Tong Garden is the top ranked brand for nuts products and snacks in the whole Southeast Asian markets.Fair Food & Lifestyle (FFL) a concern of Fair Group is the National Distribution and Marketing Partner of Tong Garden in Bangladesh. Tong Garden’s story begins in 1963, and quickly grew into a household name within Southeast Asia known for its wide range of nuts & snack product
1963: Humble begi
nnings
With a small zinc roof factory and only a few staff, we began operations with Peking peanuts, a variant known for being unusually large.
1966–1977: Nuts, nuts and more nuts
Gradually, we expanded our product range to cater to different appetites. This expansion meant we needed a bigger space, so we moved to a bigger factory at Geylang Bahru in 1973. Thereafter, we added broad beans (1974), cracker biscuits (1975), as well as chick peas and green peas (1977) to our product range
1980–1989: Making a mark
In 1980, Tong Garden Food Products Pte Ltd was formally incorporated in Singapore. This was followed by Hong Kong in 1986, and Thailand in 1989. Even as we were moving across boundaries, our focus on the quality of our products remained. In 1984, we introduced pistachios to the market with a new packaging, and at a lower retail price. While others packed their pistachios in plastic, we used aluminum foil. This was revolutionary at that time, as it helped retain the freshness of the pistachios. All these factors quickly made us the market leader for pistachios.To accommodate this rapid expansion, our factory moved once more in 1987. We settled in at Chin Bee Crescent, in a premises that’s twenty times larger.
1989–1995:
New brand, new location, and more new products. In 1990, we introduced our second brand, NOI. Our product range continues to grow with almonds (1989), macadamias (1991), sunflower kernels (1993), among others. And in 1995, we also started supplying in-flight snacks to major airlines.
1996–Today: Changing times, changing tastes. Alongside our customers’ changing tastes, we experimented with new products to offer something innovative and refreshing. This resulted in our honey-coated nut series (1998), Seaweed & Wasabi Cashew Nuts Mixed Macadamias, and most recently, our Almonds with Dried Cranberries and Banana Chips. New products, new processes, aggressive strategies and creative use of R&D produced triple digit growth in sales between 1996 and today for Tong Garden.