THE BEGINNING

An excerpt of Foo Siang Ngee's piece, which first ran on the Foo Family Directory 2021 that he created.

The first FOO pioneer, as far as our family was concerned, was my great-grandfather Foo Wah Hou, or grandfather for some of you. He was a Chinese physician and upon his arrival in Singapore from Hainan Island in the early 1920s, he set-up a small Chinese medical shop, dispensing herbs and other related medical stuff.

Subsequently, he brought over his two elder sons, Hee Fang and Hee Ann to assist him. The business thrived, and it then morphed into a provision shop, which later became Foo Kwong Joo (FKJ), as we know it, located at 23 Coleman Street. FKJ was later incorporated as a private limited company in March 1963. We also had a warehouse cum living quarters, a few doors away, and on the same side of the street. As was the common business practice then, FKJ also employed a resident cook, a Hainanese male, who cooked both lunch and dinner for all the FKJ staff and management team, with the staff taking turns to eat first, and then followed by the management team. My Aunty Tiew Wah and her family also lived in an upstairs unit in Coleman Street, Diagonally opposite this warehouse.

FKJ was in the business of importing and selling flavouring and colouring essences for food and drinks, including corks and carbonated gas for bottling aerated water, artificial sweeteners, perfumeries, chemicals and other related items. We were the sole agents for Barnett & Foster (UK), Bush Boake & Ellen and Crown Cork (Holland), supplying our products to Cold Storage, Fitzpatricks, Fraser & Neave and other local soft drink manufacturers. We also did good business with customers in Indonesia and the many local retail-customers, some of whom were itinerant hawkers and vendors in school/office canteens, restaurants and bakeries. I can still remember the company hosting lavish dinners for Mr Hutton from Barnett & Foster, whenever he visited, and very occasionally, I had the thrill to also attend and makan, when a few of those invited could not attend.

Hee Fang was in charge of the Singapore operations, whilst Hee Ann helped to establish and manage a sister company, located at Jalan Ah Fook in Johor Bahru, named Guan Seng Long, in addition to tirelessly looking after the welfare of the newly-arrived members from Hainan in the 1930s. Hee Toon then managed the JB operations , taking over from his brother Hee Ann and after his untimely death, a number of members were called in to help manage the JB business at different times for short spells, namely Chee Hiang, Chee Kwan, Chee Mian and Siang Seng. I believe they all drove over on a daily basis, but returning to Singapore at the end of each working-day. Siang Seng worked the longest here, for about 8 years, and when the JB business was winded-up, he continued to work at FKJ, helping at the front counter and doing customer-servicing. Chee Hong played a major part in this front-line sales and customer servicing function, working at FKJ throughout his working life. Even my father Chee Min, chipped in, going to FKJ daily after his regular job at the Department of Statistics, helping mainly in the business-correspondence and other related admin matters that required dealing with the foreign principals. Chee Sau then took over the reins of FKJ, after the demise of Chee Sin. When the Coleman Street premises were acquired by the Government, FKJ re-located to a shophouse at Murray Street, off Maxwell Road, and operated there for a few more years, before exiting the business altogether.

Our patriarch Wan Hou had six children, all sons. The third son died in his childhood years in Hainan, whilst the fourth son came to Singapore with the others, got married, but died when he was a young adult, without children. His spouse later re-married, but our family had no contact with her subsequently, this leaving the four remaining brothers to seek their fortunes in this Lion City.