VNExpress-Feb 11
Forty-five years after arriving in Los Angeles, David Tran’s world-famous Sriracha chili sauce brand has made him the only chili sauce billionaire in the U.S. In 1979, David Tran, then 34, left Vietnam for the US. He settled in Los Angeles, California in early 1980. He set up a business, Huy Fong, which makes Sriracha hot sauce, a condiment he created following a recipe originally from Thailand. Over 40 years later, Sriracha sauce has been seen on the TV series Survivor, at the International Space Station and on dining tables worldwide, according to Forbes.
Its bottles, with their rooster logo and green squeeze cap, are used by 10% of U.S. families, according to market research firm NPD. The sauce ranks third in the US$1.5 billion US hot sauce market behind Tabasco, owned by the McIlhenny family, and Frank’s RedHot, part of spice giant McCormick & Co.Today Huy Fong is worth $1 billion, based on estimated sales of $131 million in 2020, according to research firm IBISWorld. That makes Tran, 77, who owns the company, America’s only hot sauce billionaire. Sriracha has survived a lawsuit over its factory’s smell and, most recently, a climate-related shortage of chilis last year that forced Huy Fong to temporarily halt production, causing retail sales to spike as consumers stocked up. Read more at: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/companies/overseas-vietnamese-becomes-americas-sole-hot-sauce-billionaire-4569075.html
