DFI Retail Group Own Brand wins at Retail Asia Awards 2026

The recognitions demonstrate strong execution in brand transformation and product innovation.

DFI Retail Group’s Own Brand has been honoured two awards at the Retail Asia Awards 2026: Brand Transformation of the Year - Malaysia and Co-Branding Initiative of the Year - Hong Kong.

The recognition highlights the successful unification of Mannings and Guardian into Mannings Guardian, as well as its collaboration with Teawood to launch a chips range in Hong Kong.

Unifying Mannings and Guardian in Malaysia

The Malaysia recognition stemmed from a strategic initiative that merged Mannings and Guardian brands into a single unified brand – Mannings Guardian. This transformation addressed high operational costs and stock management challenges by consolidating product ranges that previously functioned under separate names across North and Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

The brand relaunch involved a revamp of over 200 SKUs to provide better products and greater value whilst laying in a customer-first approach to product development. The initiative leveraged insights from over 92,000 customers and conducted home user tests to ensure all products met daily wellbeing needs. Mannings Guardian prioritises brand trust and product quality through a rigorous quality assurance framework that includes a 20-step process and 4 additional safety standards, such as Cosmetic Product Safety Reports and dermatological testing and validation by real users, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, trustworthy health and beauty products. The upgraded Mannings Guardian packaging delivers more transparent branding, enhancing credibility and trust. It also strengthens product claims and messaging, ensuring customers can easily understand the core benefits that matter most to them and their needs, together with incorporating sustainability markers, further strengthening brand transparency.

The recent brand relaunch has proven highly effective, resulting in a significant uplift in sales and profit productivity for the business. As a result of this initiative, Own Brand made significant progress in closing the profitability gap against its national brand competitors.

Innovation extended to marketing efforts through a collaboration with the Seoul-based JOGUMAN IP characters to release 22 new items under a cross-category collaboration, expanding the brand’s reach amongst younger consumers.

The strategic merger of Mannings Guardian in Malaysia optimised operations and product management whilst elevating quality assurance and customer-focused branding. This successful relaunch boosted profitability and competitiveness whilst expanding the brand's reach to younger consumers through innovative marketing collaborations.

Co-creating retail magic: Meadows x Teawood Chips Launch

To stand out in Hong Kong’s fiercely contested snack market, Meadows leverages a customer-first strategy: partnering with iconic Taiwanese restaurant chain Teawood to co-create groundbreaking products. This collaboration addressed three core challenges facing the snacking world: injecting local flavour excitement, translating a signature dish into a standalone snack and winning immediate visibility on crowded retail shelves.

This initiative moved past superficial flavour tie-ins, embedding deep co-creation from the start. The DFI Retail Group Own Brand team and Teawood conducted more than 20 rounds of exhaustive trial-and-error, real customer tastings, and cross-functional alignment. This meticulous process successfully mapped complex restaurant flavour profiles into two authentic, mass market SKUs: Taiwanese Grilled Sausage Flavour and Stewed Beef Soup Noodles Flavour V-Cut Chips.

Innovation also defined the 360-degree integrated launch programme. Centred on a vibrant Taiwan night-market design theme for strong on-shelf differentiation, the brand executed a comprehensive campaign across multiple touchpoints:

Omnichannel marketing

High visibility instore merchandising such as Gondola Ends and cashier displays, e-commerce homepage banners, yuu rewards platform push messages and brand page takeovers.

PR & Social Media

Widespread external PR and strategic KOL seeding featuring local celebrities like Yumiko Cheng and Kelvin Kwan.

Immersive Pop-Up Experience

A dedicated Teawood pop-up store experience featuring themed décor, giant wall stickers, custom table stickers, LED shopfront displays, cushions, takeaway bags, a QR-code ordering interface and tasting moments that transformed the launch into a shareable retail event.

This integrated approach resulted in massive brand exposure and immediate commercial success. The campaign generated around 3.5 million exposures across various media touchpoints. Commercially, the co-branded range overachieved its initial sales forecast by over 100% within the first three weeks of launch. The new launch rapidly secured a permanent Top 3 ranking within the entire Meadows chips portfolio.

By successfully blending authentic partner equity with an immersive omnichannel execution, Meadows and Teawood have set a new benchmark for cross-industry collaborations in the region. This remarkable achievement underscores DFI Own Brand’s ongoing commitment to driving market-leading product innovation and creating truly memorable experiences for local consumers.

The Retail Asia Awards highlights the pinnacle of excellence, innovation, and leadership within the retail industry across the Asia Pacific region. It serves as a benchmark of success, honouring companies and individuals who have made remarkable contributions to shaping the future of retail.

The Retail Asia Awards is presented by Retail Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's exceptional products or initiatives in the Retail industry, please contact Marni Marco at [email protected].