Wong Kim Hoh Meets...
From one fishball noodle stall to a $150 million-a-year food empire with 15 brands
(Left to right) Tan Kim Beng, 48; Tan Kim Siong, 50; New Mun Kit, 41; and Tan Kim Leng, 43. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Wong Kim Hoh
Deputy Life Editor
SINGAPORE - It's Monday, four days before Boleh Boleh - Singapore's biggest pork-free foodcourt - opens for business on Christmas Day on the fourth floor of Clementi Mall.
The signages for the 28 food stalls, among them Petaling Street Famous Claypot Chicken Rice, Damansara Chilly Pan Mee and Penang Road's Famous Chendol, are up but workers are beavering away to make sure nothing goes awry on opening day.
Tan Kim Siong, 50, and his two brothers Kim Beng, 48, and Kim Leng, 43, are chatting with business partner New Mun Kit, 41, and various workers, going over the finer details of getting the 10,000 sq ft foodcourt ready.
Boleh Boleh is the Tan brothers' latest baby, a new addition to the food empire they built, one comprising 15 brands (including Fei Siong, Malaysia Boleh, Nam Kee Pau and Encik Tan) and nearly 160 outlets in hawker centres, coffee shops and foodcourts all over the island.
The Fei Siong Group, which has three business entities, employs 1,600 staff and last year made nearly $150 million in revenue.
Remarkably, it all started with a humble fishball noodle stall started by Kim Siong.
The slim 50-year-old - decked out like a Hong Kong celebrity in an all white track suit and a six-figure Richard Mille watch on his wrist - dropped out of school at 15 to become a hawker.
"I'm the eldest and my three younger siblings were still in school. Money was tight," says Kim Siong, whose father was a Port of Singapore Authority container driver and mother, a factory worker.
"But I also liked business and wanted to learn more about hawker food," he says in a mixture of English, Mandarin and Hokkien.
He was no stranger to the trade. His maternal grandfather ran a Teochew fishball noodle stall in Redhill Market.
"I had helped out at the stall since I was 13. I'd fillet fish and make fishballs in the morning before going to school. After school, I'd go back to the stall to help."
To earn extra money, the former student of Queenstown Secondary Technical spent evenings working as an assistant for neighbouring stalls. "I helped to sell fish soup, curry rice, economy rice and zi char," he says, using the Hokkien phrase which means cook and fry. "That's why I know the recipes for many dishes."
With his experience, scoring a cooking gig at a noodles stall in Bukit Batok was not difficult when he started working in the mid 1980s. "I was paid about $1,500 a month, which was not bad," he recalls.
Hard work was not anathema, not when he saw the potential in the trade. "There were so many new towns and estates coming up then. Business was good. The stall I was working for could sell a few hundred bowls of noodles a day," he says.
After a year, one of his uncles - also a hawker - helped him start a fishball noodle stall in Boon Lay.
"It was hard work but it was really good training and taught me a lot about running my own stall," says Kim Siong, who had the stall for two years before selling it when national service beckoned.
After completing his national service in 1990, he started another noodle stall in Telok Blangah, with the help of another hawker uncle. Over the next few years, he moved a couple of times, sharpening his street smarts and entrepreneurial instincts with each move.
He is grateful to a coffee shop owner in Kallang Bahru who increased his rent from $500 to $1,150 in three years. "Looking back, if not for him, I would have not ventured out and things could have been very different," he says.
Indeed, his move to the famous food centre - run by S11 Coffeeshop - in front of the old National Library in 1995 was a game changer.
"It worked out very well for me. I could charge slightly higher prices because of the area. There were also good crowds not just for lunch but also for dinner and supper," says Kim Siong, who got his mother and Kim Beng on board.
Kim Beng says: "I also didn't like to study and dropped out in Primary 5. I worked for my uncles before my brother asked me to join him."
Business was brisk. One year later, Kim Siong opened another stall in Woodlands.
He noticed another trend: Old coffee shops were getting makeovers and giving hawker centres a run for their money. "There were many opportunities," he says.
And he grabbed them. Over the next five years, he opened about 10 outlets.
It was not all hunky dory.
"We didn't know how to train, guide and manage so sometimes the quality was not there. We also did not have SOPs," he says candidly, referring to standard operating procedures.
