Our company founder – late Mr. Ong Tuan Seng was born in 1929, and started helping out on his family’s pig farm business at the tender age of 7 with only 3 months of formal schooling. Farming work was laborious but it was through this that the young boy learnt the importance and lifelong values of diligence and seeking continuous improvement.
After WWII ended in 1945, Mr. Ong decided to pursue work outside the family farm business as a delivery assistant to help out the family. Mr. Ong wanted a promotion to be a senior lorry driver, so he pushed himself to obtain a driving license upon reaching the legal age.
Work as a senior lorry driver was tough, but it provided Mr. Ong the chance to be exposed to different business trades and contacts. The broad exposure helped Mr. Ong formed his own business principles and philosophies. These work experiences and lessons gained proved to be beneficial for his own business ventures in the years to come, and helped paved his way for entrepreneurial success.
Soon after marrying Mdm Ng Giak Hong in 1948, Mr. Ong started Eng Aik Seng, a logistics company serving various needs of his business contacts. During the 1950s, Mr. Ong achieved much in both family and business front – he had 10 children with Mdm Ng, and also managed to accumulate capital for business expansion. Following the success of Eng Aik Seng, Mr. Ong founded Hock Aik Seng Battery Motor in 1974 (renamed later to Hock Aik Machinery), and Chen Hock Heng Textile Printing in 1975.
Chen Hock Heng Textile (CHH) provided hands-on printing service in its early days, and grew rapidly to eventually fully automating its’ textile printing process for other downstream value-add companies in Singapore. This good business growth led Mr. Ong to the formation of Chen Hock Heng Machinery in 1985, where it tapped on the expertise and know-how from textile printing to building its own printing machinery to complement CHH’s use, and exporting custom-built machineries to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. In 2006, CHH Textile Printing was consolidated and relocated to Vietnam, along with the shift of textile printing industry to developing countries with lower labour cost.
During the early 1990, Mr. Ong saw the potential of food business, and founded his fifth company Golden Bridge Foods Manufacturing Pte Ltd in 1993. Mr. Ong first came up with the innovative idea of creating XO Wine sausage, recognizing that the fragrant aroma of XO brandy will be a sure hit with the market. As usual, his entrepreneur instinct was proven right. GB sales grew steadily, and started to expand into other categories, providing Taiwan style sausage, Western style hams and sausages a few years later. Currently, GB has portfolio of more than 500 SKUs, and manages its manufacturing activities within a newly built 9,000sqm compound. GB also started Ellaziq Pte Ltd (a fully owned subsidiary company) that focuses on halal product offering. From its early days of only SGD$500K, GB now has turnover sales of SGD$30 million, and is exporting globally to more than 10 countries.
At the grand age of 71 (in 2000), Mr. Ong felt that his children were ready to succeed and take over this business empire, which yielded annual sales exceeding SGD$60 million. Active management of the companies were left to his children, and he acted as an advisor when his wisdom, experiences and insights were needed. After retiring, he devoted his time reliving his passion for farming, planting organic vegetables and fruits and sharing them with family and friends. In 2007, Mr. Ong founded Ong Tuan Seng Development Pte Ltd, a property investment company, in hopes of handing down his accumulated wealth to his future generations.
Mr. Ong Tuan Seng, our founder was a visionary man, who exemplified that with diligence, passion, and clear vision, one can build successful businesses and share the results with many. He strongly believed that with good reputation and hard work, one will achieve success. And with the success and fortune that come, one must give back to the society and help the less fortunate.
To end off this short story of our founder, Mr. Ong said his biggest indulgence and gift for himself was the Bentley GT Continental Coupe that he drove is his final years, but we all know he deserved this reward without any shame, having worked hard for many years, and we are proud to say that he has managed to move on from his first lorry vehicle to a Bentley supercar.
Today, in a world of constant changes and uncertainties – Mr. Ong Tuan Seng’s legacy continues to live on and thrive; his vision, beliefs and values carried forward by future generations to come.
