TRADE FREELY & LiVE LONGER

‘It was a pleasure working with him’

Letter from Lee Hsien Loong

Prime Minister

Dear Mdm Chandramohan Nirmala, I am deeply saddened by the passing of your husband, Mr Chandramohan.

Mr Chandramohan was a long-time veteran of the broadcasting industry. He was a professional with a fine political sense, a good understanding of the issues of the day as well as keen insight into the medium, of what would work on TV. He produced the TV press conference that Minister Mentor gave on Aug 9, 1965, when Singapore separated from Malaysia. He pioneered programmes like

For many years he supervised the production of the annual National Day Rallies and coverage of our General Elections.

I got to know Chandra in the 1980s, when he was in charge of current affairs in Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), which evolved into present-day MediaCorp. We needed to use TV more for explaining and discussing current affairs and political issues, in order to reach out to and engage a more educated public. SBC launched a

SBC also did special programmes on the issues of the day, such as our economic competitiveness or the falling fertility rate.

The programmes had to present issues objectively and credibly, deal forthrightly with tough questions, and very importantly hold the viewers’ attention. In short they had to inform, educate and entertain Singaporeans.

Chandra always understood what we needed to get across, and could be relied upon to propose the best way to do so.

Chandra produced a few shows that I participated in. I remember one studio discussion that had gone well, and overrun the targeted time. I remarked to Chandra that it would be hard to compress the material, since it all seemed relevant. But with his greater experience, he replied that by looking closely at the transcript, he would identify sections to edit out, which would tighten and improve the programme. Of course he was right. It was a pleasure working with him.

Chandra continued to help us even after he retired from MediaCorp. His experience and professional judgment were too valuable to be left untapped. One of the last projects he did was a series of on-the-shelf programmes about prominent Singaporeans for use upon their passing away. His own passing will be felt by all his many colleagues and friends.Talking Point, Friday Background and Diary of a Nation.Today in Parliament programme. This was a most demanding exercise: To distil a long and complex debate lasting hours into 45 minutes of watchable television to be broadcast the same night. We had never televised Parliament debates before. Chandra personally oversaw the production of these programmes, and made sure that they were coherent and balanced.

H E A R D :

WALL STREET ?

GlObal  Wealth  RE-dIstrIbUtIOn  TRAP ?

Besides the usual child benefits, offering home-based work arrangements and child care facilities encourage employees to consider having children and give working mothers peace of mind.Recently, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong called for Singaporeans to re-examine their priorities of climbing the corporate ladder to achieve a material lifestyle. He urged them to focus instead on a different set of ambitions.

A challenge, whichever 5Cs you choose

But bosses can help S’poreans enjoy comfort, career and children, with consideration and charity

ang swee hoon

Singaporeans’ dream of achieving the material 5Cs is also the dream that makes Singapore a more economically progressive society;

the day we become too comfortable and under-motivated is the start of our downfall.

Benjamin Graham’s Three Principles of Value Investing

March 27, 2009 Sun

Have you read The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham? These two books are considered as must read for value investing, but they are all pretty heavy books, especially the Security Analysis. If you just want to grab the essentials of the books, then  there’s on article on Forbes about Graham’s three timeless principles of investing.

1. Always Invest With a Margin of Safety

This concept is very important for investors to note, as value investing can provide substantial profits once the market inevitably re-evaluates the stock and raises its price to fair value. It also provides protection on the downside if things don’t work out as planned and the business falters. The safety net of buying an underlying business for much less than it is worth was the central theme of Graham’s success. When stocks are chosen carefully, Graham found that a further decline in these undervalued equities occurred infrequently.

2. Expect Volatility and Profit From It

• Dollar-cost averaging: With DCA, you buy a fixed dollar amount regularly, taking advantage of dips of the market without having to worry about when to get in and out of the market. Though DCA has its limitation in an up market, it is proven to be the winning method in the long term.
• Invest in both stocks and bonds: Investing isn’t just about what assets to buy, but also how these assets are mixed in your portfolio based on a thorough evaluation of investing time horizon, risk tolerance, and expected returns, etc. Having the right asset allocation mitigates the risk.

3. Know What Kind of Investor You Are

In modern terms, the defensive investor would be an investor in index funds of both stocks and bonds. In essence, they own the entire market, benefiting from the areas that perform the best without trying to predict those areas ahead of time. In doing so, an investor is virtually guaranteed the market’s return and avoids doing worse than average by just letting the stock market’s overall results dictate long-term returns.

http://www.thesunsfinancialdiary.com/investing/benjamin-grahams-principles-investing/

ECONOMIC  MOAT

SME SPOTLIGHT

Hot players in the frozen meat industry

Dec 2, 2009

Mr Liew and Ms Tan with some of the frozen meat products that Pin Corp imports. -- ST PHOTO: AIDAH RAUF

MR LIEW Yew Fah's elderly mother disapproves of his line of business.

But no, Mr Liew, 55, is not involved in some seedy aspect of the nightlife industry or anything like that.

Rather, he imports frozen meat - a product that has brought him and his wife, Ms Tan Seng Eng, 51, business success in the past 14 years.

However, his mum, like many older people, turns a cold shoulder to frozen meat.

He said: 'It takes time to change the mindsets of the people, and older people are likely to continue their ways.

'Even my mother doesn't believe in frozen meat, although her son is in this business. She prefers to buy fresh meat from the market.

