COMBAT DURIAN

“Sincerity leaves agood impressionon everyone, andbrings customersback for more of our goodwill.”

Long renowned in Singapore for offering some of the best durians to be had in the country, COMBAT DURIAN offers a wide variety of durians to cater to every individual’s preference today. Apart from long- time favourites such as the D24 and the Mao Shan Wang breed of durians, COMBAT DURIAN also offers breeds of durians which are exclusive to the stall, and cannot be found anywhere else in Singapore. These include the Golden Phoenix durian, which is reputed for its miniscule seeds and superior taste, the Tai Yuan durian which came in limited stock even today, and last recommended by but not least, the Wang Zhong Wang durian, which has become the most famous and popular breed of durian in the last two years, due to its more intense sweet and bitter flavours.

The secret to COMBAT DURIAN’s access to some of the most exclusive breeds of durian in the market today lies in Mr Ang Seck Puan’s possession of a 9 acre durian plantation in Malaysia, which boasts an automated cultivation and harvesting system to maximise the efficiency of durian harvesting, as well as highly suitable soil for the cultivation of high- quality durians. However, Mr Ang’s trump card is the caretaker of his durian plantation, who is also an expert durian breeder with many years of experience, and is responsible for creating many of the exclusive durian breeds that COMBAT DURIAN has become famous for. 

Because of this, COMBAT DURIAN is also often recommended by the locals to foreign tourists, who are often interested in transporting the durians bought from the stall back to their home countries, which can be an issue given the fruit’s signature strong aroma. To solve the issue, Mr Ang’s daughter Ms Linda Ang introduced a vacuum packaging machine to seal durians in a vacuum package, in order to retain the freshness and aroma of the fruit over a period of time while ensuring that the aroma cannot escape its confines, so that fruits purchased by tourists can pass through international customs and be transported overseas without eliciting complaints. COMBAT DURIAN remains the only stall in Singapore to possess such a vacuum machine to this day. Also offering an exclusive breed of mangosteens which was previously sold only in Japan

and is known for its small seeds, as well as an exclusive brand of longan, Mr Ang truly makes a point of offering the best service he can give to his customers, ensuring that his customers come away perfectly satisfied with the wide range of fruits of the best quality available only at COMBAT DURIAN.

“If you want good durians,

come to COMBAT DURIAN”

Having been established in Balestier Road ever since 1957, COMBAT DURIAN got its beginnings at the Ruby Theatre, near the Da Pa Gong monastery. Realising that durians offered a better business opportunity than selling fruits and vegetables like many of his peers, the young Mr Ang started off as a retailer, and learned many tricks of the trade from his suppliers. This inspired him to rent a lorry for trips into Malaysia, where he sourced for good durians, and learned from a plantation caretaker how to recognise which durians are of high quality. It is due to this beginning that Mr Ang is able to source for some of the best durians for retail in Singapore today. 

Today, the hale and hearty Mr Ang continues to go strong in the business he founded, continuing to offer the best service he can give for his many regular customers, as well as the many new customers recommended by his regulars due to the superior quality and reasonable price of the fruits he has on offer. While he continues to develop new strains of durians for future retail, Ms Linda Ang, who joined COMBAT DURIAN in 2011 to help out her father, is currently learning

the ropes of the business, and is poised to take the business to new heights in the bright future

Chun Man Yuan Food Supplies

“Customers feel good

after eating quality food.”From a small satay stall in

Potong Pasir, Ms Lee has transformed the family business into a growing food empire now supported by five factories. Putting a combination of ‘heart’ and effort into all products pushes Chun Man Yuan ahead of the competition. The food supplier now expertly manufactures and supplies their trademark satay, otah and barbeque products to the public.

With a strong background in food manufacturing, Ms Lee oversees the smooth running of all factory production and operations. Chun Man Yuan now uses high tech semi-automatic manufacturing machines to ease operations and work processes. Experiencing success with her efforts, the innovative entrepreneur continues to improve and create new lines for her products. The food supplier is now entering into healthy food options for her satay line.

