Cracking Pace

Oct 1952

Before we learned to call them 'cookies', we had biscuits. Back in 1952, Marie biscuits and jam de luxe (pineapple jam sandwiched between shortbread-like rounds and peeping out of decorative holes) were the stuff of after-school snacks. Thye Hong was the name on every biscuit tin, with the home-grown confectionery company churning out baked snacks since 1935. The original building stood at the junction of Alexandra Road and Tiong Bahru Road. The 40,000 sq ft facility, opened in 1935, had two automated plants, and all the stamping, baking, cooling and packing of biscuits took place there.

In the 60s, more than 200 employees produced 1,500 tonnes of biscuits every month, some of which were exported to Hong Kong, Thailand, and even Saudi Arabia. The factory ceased operations in January 1982, but not before the British firm Huntley and Palmer bought over the business from Thye Hong's original owner, Kuan Enterprises, in 1981.