'However, younger people are more likely to buy frozen meat, due to the fact that it is more convenient and more hygienic,' he explained.

The Singaporean couple have transformed a small-time family business into a major player in the local meat distribution industry.

Pin Corp is now one of the largest importers of frozen meat in Singapore.

Turnover last year was $100 million. Its 400 to 500 clients include major supermarket chains such as Cold Storage and Sheng Siong.

Strange as it may sound, a Spanish information technology company was instrumental in Pin Corp's success.

Mr Liew and Ms Tan both worked for the company, Fagor Automation, in management positions over an eight year period in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In 1995, the couple decided to give up their high-flying careers in Hong Kong and return to Singapore to help expand a small meat distribution company run by Ms Tan's two younger brothers.

Ms Tan said: 'My brothers asked us to join them and restructure the business.'

They were keen to run their own business to take control of their lives.

At that time, Pin Foods bought meat from importers and sold it to vendors in wet markets and food stalls. It was a small business, with about 10 staff and a monthly turnover of about $100,000.

After the couple joined, it was renamed Pin Corp. One of their first steps was to apply practices they had learnt abroad.

'The firm had no stock management system before we joined. When I came in, I asked them to do a stock-take immediately. From then onwards, everything had to be invoiced and documented correctly,' said Ms Tan, executive director of the company.

Pin Corp jettisoned its fresh meat business to concentrate on frozen meat.

Said Mr Liew, who is its managing director: 'Our land size in Singapore is too small for farming, and live chickens, ducks and pigs for fresh meat are imported only from our immediate neighbours.

'The meat from further afield needs to be frozen or chilled. As Singapore moves to diversify its food supply, we felt that frozen meat had better potential.'

To cut out the middleman, Pin Corp looked abroad to deal directly with meat exporters. A $300,000 credit line from a local bank helped cover the initial meat buys. Their experience in dealing with foreign partners also came in handy.

'For instance, we know that when we buy from Chinese companies, we have to entertain them, we have to drink and sing. They are alright if we call them out any time of the day,' said Mr Liew.

'The Germans, on the other hand, have always been family-oriented. We don't call them after 5 or 6 o'clock, and we don't call them on Sundays.'

By 1998, Pin Corp had struck agreements to import directly from suppliers in Europe, the United States, China, Thailand and Indonesia.

The business got a boost in 1999 after the Nipah virus struck pig farms in Malaysia and the Government stopped the import of live pigs and pork from Malaysia.

Mr Liew said consumers turned rapidly to chicken and frozen pork from elsewhere. Pin Corp's sales of frozen chicken meat doubled, while its sales of frozen pork shot up by 50 per cent.

Its reputation grew rapidly. In May 2004, it was invited by Cold Storage to supply meat for its in-house brand.

Cold Storage was impressed by the individually quick frozen (IQF) meat from Pin Corp's Brazilian supplier Sadia - a new product to Singapore.

Unlike conventional methods of packaging frozen meat in a single slab, IQF meat is chilled in loose pieces, which can be removed individually for cooking.

For conventionally packed meat, consumers usually thaw the entire packet and refreeze the unused portions, which Mr Liew says reduces freshness and encourages bacterial growth.

As the IQF meat packed for Cold Storage gained in popularity, Pin Corp started its own in-house brand, Linkrich, in August 2005, to market the IQF meat to other supermarkets and minimarts.

The brand started with five products. Today, it has more than 20 types of meat products, including duck meat and chicken nuggets.

Linkrich can be found at Prime and Sheng Siong supermarkets, as well as at about 100 minimarts islandwide.

Said Sheng Siong supermarkets' purchasing manager Phillip Leow: 'The sales of Linkrich are very good. We order around 75 tonnes of Linkrich products a month, and the demand is high all year round. Sometimes we even have to worry about the stocks running out.'

Pin Corp also supplies meat for the in-house brands of Carrefour, Shop N Save and Giant Hypermarket.

It says that it is one of the three largest frozen meat importers here, along with Singapore Food Industries and South Africa-based multinational company Angliss, part of Bidvest.

Pin Corp plans to expand its product range to build the business.

'We have always been dealing with meat, but we may go into frozen vegetables and frozen seafood. As long as it is frozen, we can bring it in,' said Ms Tan.

Mr Liew added with a laugh: 'But we won't frighten the ice-cream sellers. We won't bring in ice-cream, it is not our line.'

Pin Corp's achievements have not gone unnoticed.

In 2006, Mr Liew clinched a special mention award at the Entrepreneur of the Year awards. In the same year, the firm was a winner at the Enterprise 50 awards.

And two weeks ago, Linkrich was one of the winners in the Promising Brand category of this year's Singapore Prestige Brand Awards.

Closer to home, the couple is determined to win over consumers like Mr Liew's mother.

'Frozen meat is as tender, as tasty and as juicy as fresh meat. People were initially reluctant to switch to frozen meat, but we distributed fliers and leaflets at minimarts and at trade fairs to educate them that frozen meat is as good as fresh meat,' said Ms Tan.

jonkwok@sph.com.sg


 

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EQUALLY GOOD

'People were initially reluctant to switch to frozen meat, but we distributed fliers and leaflets at minimarts and at trade fairs to educate them that frozen meat is as good as fresh meat.'

Ms Tan Seng Eng, Pin Corp's executive director

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