A hit with health enthusiasts, ‘Fruit Satay’ is a healthy combination of fruits like apricot and passion fruit with various meat.

Moving forward, the entrepreneur included catering into her services with Spring Ocean, a subsidiary of Chun Man Yuan. A pioneer in halal catering, it is the first Chinese company in Singapore to manufacture and supply halal satay and rice ketupat. A hit with many happy customers, Spring Ocean is now accredited with HACCPM, SGS and Halal Certification. The catering service continues to grow, as it has gone on to cater for large events like the recent Uniform Groups Adventure Camp (UGA) held by the Ministry Of Education CCA branch.

“We put a lot of heat
and effort into all our
products.”

History of the Food Supplier

Chun Man Yuan’s roots trace back to Ms Lee’s mother, Madam Lee who opened a small satay stall in Potong Pasir in 1987. As the business began to grow, the family opened a small factory in Ubi to complement the popular stall. Under the guardianship of her mother, Ms Lee was groomed into the business, learning how to effectively run operations and the production line. Experiencing success, the food supplier included otah products in 1992 and then extended to barbeque products. 

Seeing there was a potential for Halal food, Ms Lee opened a Halal factory for satay. Due to the success of the growing business, Ms Lee decided she needed a larger space for production. In 2005 the growing

entrepreneur moved to Bedok North and at the same time took over ‘Spring Ocean’ company to strengthen her line of Halal food products. 

In 2009, Ms Lee entered the catering market to expand her booming business. Last year, Ms Lee bought over ‘My BBQ Place’, a company which focused on catering to the high-end market.

Plans

With her hands full in running all five factories, the hardworking entrepreneur still finds the time to improve her business. Always on a mission to create new products to attract more customers, Ms Lee is now intent on improving her food products and creating new lines. Like her inventive ‘Fruit Satay’ 

Ms Lee aims to expand a future line of healthy food products and venture in the high end market with her new ‘My BBQ Place’ company. Also, the entrepreneur finds positive prospects with the halal market. Ms Lee wants to continue improving and adding more variety to her halal line. As the family business continues to grow, Ms Lee wants to focus her energies in effectively running all 5 factories. Strengthening the base, Ms Lee wants to ensure smoother operations and ease of efficiency in all her factory lines. Also thinking of the future, Ms Lee hopes to pass on the family legacy to the next generation, grooming them into the business as her mother did years ago.

“We always have to

put a lot of effort, we

need to care. Business

will continue to grow

and improve if we

do.”

Chun Man Yuan Food Supplies

ADCOM GROUP PTE LTD

“Success is that old ABC----Ability, Breaks and Courage.”

ABOUT ADCOM

Adcom is an integrated staffing and design firm which only supplies job posting like animator or graphic designer. When possible, Adcom provides related industry players with expertise in design arena - assembling a group of specialised qualified professional.

Thirteen years ago, Mr Darren Ng - Managing Director of Adcom watch large crowds in cyber cafes. He wonders on how to attract these young gamers into designing for media, animation and which then able to provide manpower to related industry players. His aim is to create a platform for potential learner an opportunity to gain related work experiences in top notch company. Developing a passionate group that allows them to live, develop and understand their full potential. Not forgetting, the dedicated trainers from around the world. 

When Universal Studio was opening to the public. He began to think this realization that Singapore, indeed another quality place for doing business and a healthy environment for nurturing creative learners. The overwhelming responses he received in Malaysia has leads in the expansion of his office in Japan and Singapore. Darren believes in setting up business should capitalised on these two advantages – affluence and charity. Affluence that makes possible the option to conduct business in a socially responsible manner and do deeds by educating and nurturing the young ones.

