King Car Group

The King Car Group 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."[1]

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]

Some 7-Elevens in Taiwan feature Buckskin beer on tap.[6]

Chu Chen Company

Founded in 1956. Produces household and personal hygiene products.[7]

Kavalan
Main article: Kavalan Distillery
Whisky Distillery 1, King Car Kavalan Distillery

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
Main article: Mr. Brown Coffee

Mr. Brown Coffee operates retail coffee shops and sells a series of canned coffee products.[1]

See also

References
  1. Huang, Joyce. "Kavalan: Albert Lee Leads Taiwan Family Group's Premium Whisky Bid". Forbes. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  2. Staff Writer. "Bottled ambition". www.taipeitimes.com. Taipei Times. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  3. Hsiao-han, Hsu; Lin, Ko. "Taiwan's Buckskin beer bags 16 gold and silver medals in 2020". focustaiwan.tw. Focus Taiwan. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  4. Quartly, Jules. "Kavalan Finds Further "Ginspiration"". topics.amcham.com.tw. Taiwan Topics. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  5. "Taiwanese whisky maker ventures into world of beer". english.kyodonews.net. Kyodo News. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  6. GARDNER, DINAH. "Tapping into Taipei's Newfound Love of Draft Booze". topics.amcham.com.tw. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  7. "about chu chen". www.kingcar.com.tw. King Car.
  8. "The world's best whisky? It comes from Taiwan". www.telegraph.co.uk. The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  9. Kai-Hwa Wang, Frances. "The Best Single Malt Whiskey in the World Is From Taiwan". NBC News. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
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