SUCCESS STORIES

Incorporated in 2015, FOGG is an educational enrichment company specialized in themed camps, including water sustainability, urban design, catering for primary and secondary school students. They used to target overseas tourists, especially Chinese students but have been transforming to attract more local students over recent years. Facing slow and tedious work process, Ms Zhao Qianyu, Senior Business Advisor of SME Centre@SCCCI, advised FOGG to adopt SaaS solutions, Google Education, Zoho, and Gsuite for flexibility. Through adopting Google Education, they found it to be useful and relevant for their business till today. Qianyu has also conducted brand audit to evaluate their branding and marketing effort and suggested FOGG to set up referral system to attract more customers.

When COVID-19 strikes, FOGG were looking at e-teaching and sought advice from Qianyu again. She has advised them to use virtual meeting solutions such as Zoom for both overseas and local students and coming up with a new pricing strategy. They managed to tap on Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) for Zoom subscription and adoption of laptop bundle so that their staff and teachers can work from home. Their transformation turned out to be successful with no shrinking in revenue and received numerous inquiries from potential overseas partners.

To scale up their business, FOGG who is a micro-business with limited capability in business development decided to work with strategic partners where Qianyu matched them with other Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and collaborated to create new educational contents as well as targeting overseas market by offering online education camp as a new product to these overseas customers.

Incorporated in 2013, I.Z. Plastics & Supplies Pte Ltd manufactures and distributes plastic bags for commercial uses. The Company uses a few machines which are old and often breakdown for their production of plastic bags. As the machines are not automated, the production staff need to spend 15 minutes of set up time for each of the volume run and the output rate is 30 pieces per minute. Mr Tay Bok Swee, Senior Business Advisor of SME Centre@SCCCI, introduced the “Innovation and Productivity” Support Programme under Enterprise Development Grant to help the Company automate its production processes.

The Company had invested in new machinery and also received the support from Enterprise Development Grant to defray part of the investment costs. With this automated equipment, the set-up time for each volume is drastically reduced to 3 mins and the output rate has increased to 40 pieces per minute. The Company is happy with the result as less time is used to produce larger quantity of plastic bags.

KWAY GUAN HUAT JOO CHIAT POPIAH: FROM TRADITIONAL DELICACY TO DIY POPIAH

83-year-old local heritage brand Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah has not only overcome the challenges of succession planning; after third-generation owner Michael Ker took over the family business, Joo Chiat Popiah Restaurant was opened in 2019 beside its existing shop outlet. Apart from the signature Do-It-Yourself (DIY) popiah sets, the restaurant also offers delectable local “zichar” dishes.

COVID-19 hit as the company planned to grow their business. Frequent changes in dining restrictions have taken a toll on businesses. Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah collaborated with various food delivery platforms especially when dining in was not allowed, fully leveraging their Halal certification to join “Hungryy” – a delivery platform for customers to order food online from their favourite Halal eateries, attracting more potential customers.

Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah had already been seeking advice from SME Centre@SCCCI on the use of government grants to enhance productivity. The company purchased new equipment through WorkPro and Enterprise Development Grant in 2019 and 2020 respectively, shortening the time needed to make popiah skins and improving operational efficiency by 40 to 50 per cent. This allows Michael and his team to focus their efforts on product innovation.

The slowdown in retail sales due to the pandemic has in turn made Michael and his business more agile and flexible. For example, adjusting the portion of the ingredientsaccording to the changes in COVID-19 restrictions and social gathering group sizes, providing customers with greater convenience when they order online. With the advice from SME Centre@SCCCI, Kway Guan Huat Joo Chiat Popiah engages younger customers on social media. They have also opened a pop-up stall in Bugis Street recently to let the younger generation learn more about this traditional delicacy.

Although in-person Popiah Tours cannot be conducted due to the pandemic, Michael still shares the history of popiah virtually, making special arrangements to deliver the popiah skins and condiments to all participants on the same day before the virtual event, creating a great experience as everyone wraps their own popiah “together” online with the freshest ingredients. He hopes to make this family business a century-old brand and will continue to share the history and heritage of popiah with the rest of the world.

GIN THYE: PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION OPENS UP NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Established in 1964, Gin Thye specialises in wedding pastries of various dialect groups and provides one-stop service for customary wedding needs. They are committed to preserving and promoting traditional Chinese wedding customs. Besides its online store, customers can also purchase Gin Thye products through various e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Shopee and Qoo10.

Since a few years ago, Gin Thye started going online and introduced e-commerce into the business. Automating some processes of the pastry-making has helped to increase productivity while preserving the nostalgic traditional taste. Gin Thye has been successful in pivoting to online sales as the Circuit Breaker affected sales in the retail store. With the help of SME Centre@SCCCI, they were able to make use of ESG’s E-Commerce Booster Package to join Amazon, further expanding their online presence.

