The King Car Group (Chinese: 金車公司) is a Taiwanese conglomerate which owns a number of international brands such as the Kavalan Distillery and Mr. Brown Coffee.
Name
The name King Car is a rough translation of the Chinese "to drive wealth."
History
The King Car Group was founded in 1979 by Lee Tien-Tsai and at first sold root beer. Root beer was not lucrative and in 1982 King Car pivoted to canned coffee, setting up the Mr. Browns brand on the advice of a Japanese mentor of Lee. By the mid 1990s the Mr. Brown brand was dominant domestically and was expanding internationally. In 1995 King Car tried to enter the alcohol market for the first time but their plans were rejected by the government which at the time held a monopoly on alcohol production.[1] Following the de-monopolization of the alcohol market in 2002 King Car began work on its first distillery, Kavalan, which opened in 2005.[2]
Subsidiaries
Buckskin
Buckskin is a major Taiwanese beer brand[3] based in Taoyuan.[4] It was launched by King Car in 2018 to compete with Taiwan Beer.[5]
Chu Chen Company
Founded in 1956. Produces household and personal hygiene products.[7]
Kavalan
The Kavalan Distillery is the largest whisky producer in Taiwan and one of the best in the world having won the World Whiskies Awards’ single malt category.[8][9]
Mr. Brown
Mr. Brown Coffee operates retail coffee shops and sells a series of canned coffee products.[1]
See also
- Beer in Taiwan
- List of companies of Taiwan
- Taiwanese whisky
- I-Mei Foods
- Want Want
References
- Joyce Huang. Kavalan: Albert Lee Leads Taiwan Family Group's Premium Whisky Bid Forbes, retrieved 12 November 2020^
- Staff Writer. Bottled ambition www.taipeitimes.com, Taipei Times, retrieved 26 November 2020^
- Hsu Hsiao-han, Ko Lin. Taiwan's Buckskin beer bags 16 gold and silver medals in 2020 focustaiwan.tw, Focus Taiwan, retrieved 12 November 2020^
- Jules Quartly. Kavalan Finds Further "Ginspiration" topics.amcham.com.tw, Taiwan Topics, retrieved 9 January 2021^
- Taiwanese whisky maker ventures into world of beer english.kyodonews.net, Kyodo News, retrieved 26 November 2020^
- DINAH GARDNER. Tapping into Taipei's Newfound Love of Draft Booze topics.amcham.com.tw, retrieved 8 January 2021^
- about chu chen www.kingcar.com.tw, King Car^
- The world's best whisky? It comes from Taiwan www.telegraph.co.uk, The Telegraph, retrieved 23 April 2020^
- Frances Kai-Hwa Wang. The Best Single Malt Whiskey in the World Is From Taiwan NBC News, retrieved 23 April 2020^