SAFETY at work does not need to be expensive, as Oriental Hardware & Marine aims to show. High-quality, yet affordable, personal protection equipment (PPE) is one of the company’s two main product lines, under its Oriental Safety Professional (OSP) brand.

Founder and managing director Lin Yong, who moved to Singapore from Xiamen, China in 1996, had engineering experience in the construction and shipyard industry. In 2006, he started his own company, Oriental Tools & Stone Trading, which imported and supplied materials such as stone.

Then in 2008, he set up Oriental Hardware & Marine to supply wholesale building materials and hardware tools to the construction industry. Under its Oriental Tools & Stone brand, the company supplies tools such as hammers, spanners and saws, as well as devices such as grinding discs for stone.