Fei Fah - Heritage Brands Winner

AS A young boy, Mr Lawrence Lau lived in a South Bridge Road shophouse, where the family ran a medicine shop. Life was simple then, even though there were the occasional robberies and gang fights nearby. The family witnessed Singapore's first National Day Parade when it marched past the shophouse in 1966.

Mr Lau's grandfather Loh Yung Chai, a physician from Pahang in Malaysia, founded the Fei Fah Drug Store in 1950. It not only sold Chinese herbs but was also a remittance centre, and it provided letter-writing services for the community.

The business took off in a big way in 1974, when it developed its own Fei Fah Electric Medibalm, a multipurpose ointment for relieving muscle aches, toothaches, colds and sprains.

Till today, the Medibalm remains the company's flagship product. But over the years, the number of walk-in customers dropped. There was a need to change.

"Our only asset was our long history and the Fei Fah brand," says Mr Lau, who spent six years in Hong Kong working for a jewellery company and gaining exposure before he took over the family business in 1998.

After a careful assessment of the market, Mr Lau shifted the company's business from retailing into the manufacturing and distribution of the Medibalm and added other new products.

"At the end of the day, it's just one word - diversification," he says.

Previously, the Medibalm used to account for at least 80 per cent of the company's revenue. But new products like health supplements have helped to reduce the reliance on the Medibalm to some 40 per cent.

Besides retail outlets, Fei Fah also sells its products through polyclinics, pharmacies and hospitals.

Under Mr Lau, the company has also gone into new markets such as Hong Kong, Malaysia and Brunei.

He plans to take the company further afield to places like Hungary, which is not a typical market eyed by Singapore companies.

"Hungary is not in the European Union yet, and its product registration process is less stringent. When it joins the EU common market, we would have gained a step up," says Mr Lau, who has a double major in marketing and international business.

Through its website, Fei Fah also sells to markets like Papua New Guinea. The website was set up in response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) crisis in 2003, which hit the company badly as it relied heavily on sales to tourists in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The 57-year-old Fei Fah Medical Manufacturing was recently given the Singapore Prestige Brand Award (Heritage Brands).

"There is no turning back on our expansion," says Mr Lau.

"The award is a recognition that we can show our customers and business partners on where we stand and the effort we've put in."

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