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Global Recession Reshuffles List of Top-20 Taiwanese Brands

2009 rankings show China's rising

2009/10/23 | By Philip Liu

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a semi-official trade-promotional body in Taiwan, compiles the "Top-20 Taiwanese Brands" list, on which Taiwanese-invested firms in China feature prominently in 2009. It seems the global meltdown has introduced a new corporate landscape, with the China market clearly becoming a bigger revenue-generator for Taiwanese enterprises.

The Want Want Group, a major Taiwanese-invested F&B maker in China, is a first-timer on the list at 6th place, with a brand value of US$412 million and ahead of many tech firms notably, according to TAITRA.

Another major Taiwanese-invested F&B maker Master Kong that operates in Taiwan stays at 5th place, whose brand value of US$916 million is US$123 million higher than the US$793 million in 2008, the highest growth among enterprises on the list.

With considerable presence in both Taiwan and China, Uni-President is another operator with diversified businesses related to F&B making and distribution, including being the agent of the 7-Eleven and Starbucks chain in Taiwan, ranks 14th with US$173 million in brand value.

Giant, Taiwan's leading bicycle maker with sizable global recognition and presence, rises to 8th from last year's 11th spot. Such commendable performance is attributable to, according to many media reports, consumer response to global warming in Taiwan and globally as well as the apparent bicycle-riding fad on the island, coupled with roaring sales in China, driving sales to over 400,000 units for 30%-plus market share last year.

Tech firms, however, continue to dominate the list despite the global recession. Acer ascends to the crown, up from the 3rd spot last year, with a brand value assessed at US$1.241 billion, slightly higher than the 2008 level. Acer owes its advance mainly to the declines in US$100 million in brand value of each of its rivals, Trend Micro and ASUS, who slip one notch to 2nd and 3rd , respectively. HTC, the maker of handheld devices, trails at 4th place, whose brand value and those of the top-3 all exceed US$1.2 billion.

The global recession has cut the total brand value of the top-20 Taiwanese brands by 5.1% to US$8.674 billion, comparable to the 4.6% decline in the counterpart of the world's top-100 brands.

Top-20 Taiwanese Brands (2009)

Ranking (2008 ranking)

Brand

Brand value (US$100 M.)

1 (3)

Acer

12.41

2 (1)

Trend Micro

12.35

3 (2)

ASUS

12.26

4 (4)

HTC

12.03

5 (5)

Master Kong

9.16

6 (-)

Want Want

4.21

7 (6)

MAXXIS

3.45

8 (11)

Giant

2.62

9 (9)

Synnex

2.55

10 (8)

Zyxel

2.22

11 (13)

Transcend

2.12

12 (10)

Advantech

2.04

13 (7)

D-Link

1.90

14 (14)

Uni-President

1.73

15 (12)

Johnson

1.59

16 (15)

Merida

1.52

17 (-)

Cyberlink

0.93

18 (17)

Genius

0.69

19 (18)

Depo

0.49

20 (19)

MSI

0.47

Source: Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA)