A bottle of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce manufactured by Huy Fong Foods
Huy Fong Foods (Chinese: 匯豐食品公司) is an American hot sauce company. Beginning in 1980 on Spring Street in Los Angeles's Chinatown, with an initial investment of US$50,000 in family savings after being turned down by a bank for a US$200,000 loan, it has grown to become one of the leaders in the Asian hot sauce market.
The sauce was developed by the company's founder, David Tran (Trần), an ethnic Chinese Vietnamese farmer (born c. 1950) who had grown chili peppers, produced, and sold chili sauce in Long Binh, a village just north of Saigon. fleeing Vietnam in 1977 or 1979 and arriving in the United States (first in Boston, then moving to Los Angeles) in the spring of 1980 as a part of the migration of Vietnamese boat people fleeing the victorious communists following the Vietnam War. In the late 19th century, Tran's grandfather had moved the family from Chaozhou, Guangdong, China to Saigon, where they settled into the Chinese community.
The company is named for the old Taiwanese freighter that took Tran to Hong Kong in 1978 and its rooster logo comes from the fact that Tran was born in the Year of the Rooster. The bottles' trademark green top symbolizes the freshness of the chili used.
The Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce recipe has not changed since 1983. Flavored with garlic powder, it is currently Huy Fong Foods' best-known and best-selling item, easily recognized by its bright red color and its packaging: a clear plastic bottle with a green cap, text in six languages (Vietnamese, English, Thai, Chinese, Spanish and French), and the rooster logo.
In 1986 or 1987, Huy Fong Foods relocated to a 68,000-square-foot (6,300 m2) building in Rosemead, California. The company also purchased land near San Diego, California, on which it grows the chili peppers used for its products; it also purchases chilis grown in Oxnard and Somis, California, and places further north. Most of each year's chili mash is produced in just two months, during the autumn harvest. The sauces are produced on machinery that has been specially modified by Tran, who taught himself machining and welding skills. In 2001, the company was estimated to have sold 6,000 tons of chili products for approximately US$12 million. In 2007 it was estimated to have made US$3.2 million.[1]
Huy Fong Foods' chili sauces are made from fresh, red jalapeño chili peppers and contain no added water or artificial colors. The company formerly used serrano chilis but found them difficult to harvest. All five sauces are manufactured in Rosemead, California. The company has warned customers about counterfeit versions of its sauces.[2]
It reverse exports to Vietnam and Thailand.
Huy Fong Foods is a family business, staffed by eight members of the family. William Tran (born c. 1976), David Tran's son, is the company's director of operations. The company has never advertised its products, relying instead on word of mouth, the phone number listed on its products, and its website.
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