That's when second brother Kim Leng decided to quit his electrical engineering course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic to join the business. A year later in 2001, his polytechnic classmate Mun Kit came on board as a partner.
Kim Leng's job was to set up a proper management and training system.
"And collect money," Kim Siong says before letting out a loud cackle.
Another turning point came in 2006 when Kim Siong set up EAT, a standalone shop concept selling fishball noodles, minced meat noodles and laksa at The Rail Mall in Upper Bukit Timah.
"In the process, I learnt a lot about renovations, interior design," says Kim Siong, adding that there are now 22 EAT outlets all over Singapore.
His biggest breakthrough came in 2012 when he launched the 7,000 sq ft Malaysia Boleh! in Jurong Point. The foodcourt brought together nearly 20 stalls selling some of Malaysia's best hawker fare, including prawn noodles from Jalan Cheong Fatt Tze in Penang, Claypot rice from Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur and Bak Kut Teh from Klang. It proved so successful that an 8,000 sq ft extension and another 15 stalls were added five years later.
"Singaporeans love to drive to Malaysia to eat, to Klang for bak kut teh, and Ipoh for their beansprouts and chicken. I thought: Why not I bring everything to one place?," says Kim Siong.
Initially, he had planned to get the hawkers to operate the stalls themselves in Singapore.
He went to Penang and approached several famous hawkers but was waved away.
"One hawker uncle told me: 'Don't waste time lah, my rent here (in Malaysia) is so cheap, my next generation does not want to take over and you want me to pay you to go to Singapore and expand the business?'"
He offered to buy their recipes instead. Charmed by Kim Siong's affability, the same hawker helped to arrange dinner with several of his peers. A deal was struck.
"Sometimes it's all about relationships. Many of the hawkers trusted me. They just wanted the assurance that their recipe would be in good hands and that their brand would not be spoilt.
"Recently a bak chang seller from Penang gave me his recipe. When I wanted to give him an ang pow, he scolded me and said that if I did, he would take the recipe back. Here in Singapore, some hawkers are asking for millions for their recipes," he says, shaking his head.
The most he has shelled out for a recipe is Rm 50,000 (S$16,000), he says.
There was no looking back after that. The brothers introduced a whole slew of food concepts including Nam Kee Pau, Malaysia Chiak (a smaller version of Malaysia Boleh) and Encik Tan, which offers halal Chinese dishes.
Kim Siong says: "A lot of Muslims go to Jurong Point and see Malaysia Boleh! and they ask me: 'Eh, why you don't do halal version?'"
Encik Tan proved to be a roaring success, with 19 outlets today in Singapore. This has spurred Kim Siong and his brothers to up the ante and open Boleh Boleh! They hope to get their halal certification soon.
The roles of the Tan brothers are clearly defined. Kim Siong, a divorcee, takes care of location and landlord relations. Kim Beng, who has two children, takes care of coffee shop foodstalls, while Kim Leng, a father of five, handles project development and management. Business partner Mun Kit oversees operations management.
The brain, says Kim Leng, is his eldest brother. "He is very smart and also has a very big heart."
Not all their business ventures were money spinners. There were failures along the way, like Chinese restaurant Royal London Duck and Spanish eatery La Cala.
Kim Siong says: "They were good lessons. It has taught me to focus. From now on, I will stick to what I know best, hawker fare in hawker centres, foodcourts and coffee shops."
He is chuffed that hawker culture in Singapore has been officially added to the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. "It's really good news, it's putting our food culture on the world map. And it will of course help us when we want to expand overseas," says the hawker honcho, adding that Fei Siong Group has plans to expand to London and South Korea.
The Tan brothers give back by regularly sponsoring community initiatives including those run by The Rice Company, which manages The Business Times' charity The Business Times Budding Artists Fund.
Last month, they donated $5,000 worth of food vouchers to about 140 families from PPIS (Singapore Muslim Women's Association) Student Care Centre. Last year, they hosted 62 families from PPIS Family Service Centres to a Chinese-style meal at their Encik Tan outlet in Marina Square.
Asked to explain their success, Kim Siong replies: "You must be hungry and not afraid of hard work. You must also treat people well. My staff is my family.
"And of course, you also must have luck."
