By J.T. Quigley
David Tran came to the United States
in 1980, fleeing the arrival of North Vietnamese forces into his native South
Vietnam. A South Vietnamese army major, Tran loaded his family onto a Taiwanese
freighter, called the Hoy Fong, and embarked for a new life in Los Angeles.
That ship would one day become his company’s namesake, and Tran would become
the reluctant founder of a multi-million-dollar hot sauce empire, realizing the
American dream without ever searching for it.
Tran never set out to become an
entrepreneur. After his arrival in LA, Tran was unable to procure a hot sauce
that went well with pho, the traditional Vietnamese noodle dish. Other
Vietnamese and South East Asian immigrants in his area were also missing
“Sriracha”-style sauce, a blend of chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and
salt (though Hoy Fong’s Sriracha is synonymous with Sriracha sauce, Sriracha is actually a type of hot sauce
originating in Eastern Thailand, not a specific brand name). Tran decided to
fill the void on his own, perfecting his recipe after a few months of
trial-and-error and eventually distributing it to local markets in baby jars.
“My American dream was never to
become a billionaire,” Tran said, in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. “We started this because we like fresh, spicy chili sauce.
[We] make a rich man’s sauce at a poor man’s price.” In the U.S., a 28 ounce
bottle of Hoy Fong Sriracha sells for about $4.
Hoy Fong’s Sriracha hot sauce is
catching fire in America. The 33-year-old company sold 20 million bottles of
the spicy red condiment last year, generating $60 million in sales. For
context, Tabasco – which has greater global reach and a 145-year history – has
estimated sales of $100 million.
Shriracha, with its hipster street cred and celebrity chef endorsements, is
closing the gap as its squeezable plastic containers replace Tabasco’s tiny
glass bottles.
Responding to increased demand, Hoy
Fong’s bottling operation will be moving to a $40 million, 650,000 square foot
plant in Irwindale, California. IBIS World, the international market research
firm, ranked hot sauce number eight
on a list of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. industries, stating that “hot sauce
sales have exploded thanks to demographic changes, immigration, and the growing
popularity of spicier ethnic food in the United States, Canada, and Japan.”
Globally, hot sauce is a $1 billion a year enterprise.
Tran gives his product global reach
through 10 distribution companies that he has partnered with for more than a
decade. “We don’t have a detailed record on where it’s being sold,” Tran,
who only recently began speaking to reporters, told Quartz. “At the very least, I know that on the bottle
there is English, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Spanish.”
The man behind the world’s most
famous Sriracha sauce also claims that he has never once increased the
wholesale price – regardless of inflation tripling food prices since 1980. Tran
has also never spent a cent on advertising, and has never even created an official social media
account for his brand. He is tight-lipped about the company’s finances for fear
of investors showing up on his doorstep.
Los Angeles will honor the
increasingly popular Asian hot sauce with the city’s first annual Shriracha Festival, which kicks off Sunday. Though Tran’s signature blend will
be a ubiquitous sight, don’t expect the humble millionaire to be in attendance.
The original post can be found at:
http://thediplomat.com/asia-life/2013/10/hoy-fongs-sriracha-hot-sauce-how-it-earned-a-place-beside-ketchup-and-mustard/
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