Grape King Bio Ltd (葡萄王) yesterday rejected a local media report suggesting that it had falsified its product expiration dates, saying the allegations were the latest fallout from a family feud on succession of the company’s leadership.
The Chinese-language weekly magazine Mirror Media yesterday reported that at the end of 2012, Grape King Bio relabeled a number of products — including the company’s flagship mycelium-based health supplement — that were set to expire with a new expiration date of last year.
The report was accompanied by images of the company’s expired inventory disposal documents dated Jan. 14, 2013, which were leaked to the magazine by unidentified whistle-blowers. The documents showed that 91 entries of at least six of the company’s best-selling supplement products had been relabeled with new expiration dates.
The report said that the company’s management ordered the relabeling, as the documents bore the stamped seals of Grape King Bio’s chairman and president at the time.
“The report is false, and the magazine did not verify its facts with the company,” Grape King Bio chairman Andrew Tseng (曾盛麟) told a news conference at the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Tseng said that he had no recollection of the documents and raised the question of whether they were forged, adding that the company now uses a different paperwork template.
“An internal investigation suggested that the leak was made by a family member who was unhappy with my appointment as company chairman,” Tseng said, adding that the person is no longer with Grape King Bio.
The leak is the latest in a series of attacks against the company’s reputation, he added, but added that the firm could have suffered from administrative lapses.
A member of the company’s founding family had requested documents that later surfaced on the Internet as rumors about the quality of Grape King Bio products spread, Tseng said, adding that the company is preparing to press charges and turn over its findings to the police.
Tseng said all products produced since 2014, when he became chairman, are safe, adding that the company would honor all requests for refunds and exchanges by concerned consumers.
Tseng, the youngest son in his family, returned to Taiwan in 2010 to be groomed to take over the family business, as the health of his father, who founded the company, had begun to deteriorate.
Since taking over, he has worked to modernize the 47-year-old company through reforms and the implementation of standardized procedures, with earnings per share surging from NT$4.75 in 2012 to NT$8.07 at the end of last year.
Rocked by the allegations, Grape King Bio shares yesterday fell by the 10 percent daily limit in Taipei trading to NT$207.5.
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