Darren practices Tai chi as a daily routine and is a calligraphy enthusiast. A person who is in his 30s has deep thoughts in his root. Darren is a Malaysian, chinese who speaks Teochew in dialect and has once brought his parent together back to Chaoshan parts of eastern Guangdong province of China for visit. By virtue of nature, he believes the value of this chinese philosopher that has preaches in terms of their teachings.

Deep down in thoughts on his business setup is on how to help others who are less fortunate than him. Darren, himself is a graduate from graphic design certification. Together, he combines these two ideas in setting up Adcom of what is today. Further on, he sponsors children who have a single parent to go through a regular process of at least six months in-house training before one can have one year internship in his clients’ company.

Darren’s altitude towards in life is to make the first step to try, if not we never see the outcome may conclude. The courage to face failure is as of importance too. The drives that support one going will eventually lead gut and glory to success of tomorrow. Within a short period of three years, he has achieved the ‘International Quality Crown Award’ in London, ‘BID Century International Quality ERA Award’ in Switzerland and lots more in China, Malaysia and Singapore.

FUTURE PLANS

Darren locates his office and classroom at Trivex building along Burn Road. He will try to occupy units in the same building to allow bigger number of enrolment quota in Singapore branch. After graduating with Adcom, participants will be issue recommendation letter to each. It acts as a testimonial which contains actual field experiences that highlight and promote oneself to of relevant in aligning with what the industry has of quality standards from them. 

-Interviewed in 2012

AL Tyres Cooperation

AL TYRES COOPERATION

“Go forward and proceed with your dreams with determination, and perseverance.”

ABOUT BUSINESSMAN, ADRIAN LAU

AL Tyres Cooperation is established by Adrian Lau which he named the company after him. Adrian is a very busy man and he attends to all kind of task from the floor, like installation of car parts for his customers to negotiation with business partners and even oversea.

Tyres piling up high and rims lay out for easy viewing in his workshop locate at Circuit Road. Business operates every day from 9-8pm. Friendly staff are very welcoming and have depth knowledge in this business. No doubt, they have regular customers returning, to have that kind of attentive services provided by them.

ABOUT HIS BUSINESS

Initially, he is dealing with car export to less developed countries like Russia, Peru, Africa, Maldives, Mauritius, Cyprus, Trinidad and New Zealand. Business response is growing that he went in full time and only two years ago, he realizes that he learns to appreciate that there are nice, beautiful tyres and rims and start to do import and export. He concentrates further on. He dismantles the rims and tyres from unwanted car and sells to buyers.

HIGHLIGHT IN HIS BUSINESS

This is a competitive industry. Forms of advertisement will be internet, posters and huge banner outside his office panel. He earns good support from people that become his loyal customer. Eventually customer base increase through recommendation. They bought in selective and exclusive big bulk and wide range of different quality of tyres and rims. They compete with other dealer with exceptionally low prices. Lots of sizes bring in to local market by him to cater to the likes of Singaporean car lovers all the prices are low, so that consumers can benefit from the bulk purchases. Skillful technician are very knowledgeable and attentive to cater to individual car owners needs. Their friendliness ties between him and co-worker are incredibly intimate.

HIS OWN PHILOSOPHY

Mr Lau learns humbly from scratch. He exclaimed one has to be willing to get hands on, to get into this business. He came to realize things will learn faster and better. He believe in whole heartily in sacrificing time will eventually see the return. “Nothing in this world is difficult, is about learning.” said Mr Lau. It is not difficult to start up a business, it is about his marketing strategies and having a good team of players. He seriously has no idea what his co-worker think of him. He prefers to keep abreast of his business. Little things like payment to business proposal in obtain buyers. He runs the business and treats his co-worker like family.

FUTURE PLANS

 He will continue his business by keeping prices low, so that customers can benefit. He has also launched free trade agreement such as taking away administration cost. Trans pacific partnership trade deal between countries such as United States, China, Malaysia and Taiwan. He wants to benefit from this together with his customers.

-Interviewed in 2012