What's your favourite Taiwanese brand/company

[headhonchoII]

I have lived in Taiwan quite a while now and come to admire some brands/companies in Taiwan and associate some as being more 'Taiwanese' than others. For food I have to say Imei always has quality products, it runs it's owns stores in little towns all over the island and has been around since the 1930s. Ten Ren Cha's stores and drink outlets are top quality, drink and food wise...if they changed their marketing style for the West they could escape out of Chinatown .
In electronics HTC has impressed me these last few years, it makes me a little bit proud that a Taiwanese heaquartered company can make world beating phones. They show the potential here of companies that are willing to incorporate foreign offices and design to become multinational. Acer and Asus are kind of there but not quite, Acer took the route of low margin quick revenue and Asus is for nerds and gamers and also took a 'cost-down' approach in the main. Giant makes cracking bikes as do many other bike companies and parts suppliers.
85C does what it does very well...good coffee and okay cake for a few bucks. They have a huge future in China.

Brands and companies that don't impress me here would be President/7-11/Family Mart which sells a lot of sweet crap in it's shops and too much plastic packaging, just bad for health AND the environment. Carrefour (although not Taiwanese) and RT Mart are very boring and sells a lot of processed stuff to me but Matsushita has a good mix (that being Japanese originally of course). I've tried La New shoes here, they weren't bad but a bit overpriced for what you get and the design was quite plain.

[Nuit]

Got a very soft spot for Super Supau, the isotonic miracle drink.

[llary]

+1 for HTC

[citizen k]

Got a very soft spot for Super Supau, the isotonic miracle drink.

Me thinks that may be Japanese.

Datong is a company to be reckoned with; they have their finger in soooo many pies here. I second IMEI; good ice cream!

HTC and Acer for proliferation into international markets. Evergreen cargo and shipping for that matter, too. Try to think of a port anywhere in the world where you don't see their containers.

[Dr. McCoy]

I like Coco Lee.

[maoman]

Taiwan Beer, of course!

[finley]

The Gay Panda courier company:



Makes my day every time I see one of their vans.

Seriously, these companies are excellent. Parcel delivery from one end of the country to the other within 24 hours for the price of a Big Mac meal.

And incidentally, on the subject of isotonic drinks ... does anyone know what a Pocari is, and why I might want to drink its sweat? Come to think of it, I haven't seen that brand for a while.

[Incubus]

I second IMEI; good ice cream!

I third Imei; good OJ.

[Mucha Man]

I disagree that 7-11 and other convenience stores are not excellent companies. While they do sell a lot of crap, they also sell a lot of good quality products: coffee, decent sandwiches, fruit, beer, and in many urban locations, very reasonably priced organic produce. Their services are fantastic: faxing, photocopying, wireless, parcel delivery and pickup, paying bills, and so on.

Otherwise, I like Giant, Cottonfields, Muji (Japanese but locally designed clothing), HTC, Rhino (decent outdoor equipment), Eslite, and many more I can't recall.

[Huang Guang Chen]

Ah yes, Giant, but like Acer already out there.

I'd add Hey Song. If only because of this plug by Wu Bai.

It's worth considering what brands are likely to make it in China also. Uni-President/7-11 have made big inroads, for example, as has Want Want.

HG