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Tiger Balm may be one of the most recognizable brands in Asia, but its road to global fame wasn’t all smooth rubs.
From simple beginnings at a medicine shop in Myanmar to near extinction in the 1970s, this tiny jar of herbal salve has gone through more twists and turns than the muscles it treats.
This is the story of Tiger Balm. Tradition, reinvention, and a quiet yet powerful legacy that spans generations and geographies.
💊 Roots in Myanmar
In the 1870s, Aw Chu Kin, a Chinese herbalist, set up a tiny medicine shop in what is now Yangon, Myanmar.
Inside that shop, he perfected an herbal formula blending camphor, menthol, clove oil, and cajuput oil.
They were ingredients used in traditional remedies for generations, but his blend worked so well that people started calling it a miracle salve.
When Aw Chu Kin died in 1908, he left the formula to his two sons, Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par, along with a simple wish: keep the tradition alive.
🇸🇬 The move to Singapore
By the 1920s, the brothers decided it was time to leave Myanmar behind.
They packed up the family formula and moved their operations to Singapore, where trade was booming and migrant communities were growing fast.
Aw Boon Haw, whose name means “Gentle Tiger,” was the business guy. His brother, Aw Boon Par, was more reserved and a pharmacist at heart.
Together, they rebranded the salve to Tiger Balm.
“Tiger” wasn’t just catchy. It was a symbol of strength and Asian identity, and it stood out on a crowded shelf.
At first, they sold it to dockworkers and rickshaw pullers who needed relief after long shifts. But it didn’t stay small for long.
📰 The media machine
The brothers understood the power of visibility.
Instead of paying someone else for expensive advertising, Aw Boon Haw built his own media empire.
He founded The Singapore Tiger Standard, an English-language newspaper that doubled as a platform to promote Tiger Balm and other products.
Alongside it, they launched Sin Chew Jit Poh, a Chinese daily that became one of Southeast Asia’s most influential Chinese-language publications at the time. (It’s still published in Malaysia today as Sin Chew Daily!)
They also used the revenue from their printing business to fund an ambitious marketing strategy.
They set up product demonstrations in busy markets and gave out free samples to curious passersby.
When cars became more common in Southeast Asia, they even commissioned brightly painted Tiger Balm delivery vans, which were essentially rolling billboards that traveled from town to town.
One of their most spectacular moves was building the Tiger Balm Garden—later called Haw Par Villa. They opened it in Singapore and built similar ones in Hong Kong and Fujian, China. (You can still visit the one in Singapore today!)
The parks’ giant dioramas of Chinese myths drew crowds and made headlines across Asia. By attracting visitors and press, it turned Tiger Balm into one of the region’s most talked-about brands.
The approach worked. Within a decade, Tiger Balm was a staple in homes across the region, used for everything from headaches to mosquito bites.
🔫 When war strikes
But war shattered everything.
When Japan occupied Singapore in 1942, Tiger Balm’s factories and the family’s other businesses were seized by the military administration.
Aw Boon Haw fled to Hong Kong to avoid arrest, while rumors spread that he had struck deals with Japanese authorities to protect parts of the empire.
After the war ended, the Aw family faced the delicate task of reclaiming their assets and rebuilding trust with employees and customers who had lived through years of hardship.
😱 The takeover years
In the early 1970s, a new threat appeared. This time, it was corporate raiders.
The British firm Slater Walker Securities launched an aggressive takeover of Haw Par Brothers International, the listed company that controlled Tiger Balm.
At first, the move promised growth, but it deepened divisions among the Aw family.
When the company, Slater Walker collapsed in 1975 during a financial scandal, the Aw family’s business was left a mess. Ownership was fragmented and the strategy was unclear.
💪🏼 New beginning
After Slater Walker collapsed, the Singaporean government stepped in to help stabilize the business, so there would be less fallout.
Over the next few years, the company was reorganized as Haw Par Corporation, now a publicly listed company with new institutional investors taking a major stake.
The Aw family no longer held control, but the leadership that rose was committed to preserving the brand’s heritage and finding a path forward.
❌ From success to sinking ship
But by the late 1970s, pharmacy shelves were filling up with Western painkillers packaged in clean, clinical boxes that promised fast, science-backed relief.
To younger consumers, Tiger Balm was an old-fashioned remedy their grandparents swore by.
Doctors were recommending branded tablets and creams over traditional balms.
Sales were slipping because perspectives shifted and new generations with new preferences came up.
What was once a symbol of trusted care risked becoming irrelevant. For the first time in decades, the brand’s future was in real doubt. And it wasn’t clear whether heritage alone could save it.
😉 Same same but different
They knew the formula still worked. The problem was how it was perceived.
The team decided to keep the recipe exactly the same, but everything else had to evolve.
First, they refined the packaging: the label design was modernized and the typography was cleaned up, but they kept the distinctive hexagonal jar and the iconic tiger logo, so loyal customers would still recognize it instantly on the shelf.
Then came the real shift. Tiger Balm was repositioned from a traditional home remedy to a modern sports essential.
They launched new formats—gel tubes, patches, roll-ons—that fit neatly into gym bags and first-aid kits.
But repositioning wasn’t a guaranteed fix. Modern consumers might have ignored the new look, and longtime customers could have felt the brand was abandoning its roots.
To prove the point, they started sponsoring marathons and partnering with athletic organizations. They started showing up where active lifestyles were thriving.
Last year, they even launched a four-year partnership with FC Bayern Munich, covering Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong SAR (China), and Mainland China.
🪞 A new identity
The strategy worked because it didn’t erase the past. It reframed it.
Where once the balm had been marketed for “old aches,” it was now presented as a tool for active lifestyles.
From runners to yoga enthusiasts to office workers, a new generation discovered what their grandparents already knew: it worked.
Sales rebounded, then shot past previous highs.
By the 1990s, Tiger Balm had gone from nearly obsolete to an international success story.
❤️ Remember your roots
They never strayed far from their roots. Production remained headquartered in Singapore, where the formula was still made using traditional processes—menthol and camphor slowly blended to the right consistency under strict quality controls. The company resisted pressure to relocate manufacturing to lower-cost markets, knowing that consistency was its greatest advantage in a sea of imitators.
Packaging was updated but never replaced. The red-and-gold hexagonal jar, with its prowling tiger, stayed at the center of the brand’s identity. For new consumers, it signaled heritage. For longtime fans, it confirmed the product hadn’t changed under the surface.
This balance evolving the brand story without compromising the soul became Tiger Balm’s trademark as it grew into pharmacies, sports stores, and supermarkets worldwide.
🤩 Where we are today
Today, Tiger Balm is more than a jar of herbal salve. It proves that adapting over time is the key to lasting success.
Haw Par Corporation, the company behind Tiger Balm, reported annual healthcare sales of $170M (S$232.1M) in 2023. Every year, millions of jars are sold across more than 100 countries, making Tiger Balm a true global staple.
From modern packaging to new product formats and sports partnerships, the brand kept evolving as customer habits changed. Yet it never lost its core promise of natural, reliable relief.
This balance of updating what needed to improve while protecting what mattered most turned a family remedy into a global brand trusted by generations.
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