This tin is a container for Van Houten Choco- Almonds and bears the address of its Singapore manufacturer, Allied Chocolates Industries Ltd. Its factory in Tanglin Halt was said to be designed with the most advanced technological equipment to process cocoa. A local company, Allied Cocoa Industries Pte Ltd. started in the late 1950s. Its chief Chuang Ming Chi set up the Sheng Huo Enterprises Ltd and began to produce chocolates in 1961. In 1965, a joint venture agreement with C J Van Houten Company of Holland (belonging to M R Grace and Co,New York) was formed and Sheng Huo Enterprises marketed the first batch of Van Houten Chocolates. In 1970 the company was renamed Allied Chocolates Industries Ltd. In 1970 the company was renamed Allied Chocolates Industries Ltd. It again chenged its name to Sunshine Allied Investment Ltd in 1986 and was listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange. Thus the Van Houten box of chocolates is representative of not just local consumer taste but also the robust local food processing industry of the 1960s. It alerts us to how a local company made it big.
