By Francis Chan

NAME any restaurant chain in Singapore and chances are it is a client of Mr Albert Moh. His company, Freshening Industries, manufactures and supplies disposable wet hand towels.

No one has ever tried to make an official count of wet towel usage here - suffice it to say these end-of-meal refreshers are ubiquitous across the island.

ThaiExpress, Peach Garden and Sakae Sushi are just some of the local eateries where you can expect to be offered a wet towel made by Freshening.

These wet towels may be throw-away products, but this is no throw-away business for Mr Moh, who is eyeing a Singapore Exchange listing in the longer term.

He estimates that Freshening probably accounts for half of the wet towel market share here. 'You can't say we have highest market share because we never did an audit as it would be hard to do so, but I can say that perhaps 50 per cent of restaurants here are our clients.'

However, the 48-year-old will be drawn no further into trumpeting the success of the firm he founded in 1994 with just $300,000 - funds that he and a few friends saved over the years.

The father of two says lessons learnt in his early days of working odd jobs - before he finally got a break in his 20s selling disposable utensils - taught him to be humble.

Today, Freshening's success is not just built on food lovers here rounding off their meals by using a Freshening wet towel. In the past 15 years, the business has taken off and the company's wet towels are now distributed in more than 30 countries, from Britain to Australia.

Besides restaurants, Freshening's stable of business clients includes airlines, hotel groups, hospitals and cruise liners.

Most of Freshening's business involves business clients, but since 2000 it has broken into the consumer market too with product spin-offs such as Zappy Boy antiseptic wipes, Golfer's Wipe and Splash, which are sold in supermarkets and convenience stores.

Mr Moh's secret: keeping his product innovations as fresh as the hand wipes themselves, and never ceasing in his efforts to develop new ideas. 'In business, we must always think of new ways to refresh our product lines. If you don't innovate, you will never be able to penetrate into new markets and never be able to take the company to the next level,' he said.

He takes pride in the fact that he scored several firsts in the wet towel market over the years, which helped the company capture 'mid- to high-end' clientele that are willing to pay more for a better product.

'We were the first to use an exclusive foil material to package our wet towels instead of plastic, and by doing so we were able to spin off a business in designing the packages for our clients,' he said.

'That helped turn wet towels, which were essentially a low-end disposable product, into a presentable, premium platform for our clients to showcase their branding.'

Indeed, Mr Moh has his heart set on establishing Freshening as a premium Singapore brand. In 2005, Freshening won the prestigious Singapore Promising Brand Award from the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao for its brand development.

The key to the accolade: the design and packaging of the wet wipes which distinguish them from rival products.

The wet towels are tear-resistant and some offer ultraviolet protection, improve blood circulation, repel insects and even remove stains.

Mr Moh proudly asserts that Freshening wet towels are at the forefront of the industry in terms of quality.

'Wet towels are simple products, but throughout the years we have always explored ways in which we can make them better and stand out from the competition.'

A key initiative, which Mr Moh started amid the 1997 Asian financial crisis, was attaining the ISO Certification in Quality Management for the manufacturing of wet towels.

He says: 'We place a lot of emphasis on hygiene and quality in our production process, and our consistent efforts made us the first ISO 9001:2000 certified wet towel manufacturer in the region.'

To meet the high ISO hygiene requirements, Freshening wet towels are produced in a low-dust environment within germ-free chambers that are certified 100K clean rooms - an industrial standard.

'I made use of the 1997 crisis to institute the ISO standards so that when the market recovered, the company would be in a better position and it helped at the time,' says Mr Moh.

In 2006, Freshening also earned a certification for its focus on production hygiene - a standard the firm maintains with regular tests and audits to comply with international standards.

Similarly, during this downturn, Mr Moh says he will be carrying out some structural changes at the firm.

'Truthfully, orders are down over the first quarter, but we will make use of this slowdown to improve our corporate structure internally, so that we can be better positioned for the upturn when it comes,' he said.

Looking ahead, Mr Moh is confident that Freshening will still be able to grow despite a drop in global demand.

'Yes, there is a downturn now but we are still forecasting a 11/2 times growth to our revenue for this year.'

Mr Moh, however, is tight-lipped about the timing of a possible listing.

'It's definitely our target to make an initial public offering, but I can't say when that will happen; we will just have to wait and see,' he says.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.