Leveraging years of extensive experience, professional knowledge and increased productivity, innovation has been at the core of the business with new products such as Western-style bakes and mooncakes. Besides durian snow skin mooncakes, Singaporeans’ love for durian also gave Lawrence Lim, second generation owner of Gin Thye, the idea to come up with durian mochi. Riding on this wave, Gin Thye also launched their very own durian ice-cream made from durian pulp to cater to younger customers.

Embarking on transformation long before the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled Gin Thye to pivot to online sales swiftly. The company’s spirit of forging ahead amid challenges, taking the leap while others were unable to withstand the pressure, brought in 6,000 to 7,000 Mother’s Day orders during Circuit Breaker last year. The sales from that month were equivalent to that of the entire year. One main reason was because many confectioneries were unable to mass produce during the pandemic and many customers turned to e-commerce platforms.

After seeking advice from SME Centre@ SCCCI, Gin Thye also recruited talent to support the company’s future development through the P-Max Programme. Despite being hit by the pandemic, Lawrence feels that the Singapore market is still full of opportunities. He hopes to overcome the limitations of food such as mooncakes that are usually sold around the festive season by selling everyday food products such as ice-cream and cakes in local supermarket chains, raising awareness of quality local food products.

SYNERGY 4 TECH: FROM TESTING BORDER SECURITY EQUIPMENT TO MEDICAL IMAGING EQUIPMENT, DIVING DEEP INTO THE NICHE MARKET

International travel has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aviation industry severely impacted after Singapore put in place border restrictions in March last year. Only 42 million travellers were cleared for entry and departure at Singapore’s checkpoints last year, a plunge of more than 80 per cent from the year before. Interestingly, 11.7 million consignments, containers and parcels were cleared last year, an increase of 400,000 items from the total cargo cleared in 2019.

The pandemic emphasises the importance and need for more agile and resilient supply chains. X-Ray scanners at the checkpoints play an even vital role in homeland security. With headquarters in Singapore, Synergy 4 Tech (S4T) was founded by Kenneth Tan and Tam Kwok Wai in 2012. The company designs, engineers and manufactures the X-Ray Test Equipment (XTE) for X-Ray scanners, providing customers with accurate evaluation of their X-Ray scanners within minutes to ensure that the scanners are always functioning at an optimum level.

As the world’s only fully comprehensive small to large X-Ray imaging performance evaluation and verification system, XTE offers a one-pass evaluation of X-Ray scanners, and with no downtime to daily operations. S4T’s partners span across Asia, North America and Europe, with customers including Customs Authorities, Immigration Checkpoints and Air Freight and Logistics Centres. As the field of XTE is a niche market, it faced challenges in devising its branding and growth strategy. The company has not been able to conduct face-to-face meetings with their clients due to the pandemic. Apart from product manufacturing, there has also been delays in coming up with the Proof of Concept of the XTE software with their overseas partners.

Over the past three years, the SME Centre@SCCCI has been providing advisory and consultative services to S4T in areas such as business model transformation and reinvention, transformation road-mapping, protection of intellectual property and patent application, assisting the company to apply and make use of the Enterprise Development Grant in product innovation and software optimisation. For example, S4T optimised XTE Cargo which is used to test large X-Ray scanners at checkpoints and developed XTE Lite which can be used to test airport baggage scanners. A wider variation of XTE means a more complete suite of services for its clients.

The company’s flexibility and spirit of innovation during the pandemic enabled it to develop XTE CT-M, which can be used to test medical imaging equipment, opening up a whole new customer target group and demonstrating the essence of “when there is a will, there is a way”. S4T Founders Kenneth Tan and Tam Kwok Wai hope to venture into more overseas markets and expand the company’s online presence, creating more awareness of their products to potential customers

Helping SME to Improve Customer’s Experience

Going once. Twice. Sold.

Atasbid’s online site used to take a backseat. But today, it has become a lifeline for this #Singapore auction house specialising in pre-owned art and antiques.

Currently run by third-generation owner Goh Seng Ngee out of a shophouse at Chinatown, they previously only used the website to give customers a preview of upcoming auctions. Customers would then attend in person, which could take up an entire day.

When covid19 hit, all activity came to a standstill and #business was affected tremendously.

Now, auctions are held comfortably online. Sales through this avenue has grown and so has the scale, from 50 items per auction initially to 200.

This is after Atasbid refined its online auction site and received help from Don Tan, an SME Centre@SCCCI business advisor, to improve its data management and handling of customer enquiries. With Don’s guidance, they were also able to tap the Enterprise Development Grant to enhance the user experience, and draw customers from all over the world.