From one fishball noodle stall to a $150 million-a-year food empire with 15 brands
(Left to right) Tan Kim Beng, 48; Tan Kim Siong, 50; New Mun Kit, 41; and Tan Kim Leng, 43. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
Wong Kim Hoh
Deputy Life Editor
- UPDATED
JAN 3, 2021, 11:13 AM
SINGAPORE - It's Monday, four days before Boleh Boleh - Singapore's biggest pork-free foodcourt - opens for business on Christmas Day on the fourth floor of Clementi Mall.
The signages for the 28 food stalls, among them Petaling Street Famous Claypot Chicken Rice, Damansara Chilly Pan Mee and Penang Road's Famous Chendol, are up but workers are beavering away to make sure nothing goes awry on opening day.
Tan Kim Siong, 50, and his two brothers Kim Beng, 48, and Kim Leng, 43, are chatting with business partner New Mun Kit, 41, and various workers, going over the finer details of getting the 10,000 sq ft foodcourt ready.
Boleh Boleh is the Tan brothers' latest baby, a new addition to the food empire they built, one comprising 15 brands (including Fei Siong, Malaysia Boleh, Nam Kee Pau and Encik Tan) and nearly 160 outlets in hawker centres, coffee shops and foodcourts all over the island.
The Fei Siong Group, which has three business entities, employs 1,600 staff and last year made nearly $150 million in revenue.
Remarkably, it all started with a humble fishball noodle stall started by Kim Siong.
The slim 50-year-old - decked out like a Hong Kong celebrity in an all white track suit and a six-figure Richard Mille watch on his wrist - dropped out of school at 15 to become a hawker.
"I'm the eldest and my three younger siblings were still in school. Money was tight," says Kim Siong, whose father was a Port of Singapore Authority container driver and mother, a factory worker.
"But I also liked business and wanted to learn more about hawker food," he says in a mixture of English, Mandarin and Hokkien.
He was no stranger to the trade. His maternal grandfather ran a Teochew fishball noodle stall in Redhill Market.
"I had helped out at the stall since I was 13. I'd fillet fish and make fishballs in the morning before going to school. After school, I'd go back to the stall to help."
To earn extra money, the former student of Queenstown Secondary Technical spent evenings working as an assistant for neighbouring stalls. "I helped to sell fish soup, curry rice, economy rice and zi char," he says, using the Hokkien phrase which means cook and fry. "That's why I know the recipes for many dishes."
With his experience, scoring a cooking gig at a noodles stall in Bukit Batok was not difficult when he started working in the mid 1980s. "I was paid about $1,500 a month, which was not bad," he recalls.
Hard work was not anathema, not when he saw the potential in the trade. "There were so many new towns and estates coming up then. Business was good. The stall I was working for could sell a few hundred bowls of noodles a day," he says.
After a year, one of his uncles - also a hawker - helped him start a fishball noodle stall in Boon Lay.
"It was hard work but it was really good training and taught me a lot about running my own stall," says Kim Siong, who had the stall for two years before selling it when national service beckoned.
After completing his national service in 1990, he started another noodle stall in Telok Blangah, with the help of another hawker uncle. Over the next few years, he moved a couple of times, sharpening his street smarts and entrepreneurial instincts with each move.
He is grateful to a coffee shop owner in Kallang Bahru who increased his rent from $500 to $1,150 in three years. "Looking back, if not for him, I would have not ventured out and things could have been very different," he says.
Indeed, his move to the famous food centre - run by S11 Coffeeshop - in front of the old National Library in 1995 was a game changer.
"It worked out very well for me. I could charge slightly higher prices because of the area. There were also good crowds not just for lunch but also for dinner and supper," says Kim Siong, who got his mother and Kim Beng on board.
Kim Beng says: "I also didn't like to study and dropped out in Primary 5. I worked for my uncles before my brother asked me to join him."
Business was brisk. One year later, Kim Siong opened another stall in Woodlands.
He noticed another trend: Old coffee shops were getting makeovers and giving hawker centres a run for their money. "There were many opportunities," he says.
And he grabbed them. Over the next five years, he opened about 10 outlets.
It was not all hunky dory.
"We didn't know how to train, guide and manage so sometimes the quality was not there. We also did not have SOPs," he says candidly, referring to standard operating procedures.
