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By Mike Lee
SAMWOH Corporation, a leader in the civil engineering and infrastructure construction sector, is an example of a company that has been able to constantly evolve over time.
In the early 1970s, Samwoh started as a partnership between three like-minded lorry drivers who hit the roads providing transportation services to worksites in Singapore. Before long, it was incorporated as a transportation and logistics company.
Just a decade later, the company ventured into manufacturing asphalt premix, the key ingredient used in the paving and construction of roads.
By the 1990s, the company was actively involved in many asphalt premix related projects, including road milling and resurfacing and road markings.
At the start of the new millennium, Samwoh entered another strategic growth phase.
'The ultimate aim was to transform the company into a multiple-integrated civil and infrastructure company and construction materials supplier,' says its managing director Elvin Koh Oon Bin.
True enough, today, Samwoh offers a whole spectrum of products and services. These include the supply of basic building materials such as stones, sand, concrete and asphalt premix, and precast concrete components.
Samwoh has also invested in its own granite quarry on Karimun island, Indonesia, and ventured into the sea sand extraction business in Myanmar.
In addition, the company provides civil engineering construction services.
As an A1-Building And Construction Authority (BCA) registered civil engineering contractor, Samwoh can tender for government projects of unlimited amount.
'Being a one-stop supplier of goods and services reduces the need for our customers to interface with many parties, and hence reduces their coordination efforts,' says Mr Koh.
Besides integration, Mr Koh cites innovation as the other pillar of Samwoh's success. The company has invested heavily into its own research and development centre, where new products and technologies are formulated.
And while 'eco' has only recently become the new buzzword, Samwoh is already ahead of the competition in pursuing green technologies.
The company invested in a plant to recycle concrete waste in 2005, and recently set up another green venture to recycle asphalt waste, says Mr Koh.
Samwoh was also the recipient of a research grant from the BCA-MND fund.
The grant is used for research on the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) for the construction of a new three-storey commercial building. This building will be the first in Singapore and South-east Asia to be built using RCA.
'Since Singapore is a small country without any natural resources, the drive towards sustainable construction will be the in thing,' says Mr Koh.
The global economic downturn did little to affect Samwoh's business. After a stellar performance in 2008 when its turnover hit $168 million, the company is confident of maintaining its strong performance.
'We remain optimistic of our business in the coming year. The diversification of our group business means that we are not reliant on one single sector for growth and revenue,' says Mr Koh.
'The key to sustainability is being agile and able to cope with the changes in the macro environment, something which we have been able to accomplish in the past 30 years.
'We expect to maintain our performance for the next three years, barring any unforeseen circumstances. The projected total turnover for Samwoh Group in 2009 and also the next few years will be around $300 million,' he adds.
On receiving this year's Enterprise 50 award, Mr Koh says: 'I believe our good business performance, coupled with our healthy financial position, was one of the main factors that made us the winner.
Other contributing factors were our strong management team, our unique business model of 'one-stop supplier of goods and services', strategy and persistence in pushing the technological and innovation frontier, and continuously seeking for new ventures.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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