Source : Enterprise Singapore

As part of the transformation plan to break out of the red ocean, DA Di Glass (the SME) decided to invest in developing a new product.  Marcus Lim Sales Director, came to SME Centre@SCCCI in mid 2018 for a consultation with Ms Lee Lay See, Principal Business Advisor.  After brainstorming and reviewing their project ideas, the SME was advised on the scoping and business case under the capability funding support by Enterprise Singapore. The SME had successfully applied for the funding and completed their product development for security protection glass in 2019. The  New Product is targeted at a different market segment and helped to reposition the SME as the leading player for such product in the Singapore market.

Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, many of their peers which are into normal glass trading and processing have suffered huge drop in revenue due to the slowdown of construction and renovation projects. Some are on the verge of closure. Fortunately for the SME, due to their effort in the development of the innovation product which serves a different segment, they are still able to withstand and balance off the impact of the outbreak on the traditional construction market segment.

They are continuing their transformation journey to move out from the traditional market to focus on higher value, innovative and specialised products to serve the security market segment and look into more advanced automation. The SME is repositioning themselves as a critical supplier to Singapore’s security infrastructure and industries and is exploring overseas markets as part of their growth strategies.

Yappy Pets Pte Ltd (Yappy) started as local distributor of internationally renowned brands pet food and accessories. In recent years, the company has invested heavily in R&D and developed their own brands of pet foods including dog and cat food and treats.

Yappy has adopted a B2B strategy in it’s 25 years of history. They wholesale goods to retailers and distributors in bulk and receive feedback via these partners as well. Yappy’s business owners have always been reluctant to go into B2C space so as to avoid direct competition with retailers. However, they always wanted to adopt a more effective way of gathering feedbacks to improve agility and react to market trends faster.

Yappy started selling on e-commerce marketplaces around a year ago with an in-house marketing team. It was slow moving as marketing staff were loaded with other responsibilities. When Yappy heard about the Multichannel e-commerce programme (MEP), they were keen to test out and work with an external e-commerce enabler.

It turns out to work very well, especially since COVID-19 Circuit breaker started. Jolean, Yappy’s marketing manager, said that a lot of pet owners decided to stock up on dry pet food at the beginning of Circuit breaker, causing a surge in sales from local e-commerce marketplaces. Sales from these channels made up 15% of the total sales for the month of April and May. However, she mentioned that the

trend is unlikely to sustain, and she expect the average percentage to be around 7%.

Jolean also said that the above sales aren’t cannibalising into retailers portion. From data collected, Yappy deduced that those purchasing from e-commerce marketplaces and those from physical retailers are two different groups of customers, with significantly varied shopping habits.

On the cross-border e-commerce front, Yappy has been doing well for internationally renowned brands in Malaysia and Thailand. They are now looking at how to utilize e-commerce marketplaces to raise brand awareness for their own brands. Jolean mentioned that Yappy chose to invest in in-marketplaces advertising

campaigns instead of social media marketing. This is because Malaysia and Thailand have much bigger social media population and digital marketing is a totally different ballgame as compared to that of Singapore. Marketing and advertising campaign need to be more precise and attractive and Yappy believe MEP might just be a right overseas venturing solution for a SME like themselves.

Lilo Health Food Pte Ltd (Lilo) is a food manufacturing business founded since 2017. The company specializes in ikan bilis, mushroom, scallop power as a natural replacement of seasoning products. Before the onset of COVID-19, they were selling mainly through baby fairs, offline retailers and their own website.

The business owner Lily found her business model working well and revenue has stabled with a strong branding in the local mummy’s community. She started toying with the idea of venturing overseas to ASEAN and China.

During a workshop organized by SME Centre@SCCCI earlier this year, she happened to understand about regional cross-border e-commerce trend and the Multichannel e-commerce programme (MEP) with grants from Enterprise Singapore. Lily was excited with the potential of the programme and signed up almost immediately after the workshop.

Only two months later, with the onset of COVID-19 Circuit breaker, all physical retailers have to shut down temporarily and baby fairs cancelled, which means Lilo will lose half of their annual sales. Fortunately, with the help of MEP, the company managed to open up new sales channels via e-commerce marketplaces. Total sales have only decreased around 20-30% instead of a massive 50%.

Lily is very grateful for such a programme with government subsidy in place in times like this. She mentioned that the company is not making as much profits as before but manage to survive and keep all

employees. 

Lily is also optimistic about cross-border e-commerce for Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. She mentioned that she is making use of the CB period to learn about digital marketing, especially that of in-marketplace

marketing herself. She hopes all the efforts will prepare the business for a quick rebound and perhaps even growth acceleration once COVID-19 situation gets better in the region.

The co-founders of Ming Hing Food Pte Ltd – Mr. & Mrs. Yang Ming sought Alan’s advice in Jan 2020 on tapping support from ESG in adopting technology to cook fried rice for their F&B trade.  Alan guided them on the funding support application with ESG and business model structuring to scale.

Additionally, he also advised them on other productivity enhancement support schemes from ESG and reaching out to prospective investors to support their growth plan.