FOCUS
This Story May Contain
By Farhan Shah
Traces of Nuts
From a small backyard
family operation, Tai
Sun grew to become one
of the most recognised
snack brands in the
country. Don’t worry,
their story won’t trigger
your allergies.
My cab driver, grizzly and grey-haired,
raised his eyebrows quizzically when
I mentioned my destination – 255
Pandan Loop – to him. His confusion
was unnerving and I thumbed through
my notebook, thinking that perhaps
I had given him the wrong address.
He looked like a man who had been
ferrying passengers around for
decades, the sort who would defy the
calm monotonous directions given by a
GPS machine because he would know a
quicker way.
Along the way, Lim and Han found time
to have three children – Winston, Sandy
and Lawrence. When they grew older,
Lim and Han put them to work, getting
them to help out at the factory during
school holidays. Although it might have
seemed like a ploy to get three extra
pairs of hands, Lim and Han actually
wanted to slowly groom their children
to become familiar with the ins and outs
of the family business before ultimately
taking over the reins.
And he would be right.
There were never any questions raised
about the succession plan. The three
children were expected to put aside
their dreams and aspirations for the
future of the business. “I wanted to be
a chef,” shares Sandy with a chuckle.
“However, I had to sacrifice that dream.
Our allegiance was to the business.
I did tell my mother once about my
ambition and she said: ‘You can be a
chef at home.’”
So, that would mean I was wrong.
I returned to my notebook and looked at
what I had written.
255 Pandan Loop.
Grasping at straws, I told him, “It’s the
Tai Sun factory”, not thinking for one
moment that it would help.
“Oh,” he pressed on the accelerator, “I
know that place. I’ve been going there
during Chinese New Year for the past 10
years to buy nuts and snacks.”
The confusion, conversation and
eventual realisation makes the
perfect bite-sized encapsulation
of the significance of Tai Sun to the
baby boomer generation, who grew
up munching on the nut company’s
products at restaurants, during special
occasions or just to ward off hunger
pangs in between mealtimes.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS
It all began in 1966, when husband and
wife, Lim Jit Siong and Han Yew Lang,
noticed that numerous restaurants and
bars would roast their own peanuts
instead of relying on a supplier.
Every decision
that we make
is never for
the purpose
of advancing
our own selfinterest. Instead,
we always act
for the good of
the company.
10
Family & Life • Jul 2014
They rolled up their sleeves, bought
the equipment and started roasting
peanuts in their house before hawking
the finished product to these food and
beverage establishments. This was
before today’s electric stoves and
kitchen technological wizardry; it was
literally a time of sweat, of white towels
wiping forehead sheen, and of sheer
manual labour.
Eventually though, as orders grew,
the duo moved the roasting operations
from the back of their house to a factory
along Jalan Senang a decade later.
PASSING THE THRONE