Zest-O Corporation
Zest-O Corporation is one of the largest beverage companies in the Philippines and a Philippine market leader in ready-to-drink juices. It was founded by Chinese Filipino businessman Alfredo Yao. The company's juices currently offer eleven different flavors: orange, mango, grape, pineapple, strawberry, guyabano, apple, calamansi, mango-orange, mango-calamansi and mango-lemon lime.
Business development
While touring Europe in 1979, Yao came to discover the technology in packaging called “doy packs", or flexible foil packs, in one of the European exhibits he saw. He bought one machine and tried to market the idea of doy packs to domestic juice manufacturers in the Philippines. When no company took interest, he used the equipment and started preparing fruit juice in his own kitchen.
He put up a company called SEMEXCO Marketing Corporation, which would soon adopt the name Zest-O after its product's name that soon became popular.
Zest-O juice orange flavor drink was launched in 1980 and soon became a big hit in the Philippines, eventually capturing 80% of the market for ready-to-drink juices. Soon, other juice flavors were introduced including mango, grape, pineapple, strawberry, guyabano (soursop), apple, calamansi, mango-orange, mango-calamansi and mango-lemon lime flavors.
In 1983, another ready-to-drink fruit drink, Sun-Glo, was introduced to the Philippine market. Variants of Sun-Glo juice drink available to Zest-O's market today include orange, mango, grape, guava, lychee and peach flavors.
In 1988, the company ventured into making purées. These high-grade tropical fruit purees were meant for use as confectionery for baking, ice cream making and other similar purposes. It was both manufactured for local and international markets. This was also the time when Zest-O was venturing into food sauces and condiments manufacturing, offering Tita Frita tomato and banana catsups and Tita Frita hot sauce. These products' development was enforced due to the purchase of a factory in Marilao, Bulacan that same year. A year later, the company introduced Beam Toothpaste together with two foreign brands it was marketing/distributing.
In 1990, Zest-O Iced Tea in ready-to-drink doy pack and powder-mix form were launched. In August of that same year, the company ventured into a new line of products, including Quickchow Instant Mami.
In 1994, Huadong United Can Co. of China collaborated with Zest-O Corporation to establish Huadong Zest-O Beverage Co. Ltd. New beverages were introduced, including Zest-O Cola, Zest-O Rootbeer, Zest-O Diet Rootbeer, and the Squiz Orange softdrinks line. The following year, Milk-O and Choc-O ready-to-drink dairies were created.
In 2000, Zest-O Corporation introduced Zest-O Calamansi. It also came up with innovative products including canned nectar drinks and cup noodles.
In 2006, Orchard Fresh juice drinks, Q4 with its 4 flavors, and the first local Fruit and Vegetable blend in bottles were launched. The next year, 2007, One Iced Tea was renamed White Iced Tea.
In 2008, Tekki Yakiudon was launched to compete in the noodle industry.
Today, Zest-O Corporation has five major plants all over the Philippines to reach the high demand of its products. These plants are located in Novaliches, Marilao, Canlubang, Mandaue City, and El Salvador, Misamis Oriental. It also has 13 branches nationwide in the Philippines which handle distribution to different areas of the archipelago. Over the past 25 years, its juices have remained the number one ‘ready-to-drink’ juices in the country. It has been considered a phenomenon and the Zest-O brand has become part of Filipino culture.
Expansions
To date, the company also exports mango purées to China, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore, the United States, and Europe. Looking back, it started with 20 employees in a small corner of a compound. Zest-O Corporation now has over 1,000 workers in various offices across the Philippines.
Early in 2010, the company ventured with PT Kalbe Farma Tbk of Indonesia into the manufacture of a new line of energy drinks, said to be the largest pharmaceutical industry category in Southeast Asia. The new venture recently introduced to the Philippine, Indonesian and New Zealand markets its new line of energy drink called “Extra Joss”.
Yao believed that the partnership with Kalbe would be the stepping stone for Zest-O to establish a name in the Indonesian market. Also, the collaboration is looking for the possibility of expanding into mainland China, Vietnam and western Africa. Zest-O Corporation also plans to compete in the global economy in the next ten years.
There had been news of the company going public since 2007, but, to date, Zesto-O Corporation has not had its shares listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange yet.