Fri, Jul 29, 2011
AsiaOne
It was a gesture of goodwill that led 62-year-old billionaire Sam Goi to his #12 spot in Forbes Asia's Singapore's 40 richest list this year, but his entrepreneurial streak was what carried him through.
Despite being known as the 'Popiah King', food was not what Mr Goi set out to do when he first ventured into business. Born to a farmer from China's Fujian province, Sam Goi migrated with his family to Singapore when he was six. They lived in Geylang, where they lived in a one-room tenement and where his father opened a small grocery store. After dropping out of high school, he did odd jobs at a mechanical repair shop while also helping his father at the store. It was here at this repair shop that he found out that he had a knack for fixing machines. His first business venture was, fittingly enough, his own repair shop, which he financed through a loan from his father. However, it closed in less than a year. He did not give up. He was able to raise enough money through the informal Chinese community lending network to start the same business, now called Sing Siah. In four years, his revenues had grown to half a million dollars, and he started a new business to repair ships at the Jurong Shipyard. These two businesses kept flourishing, with multi-million dollar revenues that enabled him to employ 400 people. It was his third business, however, that made him a billionaire. When he moved to an industrial zone, he stumbled upon a factory which had a unit that was struggling, with feuding partners. The product: popiah skins. He bought a controlling stake from the owners, who he had earlier befriended. He later bought out his partner, who had started a similar business in Malaysia. By 1980, he had full control of Tee Yih Jia. From a small operation employing 23 people who could produce 3,200 wraps a day, it is now a frozen foods empire with estimated revenues of US$1.3 billion (S$1.6 billion) that produces 35 million pieces of popiah skins daily in factories in Singapore, China, Malaysia, and the US. These are sold under the company's Spring Home Brand, and are distributed internationally, together with other products like roti paratha, Indian samosas, glutinous rice balls, and prawn balls. In 2006, he handed over operations to his US-educated children, and is now going into property in China. He told Forbes Asia: "I'm a simple man who started in a small way with the humble popiah, but now we've gone far beyond that." Source: Forbes Asia ellenja@sph.com.sg Source here
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