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Ligo

Ligo is a heritage Filipino sardines brand founded in 1954 in Caloocan City by the Tung family, later acquired by Century Pacific Food in 2021.

At a glance

Notable facts

• Founded in 1954 by Gregory Tung Sr. as A. Tung Chingco Trading, Inc., originally the exclusive Philippine distributor of Liberty Gold (LI-GO) canned goods from California — the source of the Ligo name.
• The Tung family built its own cannery in 1980 to manufacture Ligo Sardines and Mackerel locally, after two decades as a distributor; historic manufacturing base at Caloocan Industrial Subdivision, Kaybiga, Caloocan City.
• Expanded through the 1990s and 2000s with Ligo Squid, Corned Beef, Meat Loaf (2008) and Tuna Flakes in Oil (2015), plus sardine variants including Gata, Spanish, Afritada, Kaldereta, Tausi, Tinapa and Curry.
• Century Pacific Food Inc. acquired Ligo's brand assets and intellectual property from the Tung family in December 2021, calling it a 'bolt-on' deal synergistic with its existing shelf-stable marine products business.
• Publicly marked 65 years of operation in 2019 and 70 years in 2024.

Origin

Ligo's story starts not with a can but with a trading company. In 1954, Gregory Tung Sr. founded A. Tung Chingco Trading, Inc. in Manila as the exclusive Philippine distributor of Liberty Gold canned goods imported from California — "LI-GO" is a contraction of that name. For its first quarter-century, Ligo was a distributed import before it was a homegrown brand.

That changed in 1980, when the Tung family built their own cannery to manufacture Ligo Sardines and Mackerel domestically, anchored at the Caloocan Industrial Subdivision in Kaybiga, Caloocan City. Through the 1980s and 1990s, under second-generation leadership from Gregory Tung Jr., the company broadened its range well beyond plain tomato sauce — adding squid, corned beef, and a long run of Filipino-flavored variants (Gata, Spanish, Afritada, Kaldereta, Tausi, Tinapa, Curry), later followed by meat loaf (2008) and tuna flakes (2015).

In December 2021, after nearly seven decades under the Tung family, Century Pacific Food — maker of Century Tuna and 555 — acquired Ligo's brand assets and intellectual property, folding a long-independent household name into the country's largest branded seafood portfolio.

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