That's when second brother Kim Leng decided to quit his electrical engineering course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic to join the business. A year later in 2001, his polytechnic classmate Mun Kit came on board as a partner.
Kim Leng's job was to set up a proper management and training system.
"And collect money," Kim Siong says before letting out a loud cackle.
Another turning point came in 2006 when Kim Siong set up EAT, a standalone shop concept selling fishball noodles, minced meat noodles and laksa at The Rail Mall in Upper Bukit Timah.
"In the process, I learnt a lot about renovations, interior design," says Kim Siong, adding that there are now 22 EAT outlets all over Singapore.
His biggest breakthrough came in 2012 when he launched the 7,000 sq ft Malaysia Boleh! in Jurong Point. The foodcourt brought together nearly 20 stalls selling some of Malaysia's best hawker fare, including prawn noodles from Jalan Cheong Fatt Tze in Penang, Claypot rice from Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur and Bak Kut Teh from Klang. It proved so successful that an 8,000 sq ft extension and another 15 stalls were added five years later.
"Singaporeans love to drive to Malaysia to eat, to Klang for bak kut teh, and Ipoh for their beansprouts and chicken. I thought: Why not I bring everything to one place?," says Kim Siong.
Initially, he had planned to get the hawkers to operate the stalls themselves in Singapore.
He went to Penang and approached several famous hawkers but was waved away.
"One hawker uncle told me: 'Don't waste time lah, my rent here (in Malaysia) is so cheap, my next generation does not want to take over and you want me to pay you to go to Singapore and expand the business?'"
He offered to buy their recipes instead. Charmed by Kim Siong's affability, the same hawker helped to arrange dinner with several of his peers. A deal was struck.
"Sometimes it's all about relationships. Many of the hawkers trusted me. They just wanted the assurance that their recipe would be in good hands and that their brand would not be spoilt.
"Recently a bak chang seller from Penang gave me his recipe. When I wanted to give him an ang pow, he scolded me and said that if I did, he would take the recipe back. Here in Singapore, some hawkers are asking for millions for their recipes," he says, shaking his head.
The most he has shelled out for a recipe is Rm 50,000 (S$16,000), he says.
There was no looking back after that. The brothers introduced a whole slew of food concepts including Nam Kee Pau, Malaysia Chiak (a smaller version of Malaysia Boleh) and Encik Tan, which offers halal Chinese dishes.
Kim Siong says: "A lot of Muslims go to Jurong Point and see Malaysia Boleh! and they ask me: 'Eh, why you don't do halal version?'"
Encik Tan proved to be a roaring success, with 19 outlets today in Singapore. This has spurred Kim Siong and his brothers to up the ante and open Boleh Boleh! They hope to get their halal certification soon.
The roles of the Tan brothers are clearly defined. Kim Siong, a divorcee, takes care of location and landlord relations. Kim Beng, who has two children, takes care of coffee shop foodstalls, while Kim Leng, a father of five, handles project development and management. Business partner Mun Kit oversees operations management.
The brain, says Kim Leng, is his eldest brother. "He is very smart and also has a very big heart."
Not all their business ventures were money spinners. There were failures along the way, like Chinese restaurant Royal London Duck and Spanish eatery La Cala.
Kim Siong says: "They were good lessons. It has taught me to focus. From now on, I will stick to what I know best, hawker fare in hawker centres, foodcourts and coffee shops."
He is chuffed that hawker culture in Singapore has been officially added to the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. "It's really good news, it's putting our food culture on the world map. And it will of course help us when we want to expand overseas," says the hawker honcho, adding that Fei Siong Group has plans to expand to London and South Korea.
The Tan brothers give back by regularly sponsoring community initiatives including those run by The Rice Company, which manages The Business Times' charity The Business Times Budding Artists Fund.
Last month, they donated $5,000 worth of food vouchers to about 140 families from PPIS (Singapore Muslim Women's Association) Student Care Centre. Last year, they hosted 62 families from PPIS Family Service Centres to a Chinese-style meal at their Encik Tan outlet in Marina Square.
Asked to explain their success, Kim Siong replies: "You must be hungry and not afraid of hard work. You must also treat people well. My staff is my family.
"And of course, you also must have luck."
