Yoon Ja-young is in charge of articles translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. She is interested in improving the newspaper through AI.
Monggo Foods mired in owner scandal
By Yoon Ja-young
Kim Man-sik Monggo Foods honorary chairman
By Yoon Ja-young
Monggo Foods, a major producer of soy sauce, is facing the biggest crisis in its 110-year history after its honorary chairman’s alleged abuse of his driver. A boycott campaign is being pushed by members of social networking services (SNS), with consumers taking the case as a typical example of chaebol bosses acting as if they are above the law.
The former driver of Kim Man-sik, the 76-year-old honorary chairman of the food company, said in a media interview that he had been habitually abused both verbally and physically, for no specific reason. He put up with the abuse to feed his family, but the company then fired him saying it was an order from the honorary chairman.
As the victim disclosed a recorded file of Kim’s insults, the company’s website was paralyzed for a few days as too many people tried to access it.
The company’s CEO, who is Kim’s eldest son, posted an official apology on the website saying Kim offered to resign, but the online boycott campaign by consumers is continuing. The news reports were followed by testimonies by former employees of Monggo Foods, claiming that they too were victims of the violent and cursing honorary chairman. A former employee told No Cut News that Kim even threw things and spat at employees when he was drunk. An NGO filed a complaint with the prosecution over Kim’s violence. The company is also scheduled to go through a special inspection by the Ministry of Employment and Labor next week, who will examine whether the company has been abiding by labor laws.
Consumers say online that it reminds them of Pigeon, a manufacturer of household products whose founder and chairman Lee Yoon-chai became the center of a scandal back in 2011. Lee was found to have sent hired goons to assault the company’s former CEO. After being beaten by masked men near his home, the executive was hospitalized for weeks. Lee was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
The incident led to a boycott campaign of Pigeon’s fabric conditioner, and the company, which had been the top player in the market for more than three decades, saw its market share plummet to 22.6 percent in 2014 from 48.3 percent in 2009.
“I checked the brand of the soy sauce bottle in my kitchen as soon as I saw the news about Monggo Foods,” said Kim Young-ju, a housewife in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. “I will not buy their products.”
Based in South Gyeongsang Province, Monggo Foods recorded 44.7 billion won in sales last year. It has between a 20 to 30 percent share of the soy sauce market.