Improvements for the La Choy Brand

Coming from humble beginnings, La Choy was founded in 1920 by Charles Smith and Ilhan New. They called their product La Choy, or “good vegetables.” They originally grew bean sprouts in their bathtub and sold them in little boxes on produce stands in local grocery stores. Within a few years, La Choy became incorporated, and after the Great Depression, they built their first plant. During World War II, the government classified canned Chinese food as inessential, and the company survived by making and selling blended vegetable juices. In the 1950s, La Choy found a new general manager, and he was interested in hiring people who knew the food industry and were hard workers. The focus at this point was expanding the sales department and turning La Choy into a marketing-oriented organization. In the 1970s, La Choy began operating from a management by objective process. This helped La Choy improve performance and communication. In addition, a broker group was set up that allowed for insight into consumer needs and wants. By 1985, La Choy held about 40 percent share of the market for canned entree specialty products and held about 25 percent of the frozen foods segment. La Choy has always been very consumer-focused and have always been family-focused as well. Their major focus on the marketing segment of the company throughout the years proves this.

La Choy Brand has been experiencing a downward trend in the market although it has been one of the most dominant brands of the Asian packaged-food business. The major challenge facing the company is the rate at which the profits and the market shares are declining. The company has resulted to strategic concepts aimed at making premeditated concepts in the context of making forecasts of the prevailing market conditions.

Using the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) portfolio planning approach, which is the best-known business portfolio planning method developed by the leading management-consulting firm, strategic...