Zest-O Corporation

Trade name	Zest-O
Formerly	SEMEXCO Marketing Corporation (1980–95)
Company type	Private
Industry	Food Beverage
Founded	January 16, 1980; 44 years ago (1980-01-16)
Founder	Alfredo Yao
Headquarters	574 EDSA, Caloocan, Metro Manila , Philippines
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Alfredo M. Yao (Chairman and CEO) Jeffrey S. Yao (President)
Products	Juices Soft drinks Tea drinks Bottled waters Dairy products Instant noodles Condiments
Brands	Zesto Plus Sunglo Beam Quickchow
Revenue	₱2 million (2021)
Number of employees	1,000 (2022)
Website	www.zesto.com.ph

Zest-O Corporation, commonly known as Zest-O, is a Philippine privately held food and beverage company based in Caloocan. It was founded in 1980 by the businessman Alfredo M. Yao.

History

While touring Europe in 1979, Alfredo Yao learned about the Doypack packaging format in one of the European trade exhibits he visited. He bought one machine and tried to market the Doypack packaging format to juice drink manufacturers in the Philippines. When no company took interest, he decided to market his own brand of fruit juice drink. He put up a company called SEMEXCO Marketing Corporation and launched Zest-O orange juice drink in 1980.^[1][2]

Zest-O Cola, Zest-O Dalandan & Zest-O Calamansi carbonated soft drinks were introduced in 2000 while Zest-O Root Beer was introduced in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Products

Juices

• Zest-O
• Sun Glo
• Big 250
• Plus!
• Zest-O Juices in Can

Soft drinks

• Zest-O Cola
• Zest-O Dalandan
• Zest-O Calamansi
• Zest-O Root Beer
• Zest-O Squiz

Tea drink

• Zest-O Iced Tea

Bottled water

• Glazier

Dairy

• Choc-O

Instant noodles

• Quickchow Instant Mami
• Quickchow Pancit Canton
• Quickchow Quickie Cup Noodles
• Tekki Yakiudon
• Tekki Shomen

Condiment

• Tita Frita

Expansions

To date, the company also exports mango purées to China, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore, the United States, and Europe. Looking back, it started with 20 employees in a small corner of a compound. Zest-O Corporation now has over 1,000 workers in various offices across the Philippines.

Early in 2010, the company ventured with PT Kalbe Farma Tbk of Indonesia into the manufacture of a new line of energy drinks, said to be the largest pharmaceutical industry category in Southeast Asia. The new venture recently introduced to the Philippines, Indonesian and New Zealand markets its new line of energy drink called “Extra Joss”.^[3]