Speech by Minister Chan Chun Sing at KH Roberts’ 50th Anniversary Celebration and Integrated Manufacturing Facility Official Opening

SPEECH BY MR CHAN CHUN SING, MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY, AT KH ROBERTS 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION & INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING FACILITY OFFICIAL OPENING ON WEDNESDAY, 18 JULY 2018, 1:30 PM, 7A BUROH LANE

Mr Robert Ong, Chairman Emeritus, KH Roberts

Dr Peter Ong, Chief Executive Officer, KH Roberts

Friends, families, colleagues of KH Roberts,

1.             A very good afternoon to all of you. 

2.             When my staff asked me if I would like to be here on this occasion, I did a bit of research on the company. There are a few things that I found very inspiring about this home-grown company. Things which speak to the kind of spirit that Singapore companies, especially SMEs, can have, must have, and should have.

3.             Looking at the history of KH Roberts, I think there are five ingredients of success. If I trace back the history of how they have grown, it has been quite a logical development.

4.             As an SME growing and developing in Singapore, the first thing that they decided very early on was that the Singapore market was not big enough for them, and that their products need to reach the global stage. I believe, under the leadership of Dr Ong’s grandfather and also Mr Robert Ng, they decided very early on that when you develop a product, it is not just a product of Singapore, but it is a product of the region and beyond. And because of that decision, you geared your entire operations, worldview, and perspective to look beyond Singapore. That allows you to have that established base – a much bigger market than what you can have in Singapore. That allows you to achieve scale, which is what many Singapore SMEs also aspire to. So I think  that is your first ingredient of success.

5.             It is not easy to go overseas. It is also not easy to conquer the overseas market and have very distinguished partners like what you have today, including many of the large trading houses in Japan and beyond. And because you needed to go overseas, research and development and innovation become an integral part of the culture. This is the second ingredient of your success. And that is why, today, in this integrated facility, what cheers me most is that this is more than just a production facility – it also has a research facility that continues to cater to the needs of its varied customer base. In fact, the technical term for the industry is that, now, they have the ability to produce high mix low volume kind of products, beyond the usual high volume low mix products.

6.             Now this can also encourage many of our SMEs to look at the global market and ask themselves: Which part of the value chain are we most capable of competing in? In Singapore, it is not possible for us to compete just on the basis of price of labour or land, but we can compete on the basis of innovation and quality assurance. So that is the third ingredient of success that puts KH Roberts in good stead - the quality assurance that you can give to all your customers. And I would say that going ahead, this would become an increasingly important competitive advantage for companies like KH Roberts.

7.             Today, Asia has the fastest growing middle class in the world.  Today, in many parts of Asia, it is not just about the spending power of the consumers but also the demand for quality products and safe products, particularly in the food industry. And this is where KH Roberts, together with the rest of Singapore’s food manufacturing ecosystem, can and have an advantage. We are known for our quality and safety in the products we produce. This will put us in good stead and differentiate us from the competition in other parts of the world where people compete based on price and, perhaps, high volume low mix products. This is another important lesson and inspiration for us in Singapore. 

8.             Beyond the overseas market, R&D efforts and quality assurance, I think the fourth element that contributed to KH Roberts’ success is the nature and instinct to collaborate not just with customers but with partners in Singapore.

9.             And this is why I am very cheered to see how they have worked with the government agencies and other partners in Singapore to do their research collaboration, to share their facilities, to share their outcomes. This ability to collaborate with other SMEs and with other partners will also put us in good stead in the competition with the rest of the world. 

10.          In Singapore, we always remind ourselves that the real competition is not between two Singapore companies, the real competition is really between the Singapore companies working as a team to compete on the global stage. So thank you very much, KH Roberts, for showing the path and to participate in this collaboration with both your competitors as well as your collaborators. This was also one of the message which I spoke about just a couple of hours ago at the opening of Toll City. I said that in Singapore, we are both competitors and collaborators. Going forward, perhaps, the need to collaborate is even more important than the need to compete.

11.          Last but not least, the final element that I think has put KH Roberts in good stead, over all these years, is exactly what Dr Peter Ong said – the emphasis and the focus on the training of its workers. They have grown from a company that started with six workers to over 150 today. But it is not just the numerical growth that is important to us. What is perhaps more important is the quality of the people that KH Roberts has and a constant emphasis and investment in their training and upgrading. This is where I think, working together with the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union and the Singapore Institute for Food Science and Technology, are important collaborations to up the skill levels of our workers.

12.          We are not looking at just increasing the number of people working in the sector; we are also looking at how to upskill workers in the sector. This is why I am very happy to launch the Skills Framework for workers in the food manufacturing industry. On the part of MTI, ESG, EDB, we believe that food manufacturing can be a competitive advantage for Singapore. This may not be obvious to others who see us as a land scarce and labour tight market. But it is because we are land scarce and labour tight that we no longer want to compete on the basis of price. We want to compete on the quality of our workers, the quality of our workforce. We want to compete on the quality of our products, our ability to innovate and collaborate. And all these will certainly beat the price competition that other competitors might be focused on. 

13.          So on this note, once again, I want to congratulate KH Roberts, not just for your 50 years of success as a company, but also 50 years as a very good example of what a Singapore SME can achieve by focusing on the right kind of values towards its workers, the right market niche in your product chains, in making use of your competitive advantages, in making use of the brand name of Singapore as a place where people can trust and people can be assured of the products that they consume from us.

14.          I have every confidence that with your hard work and with the rest of the Government agencies and your other partners and competitors, we can bring the Singapore food industry to the next level.