From a humble sauces business to a global F&B firm

Singapore

"EVERYBODY has got a story to tell because life journeys are never easy," says Jocelyn Chng, chief executive of JR Group. The company, formerly JR Foodstuff, is behind Singapore's first vending machine cafe launched last August.

Located at a Housing Board void deck in Sengkang, the VendCafe features vending machines that can dispense hot meals, drinks and desserts around the clock.

Ms Chng, 50, said that the throngs of people flooding VendCafe in the first few days of the launch reminded her of the kampong spirit - couples bringing their children and parents for a meal, and former neighbours who had not seen each other in years gleefully catching up.

It was also in a kampong where Ms Chng's story began.

Back in the 1970s, hawkers would go door-to-door selling Chinese sauces, shouting in Hokkien to signal their arrival. Ms Chng's parents operated a business making and selling sauces to these hawkers, after the factory where they had worked closed down to make way for urbanisation.

But when Ms Chng was 14, her father fell very ill. He eventually died in 1988 from colon cancer, leaving Ms Chng to take over the family's sauces business Sin Hwa Dee at the age of 21.

The then economics undergraduate at the National University of Singapore would attend lessons in the morning and rush back to the sauces factory by noon.

Ms Chng's determination to see herself through university came from being inspired by her late grandmother, who had lived through World War II. "She always told me that as females, we have to do something great for ourselves and study hard," says Ms Chng.

It was also in university where Ms Chng met her husband, Richard Wong. He would attend and tape some of her lectures when she got too busy with the business.

"He used to joke that he studied for two degrees but passed out with one," laughs Ms Chng.

Under her direction, Sin Hwa Dee sharpened its branding and in 1990 was awarded a contract to supply to SATS Catering, Singapore's largest in-flight caterer.

On her trips overseas to trade fairs in 1992, she discovered the sheer size of the global market. After a period of branding, packaging and research and development, Sin Hwa Dee in 1996 became the pioneer in developing its own line of premixes called Chng Kee's Sauces, named after the late Mr Chng.

The premixes first entered the market in Taiwan because the local market was difficult to break into. Chng Kee's Sauces started selling in Singapore a year later, and today is being exported to over 30 countries.

But before Sin Hwa Dee became a million-dollar business, it had to grapple with computerisation.

"My mom was very upset with me. She said: 'Your father has been running so many years of business with just one abacus, and he can survive on that. Why do you need a computer to work?'" says Ms Chng, now Sin Hwa Dee's managing director.

But she stuck with her vision and even got her salesmen to use a bulky laptop to take orders so that processing time could be shortened.

Ms Chng's belief in technology has persisted all the more in recent years. While at an overseas trade fair, she and her husband saw potential in ready-to-eat food that used cook-chill-cook technology. With Ms Chng's support, Mr Wong started JR Foodstuff in 2001, supplying ready-to-eat meals to hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and caterers.

Not long after, Ms Chng was inspired by the Japanese food scene and thought of having vending machines dispense these meals hot in response to the coming labour crunch in Singapore.

But before Mr Wong could see the first vending machine roll out, he was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2004 and died two weeks later, leaving Ms Chng with two businesses and three sons to take care of.

"Who would ever dream that it would hit me a second time?" says Ms Chng. She recalls that her youngest son was only slightly more than a year old, held in their domestic helper's arms when the casket was lowered into the ground as the heavens poured.

But Ms Chng soldiered on. She attributes her success to her family - her youngest brother quit his banking job to help the business, for instance, and her mother-in-law and sister-in-law assumed household duties.

Today, some 100 vending machines can be found all over the island, representing an investment of millions of dollars and collaborations with estate owners, banks, payment gateways and telcos.

Two more VendCafes will open by April this year, and the group is in talks with potential partners in Asia.

Looking back, Ms Chng reckons that she has been blessed. "Life is so beautiful, you see," said Ms Chng, who is close to her three sons aged 14, 18 and 21. The number of workers in both Sin Hwa Dee and JR Group has grown from about 100 to about 300 since her husband's death.

"I don't keep counting the setbacks; I always keep counting the good things that happen to me. It might not be a fairy tale story, but it's down-to-earth and it relates to other women out there."

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