|
|
|
|
THE brothers had a game plan from the word go, with Mr Koh Kian Huat, then a 17-year-old carpenter, making the furniture while Mr Richard Koh scouted for business, took orders and delivered the goods. A typical day started at around 7am and often did not end until as late as 4am, recalls Mr Richard Koh, who is now chairman of Star Furniture, while his brother is a director. 'When it rained, I would get wet because the truck had no canopy,' he says. 'We worked every day of the year, except for six or seven days off during Chinese New Year.' There was also some blood amid the sweat when Mr Koh sliced off the top of his third finger on his left hand while rushing a job. The brothers' timing was fortunate. Demand for furniture was strong in Singapore in the early 80s. 'That was when the Government was moving people from the kampungs to HDB flats, so many people were looking for new furniture,' says Mr Koh in Mandarin. The duo then moved into the wholesale business between 1982 and 1983 in order to reach out to a bigger market. 'We decided to make cabinets for shops to sell, then we made chests of drawers before moving on to making a whole bedroom set,' says Mr Koh. They rented a factory in Loyang in 1983 and began employing staff. A second, smaller factory followed in 1984, but a fire in June that year destroyed the main plant along with machinery and stock. The trying years THAT meant starting all over again at the smaller factory in another part of Loyang. Mr Koh says it was tough, as some suppliers did not want to do business with them while others were glad that they had no links with the struggling brothers. But he refused to be pitied. 'I don't want to let people look down on me,' says Mr Koh. 'From then on, I slowly stood on my feet. Whatever I earned, I used to clear my debts.' Another setback came in 1985 when the economy went into a recession and forced many firms to the wall. 'We saw the crisis as an opportunity to expand,' says Mr Koh. 'We could get cheap rents to go into the retail business.' Their first outlet was in Yishun. A year later, they rented a warehouse in River Valley and started Singapore's first warehouse outlet business. 'My thinking is different from other people. Whatever people don't want, I want,' says Mr Koh. Another warehouse outlet in Kallang followed in 1987. In those days, the firm was called Ngoh Hock Furniture, a name Mr Koh describes as being very 'lao tu' (old-fashioned in Mandarin), 'so we changed it to Star'. The change came in 1988, a year before another brother - Kenny, who used to spend his school holidays at the workshops - joined. Star Furniture began exporting its products in 1991 starting with Taiwan, which the brothers had visited for a furniture exhibition. They went on to open a chain of retail stores there. The common language was a key attraction, says Mr Richard Koh. In 1994, they ventured into China, taking a long-term lease at a state-owned factory in Fuzhou, complete with workers. That proved a mistake or, as Mr Koh prefers to call it, a learning opportunity. 'The workers insisted on sitting down when making furniture, and you can't sack them. Fuzhou was also not a good location, as we still had to bring in materials from Dongguan,' recalls Mr Koh. 'We jumped into the river without realising there are stones below.' The turning point THINGS changed for the better when high costs forced them to move production out of Singapore to a lower-cost location, Johor, in 2000. 'The pickup in our export business started from 2000,' says Mr Kenny Koh, 41, who is now the managing director (MD). 'Our volume went up, our costs went down and we became more competitive.' They soon set up a factory in Dongguan and have since made plans for another plant, possibly in Vietnam. Finding new markets is also now a priority. Last year, they added Poland and Russia to their list. But as the three brothers well know, furniture is a competitive game with ever more players joining, while costs, even in China, keep rising. 'There are new challenges ahead. We have to be innovative and have to follow trends,' says the MD. Last month, the group launched its first upmarket brand called Lucano. Under this brand, a sofa set sells for between $5,000 and $6,000. The group also opened its fourth Furniture Warehouse outlet, the latest being in Labrador. Half its production is under its own brands - Star Furniture, Mondi Lifestyle Gallery, Zen Tradition and Lucano. The rest is mass-produced and comes under other brands. The group expects revenue for this year to be about 5 per cent up on last year's $46 million. It may open more outlets in Singapore provided suitable locations are found, but the next leap will be into China, where a chain of wholesale stores has been planned for from this year. Mr Richard Koh may have a bit more time to enjoy life these days, but he is far from taking it easy. 'You can never relax when you are in business,' says the self-proclaimed workaholic with a laugh. 'You have to keep running, and you have to run faster than other people.'
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
