Building the Singapore brand overseas - the Swan & Maclaren way

SWAN & Maclaren, Singapore's oldest architectural firm, is nowadays getting most of its work from overseas, much in the same way as the original founders, who were Scottish engineers and came to this part of the world to build the Malayan Railway in the last decade of the 19th century.

In its latest reincarnation, Swan & Maclaren is getting some 60-70 per cent revenue from overseas projects, said Lim Chai Boon, its group director.

And revenue from Singapore projects is set to fall even further, said Mr Lim in a recent interview with The Business Times. "Ninety per cent of 2017 new contracts signed up came from overseas."