Preface
During the World War II in 30s and 40s century, Pak Kiu Tang, who was a farmer on Lile, Xinhui in Jiang Man province, China, clan brothers and family members decided to leave his hometown and seek opportunities in Hong Kong and Macau regions. Wing Moon Tang, who was the son of Pak Kiu Tang, was born in Macau in 1949 during the chaotic post-war period.
In the early 50s, Hong Kong was in ruins. Pak Kiu Tang alongside with his partner, who was Hou Au, the first son, who was Hoi Tang, and the second son, who was Wing Moon Tang, moved to Hong Kong and settled in the root squatter where was on Tit Hong Lane in Central. Pak Kiu worked as a coolie on Fruit Wholesale Market in Sheung Wan, and the rest of family members worked for living expenses except Wing Moon who went to school in early stage. Hoi, however, was working hard and had been learnt how to run a business while he followed his father worked together. Afterwards, Hoi and his mother attempted to start a small business on kerbside, officially began a fruit wholesale business on New Market Street in Sheung Wan where the main business was selling Bananas and other fruits in 1958.
Like many other impoverished children, Wing Moon was not only attending school in the morning but also helping out his family after school. They worked altogether for sustaining living expenses and decided to invest their family businesses.
Pak Kiu Tang, however, was passed away in 1968. Hou Au and Hoi Tang, soon after, rented 31 New Market Street in Sheung Wan and established ‘Tang Hoi Kee’ (former company name of ‘Tang Hoi Moon Kee’) continuing its fruit wholesale businesses. Wing Moon then decided to help manage the family business. They lived and worked frugally, sustaining their living expenses and businesses.
Transition
Despite the fact that the concern of shelf-life of fruits and the necessity of Fruit Wholesale Market relocation in Sheung Wan, core business had to be sustainable. In 1973, Wing Moon attempted to transit core business to Preserved Fruits introduced by Taiwanese and was authorised by his family. Hou and Hoi’s assistance allowed Wing Moon focused on new business development whilst Hoi dealt with business operation such as retails. They worked together seamlessly, developing “50 50 business responsibilities” model.
‘Sweet and Sour Brotherhood’ – Chan Pui Mui and Chan Pui Ying Che
Hong Kong’s economy has been booming since 1973 while Tang Hoi Kee’s business started transiting core business from fruits to Preserved Fruits consequently. Like many new businesses in early stage, sales figure of Preserved Fruits was out of expectation. In addition to operating fruit retail business for more than 10 years, it was inevitable a sort of contradictions came between Hoi and Wing Moon. For the sake of family business, Wing Moon was continuously developing Preserved Fruits business from sale and marketing, delivery and collection of goods. Hoi then further assisted and supported business operation and new product development.
Their siblinghood acted like Chan Pui Mui and Chan Pui Ying Che which are originally from plums. Former has mesocarp which is tender, but it has seed. On the contrary, latter also has mesocarp which is coarse, but seedless. These plums could be likened Hoi and Wing Moon who may have different personalities. They were, however, capable to complement and work together which could be able to sustain family business.
Brand establishment for international markets
As continuous business development and improvement, Wing Moon started to establish family own brand. In 1978, he took his friend’s recommendation and registered the trademark as ‘TANG’ which continuously produced various type of Preserved Fruits on Sai Kung factory in Hong Kong. Such marketing strategy served for local retail market, gradually this brand had been built as an image of quality products among consumers.
The timeline of assigning international distribution agents is listed below since 1982:
| 1982 | SING HUP SENG IMPEX (PTE) LTD was assigned for Singapore market |
| 1987 | JOHNTOWN INTERNATIONAL CO. LTD was assigned for Taiwan market |
| 1990 | NEW YORK SUMMIT IMPORT CORPORATION was assigned for East Coast of the United States |
| 1993 | Queensway Trading Co. was assigned for West Coast of the United States |
| 1995 | PT. TTS MITRA ABADI (INDUK KOPERASI TNI ANGKATAN DARAT) was assigned for Malaysia market |
| 2004 | YOUN YOUN S.A.R.L was assigned for South Pacific Island Tahiti |
| 2007 | expanding business with T N T SUPERMARKET INC. and WING YIP HONG in West Coast Canada and the U.K. respectively |
| 2010 | expanding business with TECH HUAT (K.L) CO. SDN BHD) in Malaysia |
Meanwhile, Tang Hoi Moon Kee’s products have been distributing into Belgium, South Africa, New Zealand, Philippines, South America, Brazil and Iceland all over the world.
In 1985, Tang Hoi Moon Kee purchased the ground floor of 175 Wing Lok Street in Sheung Wan in Hong Kong as permanent address and has been operating since then.
Tang Hoi Moon Kee products have been distributed and popularised all over the world. Consequently, a number of unscrupulous businessmen counterfeited and imitated Tang Hoi Moon Kee products. Wing Moon had spent a load of efforts dealing with such infringement issue from 1987 to 1996.
Since the beginning of the millennium, Tang Hoi Moon Kee has participated in many exhibitions in countries and regions with non-Chinese as the main market, such as Cologne in Germany and Dubai in the Middle East etc. Tang Hoi Moon Kee aim to let more people from different cultural, linguistic and religious fields and backgrounds have a better understanding of the snack and food culture of Hong Kong and South China.
Tang Hoi Moon Kee has optimised production facilities and improved quality as per international market demands and international standard requirements since 2000. Besides Chan Pui Mui and Chan Pui Ying Che, new products, such as Sun-Dried Mandarin Orange Peel (Chan Pui), Preserved Salty Ginger (Winter Ginger), and Preserved Lemon category, were launched in 2009. These volumes were significantly increased because demand exceeds supply particularly Winter Ginger and Preserved Lemon categories. Hence, a number of different flavours has been developed in order to cope with different target audience group since then. These products become one of the flagship products for Tang Hoi Moon Kee.
Retrospect and Prospect
For Tang Hoi Moon Kee, year 2018 marks a milestone of 50th anniversary establishment. In retrospect, from a small business on kerbside to a wholesale fruit business; and develop Preserved Fruit as a new business to establish an international high-quality brand; from a person dealt with sales and marketing to expand international distribution and supply chain, such processes were extremely arduous for instance dealing with infringement issue and international jurisdiction standards. Fortunately, fifty years go smoothly – efforts of two generations have achieved a half century of success. Hoi Tang retired and handed over his duty to his eldest son in 2000. Wing Moon Tang also retired in 2022.
Recently, Tang Hoi Moon Kee is proactively reactivating the UK and Canadian markets. There have many Chinese groceries selling Tang Hoi Moon Kee products, establishing a quality brand image and reputation in British Chinese communities in the UK. The legend of Tang Hoi Moon Kee has been handed over to the third generation, let’s work together for the next 50 years!