Oishi adds healthy snacks to product line

MANILA, Philippines - Liwayway Holdings Co. Limited, which owns the Oishi brand, will launch new products and more healthy variants of existing products as it approaches its 70th anniversary next year.

“There is a  need to cater to affluent segments of the market by coming up with new and healthier snack food products, like our vegetarian chicharon and pea-based snacks,” the company’s founder Carlos Chan said in an email sent to The STAR.

He stressed, however, this would be done without abandoning the company’s flagship Oishi prawn crackers.

Chan said the company is planning to expand further in Asia depending on opportunities that may arise.

“Expansion is always an option but this will depend on the market,” he said.

He noted that aside from snack food, the company has diversified into other segments of the food market. Last year, it set up a cassava processing plant in Bohol.

“For example, in China, we were able to introduce the concept of snack food at a time when the locals were used to munching on champoy, watermelon sees and sunflower seeds,” Chan said.

He noted that even before the company set up its first factory in Shanghai, they have already started selling Oishi products that were shipped from Manila.

“After the success in China, Liwayway ventured in other backward markets like Vietnam in 1997 and Myanmar in 1999.

He said the success of the company’s expansion in China was replicated in the Philippines when the company built satellite production facilities in Tarlac, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro in addition to the existing plant in Cavite.

“Our products have variants distinct to the taste buds of the locals. Our R&D people come up with flavors adapting to the local taste palette. For example, we have our Uyghur series to cater to the Uyghur group in Xinjiang, China,” Chan said, referring to the ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia.

The company is mulling an initial public offering in Hong Kong next year.

According to the company’s website, Oishi has over 100 varieties of snack foods and confectionery products and is one of the leading national brands in the industry.

At present, the company has factories in different areas in China such as Harbin, Hubei, Zhengzhou, Suzhou, Xuzhou, Kunming, Jiangxi and Xinjiang.

“The introduction of new products and expansion of sales distribution in urban and inner cities continue to pave for accelerated growth for  the Oishi business,” the company said.

Liwayway has sales offices in strategic locations such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Changchun, Jinan, Qingdao, Hefei, Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, and Foshan and 400 dealers across China.