy has drawn scepticism because of his young age, but his passion and talent have already earned him recognition in the horological world.

At just 16 years old, Ricky Hong is already building his own watch designs. Photos: Jocelyn Tam
Hong Kong celebrities and icons

Who is Maria Lee, Hong Kong’s Queen of Cakes? New biography tells all

Maria Lee built a bakery empire, saw it go into liquidation, and moved on and up. Summing up her life was a challenge, her biographer says.

Food and Drinks

What is Pei Pa Koa and why is Ariana Grande adding it to her ‘vocal box’?

The Chinese cough syrup, loved by singers like Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey, is also finding its way into cocktails around the world.

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Hong Kong

PostMag Christmas gift guide: 10 ideas for your favourite couple

From eco-friendly bedding and bamboo sheets, to handmade incense and festive perfume, here are 10 picks for that one couple closest to your heart.

The Coravin Timeless Six+ bottle preservation system is among our recommended gifts for couples. Photo: Coravin
Hong Kong

PostMag Christmas gift guide: 8 ideas for your trendiest friend

From stylish bamboo bags to limited-edition watches and, yes, a map, here are 8 thoughtful suggestions for the trendiest person on your gift list.

Our guide takes the guesswork out of getting gifts for the ultimate aesthete. Photo: YiWooo
Hong Kong

This week in PostMag: home-grown Christmas gifts, a ferry trip and art

In this week’s print issue, a selection of Christmas gifts from Hong Kong brands, the fourth edition of the Bangkok Art Biennale and a 55-hour trip on a ferry.

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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Hong Kong economy

Opinion | Hong Kong’s entrepreneurial spirit is alive and kicking – but needs support

Brands like Lee Kum Kee and Chow Tai Fuk reflect the city’s ability to create products that resonate on a global scale. Today, as a new breed of companies take on the challenge of appealing both locally and to customers around the world, they need a supportive ecosystem.

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Chow Shing-yuk, CEO of Lalamove, poses for a photo in Kowloon Tong in October 2017. The company now operates in 400 cities around the world. Photo: David Wong
Fashion

Casetify isn’t from the US? 4 Hong Kong brands making it big overseas

Casetify, the popular phone case brand founded by Wesley Ng, and Edison Chen’s streetwear label Clot are both big in the US, while denim brand Unspun and sneaker company Lane Eight are making inroads.

Casetify phone cases
Stories behind top Asian 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.

Retailing

Hershey, Mars contract manufacturer finds sweet success in mooncake venture

Multizen Asia, a Hong Kong-based contract manufacturer for Hershey and Mars in mainland China, has forayed into mooncakes and is on track to make 1 million pieces this year.

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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

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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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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Stories behind top Asian brands

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

Video | How Chow Tai Fook became an iconic Hong Kong brand

The story of Chow Tai Fook – from goldsmith to jewellery conglomerate
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Old Hong Kong

Then & Now | ‘Made in Hong Kong’: a mark of quality it took decades to build

Trust, like that placed in the ‘Made in Hong Kong’ label, must be earned. Forcing the ‘Made in China’ label upon Hong Kong-manufactured goods will squander an internationally recognised sign of credibly.

Stories behind top Asian brands

Watsons: the story of the oldest established business in Hong Kong

The first A.S. Watson dispensary opened more than 175 years ago in Hong Kong, and took its name from the pharmacist who ran it. Today the company has 14,400 stores in 24 markets and annual revenue of over US$19 billion.

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Stories behind top Asian brands

White Flower oil: 91 years of going from scents to strength

The pungent cure-all oil blend is an Asian institution, offering relief from everything from headaches to travel sickness. We look at its history, from humble beginnings in 1920s Penang to today’s modern Hong Kong factory

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A bottle of White Flower oil, a staple in Chinese family medicine cabinets for decades. Photo: James Wendlinger
Stories behind top Asian brands

The Sasa story: from tiny basement store to Asian cosmetics empire

Couple with no business experience took a gamble on a 40 sq ft shop in 1978 and have ridden the wave of Asia’s rising affluence to the point where their customer base ‘now includes, well, almost everyone’, co-founder Simon Kwok says

Simon Kwok, chairman and CEO of Sa Sa, with his wife, Eleanor, the firm’s vice-chairwoman, in Causeway Bay. Photo: Edmond So
Stories behind top Asian brands

The history of Hong Kong's Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce, so good it's served in space

Launched 130 years ago in Guangdong, Lee Kum Kee’s products are not only popular across the globe – its sauces have even made it to space

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Stories behind top Asian brands

Homegrown Hong Kong: Po Chai Pills, city’s go-to cure for everything

The tiny pills that reputedly remedy everything from stomach pains to menstrual cramps have long been a staple of local medicine cabinets. Now the company is looking to attract younger consumers to keep the legacy going

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