By QUAH CHIN CHIN

BUILDING an international brand name for his niche business is something David Loke has firmly set his sights on. The group managing director of Tru-Marine, a repairer of turbochargers in marine diesel engines, wants to 'create a global marine SME'.

'We don't want to be one of the big boys; the idea is to start Tru-Marine subsidiaries in every important location around the world where there are ports and supporting shipyards,' the former Singapore Navy regular says. 'We want to be where the customer is.'

Tru-Marine has already started embarking on this mission, coming a long way since it was first established in 1977.

The company currently has subsidiaries in Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai in China, Sharjah in the Middle East, Mumbai in India, and in Vietnam. It also acquired a repair yard in Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier this year.

The next target market - likely to be in another one to two years' time - is the United States, Mr Loke says. He adds that there are 'many other locations that will be right for our presence', although it is still too early for any concrete plans.

Power of 'repeatability'

'We want to have small companies in different places,' he says. 'This is what I call the power of repeatability - what works well in Singapore is transferred to every other location we want to put our flag in, while keeping in mind the local cultures and the people's aspirations.'

Mr Loke, one of Tru-Marine's five founders, took over as managing director of the company in 1992. During the first few years at the helm, his travels around the world led him to pick up learning points from overseas companies in the same business.

'From there, I brought these ideas back and started to change Tru-Marine in the way we did our business. We learnt how to run our business in a more professional manner,' he recalls. 'That was the first thing I did.'

To further boost the company's capabilities, he recruited qualified personnel who shared Tru-Marine's philosophy. The company currently has 75 employees.

'Our marine ship repair is on a 24/7 basis; it's not an 8 to 5, Monday to Friday job,' Mr Loke notes. 'Whenever there's a breakdown, you get a call and you go - it could be on Chinese New Year, it could be on Christmas Eve. That's the nature of our business, and the staff must understand that this is the way of life here.

'We're running a 'hospital' for turbochargers, so it's important to have the right people with the right mentality and preparedness to join us.'

Once the suitable employees have been selected, they must be well taken care of, he says. This includes grooming potential successors, sending them for training, and paying them variable bonuses every month, which depend on the company's performance.

'We constantly upgrade the skills of our people through training; our training budget is about 3 to 4 per cent of our payroll,' he shares, adding that the company is looking at sending its managers for MBA courses next year.

As in all businesses, Tru-Marine also has its fair share of challenges. One of the key limitations when it was first set up - and as is also the case now - is funding.

This leaves the company with little choice but to be prudent, Mr Loke says.

'Every year, a certain percentage of our profits will be ploughed back into the company,' he says. 'We limit our directors' pay to a certain level; we force ourselves to save so that we always have enough reserves for either expansion or to tide us over in bad times.'

Tru-Marine has been posting double-digit growth this year and is 'doing relatively well', says Mr Loke, who declined to reveal figures for reasons of competition. Still, he believes the company shouldn't rest on its laurels.

'The current hurdle I'm facing is the possibility of our people being complacent,' he says. 'To guard against this, I create some scenarios to deal with the possible risks that Tru-Marine may face, such as having to cut jobs.'

Such measures, he adds, help ensure that the company continues to strive for improvement.

'We need to continue to improve our products and services to our customers, based on their needs and expectations,' he says.

Rough times ahead

Mr Loke sees rough times ahead, in the light of the current economic downturn, and plans to mitigate the problem by cutting back on wastages and hence, reduce unnecessary costs.

'There are a lot of costs you can save without hurting the employees' benefits, and we've zeroed in on this for many years and have continued to do that. This is where the process improvement comes in,' he says. 'For example, if you perform a repair job that requires eight hours, you can send three men instead of four. And don't take 24 hours if it can be done in eight hours.

'Most importantly, you must get it right the first time. When you've finished the job, the ship should sail without any problem, because if there is, every single cost will be on the company.'

He also believes in helping customers 'tide over this bad period'.

'We're in the repair business; it's our responsibility, especially now, to help the customer run the ship well without stoppages,' he says. 'We'll try our best to keep our customers' turbochargers running smoothly so that the ship is moving.'

This article was first published in The Business Times on 24 November, 2008.