The Garden Company Limited | |
Native Name: | 嘉頓有限公司 |
Native Name Lang: | zh |
Industry: | Baked goods and confectionery |
Founders: | Tse Fong Cheung and Wah O. Wong |
Hq Location: | Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong |
Areas Served: | --> |
Owner: | Cheung family |
The Garden Company Limited is a Hong Kong-based bakery and confectionery manufacturer. The company was one of the first Chinese owned businesses created to sell modern-style food products in the territory. They also made bread and confectionery more affordable for lower-income earners.
Founded in 1926 by cousins Tse Fong Cheung and Wah O. Wong in Kowloon with a single bakery.[1] The company's name is named after the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens.[2]
Garden is traditionally a Chinese company and supplied bread to the Chinese army during World War II. The firm closed operations during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong from 1941 to 1945. The company expanded with the growth of Hong Kong before and after World War II and benefited from the influx of immigrants. In the 1956 Hong Kong riots Garden Bakery's Kowloon factory was destroyed and the colonial government awarded it HK$743,000 in compensation in 1957.[3]
In the 1980s and 1990s, Garden products were shipped overseas to Chinese communities around the world.
Today, the company remains family (Cheung family) owned with several joint ventures with other Chinese firms. It is one of few Hong Kong firms with operations still in Hong Kong.