In March 1989, the Primary Production Department ("PPD") of Singapore (the predecessor organisation of the AVA) announced that from January 1991, it would implement a new policy where all imported live poultry from Malaysia would be sent to centralised poultry slaughtering houses for slaughtering. This meant that the slaughtering of poultry at wet markets would be phased out. While this had a major impact on many poultry merchants at that time, the founding members of our Group, who were Mr Ng Eng Wah, Mr Toh Ying Seng, Mr Ong Pang Guan, Mr Heng Cheng Seng, Mr Ong Pang Teck and the late Mr Ong Leong Tor, quickly recognised that this policy was an opportunity for them to combine their resources to operate a centralised poultry slaughterhouse. Instead of slaughtering chicken in wet markets and catering to customers predominantly from their respective surrounding neighbourhoods, the policy change presented an opportunity for them to operate a centralised slaughtering business which would supply freshly slaughtered chicken to businesses all over Singapore.
On 10 June 1991, the HDB granted its approval to us to operate a slaughtering house at Defu Lane 3. We were able to automate our chicken processing process after investing in poultry processing systems and equipment. In the same year, we also commenced trading of frozen chicken on a very small scale.
Recognising the strong demand for poultry that meets the Islamic dietary code, our founding members implemented steps in the poultry slaughtering process that conformed with Islamic practices and trained their staff in understanding and meeting halal requirements. Our slaughtering process passed inspection by MUIS and a halal certificate was first obtained on 22 June 1992.
In November 1995, Leong Hup acquired a 51% equity stake in us. This was a major development for us as the Leong Hup Group has one of the largest poultry businesses in Malaysia. Listed in 1990 on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (now known as Bursa Securities), the Leong Hup Group operates an integrated poultry breeding, slaughtering, processing and retailing business.
In July 1997, we acquired a 60% equity stake in TMP (Tasty Meat Products Pte Ltd) Incorporated in 1985, TMP (Tasty Meat Products Pte Ltd) is a manufacturer of finger food products such as chicken nuggets, breaded and non-breaded products and other convenience finger food for the Singapore market, selling its products under their own brand names ?TASTY? and ?SeaFresh?.
The next major milestone for the Group was in December 2003, when we shifted to our present premises at Senoko Way. The move was to further expand our production capacity and to improve the quality of our chickens. We obtained HACCP certification and ISO 9001:2000 certification on 7 July 2004 for our new factory at 18 Senoko Way, Singapore 758040. We also obtained an ?A' grade under AVA's food factory grading system on 29 December 2004.
In September 2004, we started selling poultry supplies in Malaysia. We presently supply feed to farms (other than farms owned by the Leong Hup Group) who supply us with live chicken. This move into the poultry supplies business would help us further diversify our revenue stream, buttress our relationship with these farms and enable us to better control the qualilty of the live chicken we buy from these farms. We also intend to sell other poultry supplies such as day-old chicks and medication in the near future.