Andrew Tseng

Andrew Tseng, who got his PhD in the UK and was there happily advancing his career anonymously, relented to his father’s summons to return to Taiwan and join the family business. At Grape King, he led the organisational restructuring of the company, welcomed foreign partners and invested in a $30 million plant that would double production.

As a marketing expert, he also led the rebranding of one of Grape King’s core products: ComeBest energy drink, which was launched in 1969 and became a hit with blue-collar workers. PowerBomb, its 2015 iteration, targeted the under-30s crowd. A partnership with Uni-President enabled Grape King's retail channel penetration to reach 80 per cent. And with the Covid-19 pandemic increasing demand for immunity-boosting products, Grape King grew its range of probiotics and mushroom-mycelium functional beverages and supplements, with a large part of the sales coming from virtual channels.

In 2021, Grape King became the first company in Taiwan’s healthcare industry to sign with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TFDC) agreement, volunteering to disclose any climate-related risks and opportunities to reduce its impact on climate change.

During the pandemic, with increased public awareness of preventive healthcare, Tseng accelerated Grape King's innovation and research and development efforts. The company moved to make health food more leisure-oriented, launching the Grape King Kangpu Tea in Taiwan, becoming the leading brand in its category. In the post-pandemic era, Tseng announced that the group had entered the field of plant-based new drugs, challenging a more difficult but potentially more lucrative market with the independently developed non-alcoholic fatty liver plant-based new drug GKAC. This marked Grape King's first venture into the pharmaceutical field, and in 2022, the company's revenue surpassed NT$10 billion, with revenue per share approaching NT$10.

Grape King Bio also places great importance on corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. In addition to encouraging all employees to participate in energy-saving initiatives, the company signed the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2023, aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 4.2 per cent annually, with the goal of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050.