WHEN Mr Sim Gok Hian and three friends pooled $30,000 in 1981 to start a company to make marine propellers, they had no clue about the choppy waters that lay ahead.

The start-up soon found itself buffeted by the storms that threatened to sink the entire maritime industry in the mid-1980s, but Mr Sim was driven by one thought: 'I must not fail.'

The memories of those traumatic days are evident on the 64-year-old's face even today as he recounts the struggle for survival Mencast Marine found itself in.

'I could not afford to let the business fail. I had to answer to my partners, my seven or eight staff members and my family,' said Mr Sim, the firm's managing director.

'It was my first attempt at starting a business on my own and I felt that I just had to make it work.'

Mr Sim, who came to Singapore from his home in Johor Baru when he was just 18, has certainly never been afraid of hard work.

'I did not even complete primary school when I started work as a coffee boy in a canteen near a quarry,' he told The Straits Times.

His father died when he was four years old and he had started work at 13 to support six siblings and his mother, who sold tidbits to make a living.

'After spending two years serving coffee for RM20 a month, I was attracted by the engineering aspect of the work taking place around the quarry and started helping out wherever I could,' he said.

'Then I came to Singapore and found a job as a machinist at Jurong Shipyard.'

After learning his trade there for six years, Mr Sim went to engineering firm Metalock, now known as MTQ, and then to Stone Marine, a designer and manufacturer of propellers.

Stone Marine was where he learnt the trade of propeller casting and also the place where the spark for striking out on his own was ignited.

The courage showed in chancing his arm was soon tested by the slowdown that hit the maritime sector which prompted then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew to call it a 'sunset industry'.

Hit by an overcapacity of vessels and a flagging economy, the industry saw turnover plunge - from $2.4 billion in 1981 to a rock-bottom of $651 million in 1985.

Mr Sim had already sold the family Datsun sedan to save money by driving the company's pickup truck when Mencast first started operations.

And with the firm churning out a meagre $20,000 to $30,000 a month in revenue, it was a struggle to stay afloat.

'There was one time, I remember having to go back to Malaysia to beg my friends and neighbours for money so that I could pay our staff in Singapore a one-month bonus during the Chinese New Year,' said Mr Sim.

'I felt it was important at the time because they could then at least enjoy themselves a little bit during the festive period.'

That attention to staff welfare has obviously paid off over the years, with some of Mr Sim's pioneering batch of employees still working for him today.

Mr Sim's son Glenndle, 38, joined the company 12 years ago and now helps him to oversee day-to-day operations as a director.

The younger Mr Sim also remembers the tough times and the toll they took on his father: 'He would come home after entertaining customers at around 2am or 3am and he would be up again at 6am to go to work.'

He added: 'He was driven by a determination not to fail his partners and also by the Chinese fear of losing face.'

This capacity for hard work and the fierce determination to succeed allowed Mr Sim Gok Hian to ride out the industry downturn and enter the smoother waters of the 1990s unscathed.

'Since then, business has been good and I am satisfied with what the company has achieved,' he said with a smile.

Indeed, the company has thrived, moving from its original 500 sq m workshop in Choa Chu Kang to two other locations before expanding to its current 6,000 sq m facility in Tuas.

Revenue has exceeded $1 million a month and the firm has 110 employees.

The core business has also expanded to include making propellers and other stern gear like rudders and propeller shafts for yachts and vessels such as tugs, supply vessels and tankers serving the offshore industry.

The firm's propellers range in size from 25cm to 3m in length.

Mr Sim's son said Mencast accounts for close to 40 per cent of a local market with an annual value of about $50 million.

'We are planning to expand our operations both locally and overseas in markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Brunei,' he added.

Mr Sim, who lives with wife Kim Choo, 62, younger son Soon Ying and daughter Wei Wei, enjoys simple pleasures. 'I like to come in to the office every day and see how the business is doing, and then meet friends for lunch, he said. 'Besides that, I like to read and watch television.'

When asked what he is most proud of in his long working life, he said it is not the success of his company, but the fact that his son has decided to join him.

'I am very glad Glenndle has taken on a major role in the company,' he said.

'He went to do his MBA in the United States and was away for quite a long time.

'It makes me very happy and proud to see that he chose to come back and help me to develop Mencast for the future.'

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