How home-grown Delta Tech’s second-gen leader built its legacy as a firm that delivers
The winning formula is to never turn away business says general manager Chua Yong Hin
[SINGAPORE] Venturing into uncharted product territory often comes with a heavy price tag for small enterprises, but it is a hit home-grown firm Delta Tech Group absorbs in the name of innovation.
The 36-year-old company manufactures an extensive range of products from doors and roller shutters to fire curtains and flood-protection barriers. Looking for something bulletproof, blastproof, anti-ballistics, anti-terrorist or anti-burglary? You name it, and the Singapore-headquartered company has a product for it. And if it does not, it will invest in its research and development, and build it.
The company’s ethos is to never turn away business, said Chua Yong Hin, general manager and second-generation leader of the home-grown enterprise.
Gesturing to a silver filing cabinet standing some two metres tall in his office, he told The Business Times that the cabinet contains test reports from the group’s research and development efforts, on which “quite a bit” is spent every year.
This practice began after Chua, now 38, took over the business from his father at the age of 24. Then, the eldest child was still in the final year of pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the National University of Singapore.
Over the years, Delta Tech built up a sizeable library of intellectual property rights, said Chua. By his estimation, Delta Tech has the widest product range of any one shutter company across South-east Asia.
“What we do is we try to fulfil market needs,” explained Chua. This might be different from other companies which may dismiss a contract as too insignificant or others that may simply say they’ve hit their capacity for the year.
“But, for us, if there’s a project and the customer requires us, we’ll be there. If I need to expand my production, I will do it. If I need to expand my product range, I will do it.”
This strategy comes at a price. Venturing into uncharted product territory means that the group sometimes underestimates the true cost of development. But this is a hit Delta Tech absorbs in the name of innovation.
“At the end of the day, we might lose money on the project,” conceded Chua. “But, to us, investing in something different, novel and new will eventually yield a result.”
A family affair
Chua’s parents started the company a few years after he was born. He quipped: “My dad treats the company like a son,” and that Delta Tech was like a younger sibling.
Unofficially, he has been an “employee” since he was in primary school. During the school holidays, he would hang around the office while his father ran the company’s operations and his mother managed the finances.
Chua recalled how when payday rolled around every month in the past, his mother would head down to the bank early in the morning to withdraw hundreds of thousands of dollars before disbursing the cash individually.
The process, which could take some five hours, would see employees bringing timecards detailing the hours they worked in a day for the whole month to his mother and another accountant. They would punch the numbers into their calculators and ensure the figures tally before the salaries were issued.
Employees who have worked in the company for more than three decades watched him grow up, he added.
“At one point, they were calling me the office hamster,” reminisced Chua. “I’d go to the reception and lie on the sofa to sleep. Or I’d walk to my dad’s room and lie on the sofa to sleep. The whole office was like my cage.”
But this also meant the child could spend more time with his parents, who were always busy at work. Chua recounted how he used to have fishball noodles – now his favourite food – for breakfast with his father every morning before work.
When his father – now a staunch Buddhist – wanted to sell the business so he could retire and devote himself to his religious studies, Chua persuaded him not to let his hard-earned legacy go to waste and began taking over the reins. Today, he serves as Delta Tech’s general manager while his father, 65, is the group’s chairman and founder.
Chua’s younger brother oversees day-to-day operations while his youngest brother, who is in his mid-20s, manages DT ZTY Food, one of the group’s subsidiaries operating the Delato Handcrafted Ice Cream brand that now has three outlets. His younger sister is not in the family business.
History also repeats itself in that Chua’s wife now manages the group’s finances, having been adopted by his mother as her protege. The couple – who has four children aged three, six, eight and 10 – also bring their two older kids to the office after school, where they will do their homework beside their mother.
Chua has continued his father’s banking relationship with UOB, one of South-east Asia’s largest lenders.
“We have a long history (and) the bank-client relationship has gotten even better over the years because UOB now has a lot more events that engage their customers,” said the general manager.
One of these events, The Business Circle, is an initiative launched in Singapore in 2019 that strives to prepare next-generation heads of Asia’s family-led firms in running their businesses and fast-tracking growth.
Under the initiative – subsequently launched regionally in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia between 2023 and 2025 – UOB also organises overseas business learning forums, industry visits and masterclasses on emerging topics spanning business diversification, digitalisation and cross-border expansion.
Expansion plans
As far as Chua is concerned, the group’s focus is still on Singapore. Delta Tech is currently working on projects involving the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link and PSA Singapore. It had previously completed several notable projects, including the JTC Logistics Hub at Gul Circle and JTC Defu Industrial City.
Headquartered in Singapore’s Loyang Industrial Estate, Delta Tech has a one-hectare production and fabrication factory in Batam, Indonesia; a sales office in Vietnam; and a partner factory in Jiangsu, China.
Other subsidiaries under the group include Delta Tech Door Malaysia, Delta Tech Vietnam and PT Mitra Mandiri Industri (Indonesia). Today, the group has around 180 full-time employees.
Delta Tech is currently expanding its Singapore plant and has demolished a two-storey facility on its 3,000-metre-square site to make way for a new six-storey building.
“Ultimately, Singapore is the nexus of everything,” explained Chua. “I could have a lot of bigger satellites outside (but) if my base can’t handle it, it will become a bottleneck. Right now, we are expanding the Singapore side, so that we can cater for all the influx.”
Another key focus for Delta Tech is automating its production as much as it can.
The group has made significant headway with its inventory management, introducing automated systems for its steel plate and small-item storage. It is also integrating a robotic arm into the welding of steel structures for its roller-shutter business.
When asked whether listing is on the cards, Chua replied that while he has thought about it, such a move has never been a consideration.
“Right now, we are expanding quite steadily at our own pace,” he explained. “There are 101 business strategies in the world, but, for us, we grow at our own confident, comfortable pace.”
One thing is for certain: The business will remain a family affair.
Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
