Hong Kong’s Fung Group restores historic Hamada soy sauce factory in Japan, aims to grow condiments venture into business worth up to US$1 billion
- With the 200-year-old factory restored and a string of acquisitions, Victor Fung is looking to conquer the global condiments market through his Heritage Foods group
- In Hong Kong, a 500ml bottle of soy sauce fermented for 180 days is sold for about US$6, while Hamada ferments its soy sauce for 540 days and a 500ml bottle costs about US$76
Nearly three years after a severe earthquake wreaked havoc across Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture, on Kyushu island, the 200-year-old Hamada soy sauce factory has finally been restored.
Unveiling the repaired building on Monday was Hamada’s majority owner Victor Fung Kwok-king, the Hong Kong supply chain veteran and group chairman of the privately owned Fung Group, who is eyeing a slice of the multibillion-dollar condiments market.
Through his Heritage Foods Group, he hopes to grow the condiments venture into a proposition worth up to US$1 billion within a couple of years. He is counting on mergers and acquisitions to help him get there.
“We have begun looking seriously into the food business, and a good place to enter is the Asian sauces market,” Fung said. “People’s tastes around the world have become more diversified and they are willing to try new things, it’s not just ketchup in the West.”
The Fung Group, which he owns with younger brother William Fung Kwok-lun, went on a buying spree between 2015 and 2017, snapping up established household names in soy sauce and condiments in Singapore, Japan and Malaysia.