Remodelling a staid business
Sticking to his plans helps Ee Soon Wei change his family’s business legacy
THE younger generations in family-owned businesses are usually tasked to modernise the company - new machinery, new processes and new products, perhaps.
But to change the business entirely is a different matter altogether. Such changes are often frowned upon, even when there is hardly any room left for the business to grow in the future. Likewise, Ee Soon Wei’s suggestion to do away with the family’s printing business was not well received by the elders.
“You must understand their obsession: in my lifetime, the business cannot die. Otherwise it will go into the history book that I killed the business.
“But we come from a generation where we see opportunities. So I’m still trying to balance that,” says Ee.
Over the past four years, the 37-year-old chief executive officer of APW (Art Printing Works) Bangsar has traipsed around family resistance to transform the 70,000sq ft printing facility in Bangsar into what he calls, a “creative campus”.
Aside from a smaller print production area, APW now houses a co-working space, an F&B hub, a pocket park and event spaces.
The transformation of APW took a lot of grit but Ee couldn’t tear himself away from the project.
“My family grew up sharing the fact that we were a large printer, printing a lot of things. It was a great story, right? It was this heroic story I grew up listening to.
“But when I came back, it was in such a sad state. And everyone I talked to was always talking about the past. But they are not so certain about the future or the present. And there was this invitation to do something,” he shares.
The family has a long history in the printing business. Ee’s grandfather, Ee Lay Swee, founded The Royal Press, a letterpress printing house in Malacca, in 1938.
The Royal Press grew by printing materials such as medicine boxes, wine labels and newspapers.
The business expanded and the family started APW, its commercial printing company, in Lebuh Ampang, Kuala Lumpur in 1952. In 1965, APW relocated to its current site in Bangsar.
In its heyday, during the 1980s and 90s, APW was doing a turnover of RM20mil to RM25mil. The business thrived on printing school text books. However, these contracts eventually went to other printers, which set APW on its path to decline.
Putting things in order
Ee left his corporate job about eight years ago to embark on a personal project to restore The Royal Press in Malacca.
That led him to also take a look at APW.
“When I came back, they were still doing about RM11mil to RM12mil,” he says.
However, much of the company’s sales were uncollected. Many of its customers had become close friends and collection became quite a task for middle management.
So instead, the business was saddled with a bad debt of RM7.5mil. This didn’t sit well with Ee.
So he got himself appointed as the chief executive officer and went about recovering the debt.
Within the first year, he managed to collect about half the amount and this gave him some leeway to restructure the business. He also sold off some old machinery and streamlined its print operations.
Additionally, Ee ensured that APW’s sizeable space was kept clean.
“After I streamlined the operations, I made a case to say that there was no way investing millions of dollars in a new print machinery would give us back our returns. That business doesn’t exist for us anymore. So we kept it at the bay,” he says.
Warehouse space at the print facility now became available to Ee’s imagination. And with the opportunity to turn APW into something else, he started travelling around to observe trends that were taking place in the region.
He noticed a growing movement towards adaptive reuse of old buildings and spaces, particularly in Europe, and wanted to rejuvenate APW by opening up its space to accommodate other events and businesses.
The conversion of the factory required an initial capital outlay of RM400,000. While APW did not face many architectural issues, a sizeable sum was spent on upgrades for the roofing, washroom and sewerage. The interior design required just as big a budget along with the setting up of infrastructure such as wifi and parking space.
“I started going into the rental game. I mean, if you look at it, nearby shopping centres were basically landlords. But people didn’t look at us as Bangsar because this is an industrial area. So we couldn’t get the right rental rates,” he says.
Ee went to Singapore to pitch to F&B businesses there with a rental rate of S$2.50 per sq ft and landed his first tenant, coffee boutique Pulp, three years ago.
It was a risk that paid off well for him.
Since then, others have come in to use its space for business and events.
But Ee’s efforts to refurbish the business weren’t always met with enthusiasm. For one, most of his family remained sceptical of what he was doing.
“They didn’t know what I was trying to do. Imagine, they are in their 50s, they started a print business and they’ve been printing all their lives. Suddenly, you want to go put a coffeeshop in a factory.
“But I saw the opportunity for
spaces being converted to such things. I thought it was a nice idea, right? And there’s no harm in giving it a try. They refused to budge. But I went with it anyway because I didn’t want to be stuck being a printer for the next 15 to 16 years. So I was very adamant at making that change,” he shares.
Ee also had to balance the existing print business with what he was working towards. When he took over APW, it still had close to 180 staff. Most of them had been with the company for more than 10 years.
“The idea was not to close the business so that these people will still have their jobs. So we have to manage attrition.
“At the same time, I’ve created a lifestyle component here where these people will not be able to afford so I had to keep a balance. So I took a percentage of the rentals that I got and gave it to them so that they get to appreciate it,” he adds.
On top of that, the slowdown in the economy about two years ago put pressure on Ee’s budget, who was already spending a lot of money on construction works.
Fortunately for Ee, things started picking up late last year.
“The different components were starting to gel and our vision for a creative campus was coming to fruition,” he says.
Just the beginning
While the restoration work at APW has more or less come to a completion, the story is not yet over for Ee. His efforts with APW have drawn quite a few eyes and other landowners who own factories are looking him up.
“So now, we have proof of concept,” he says.
Ee and his team are looking at two potential sites within the Klang Valley and are carrying out feasibility studies to determine the scope of the project. They are open to acquiring these prop pertiesti or tot obtain them on longg lease.
Ee’s experience w with APW has opened up three ver rticals in the business; the first on ne is in the area of consultancy to he elp others create a captive audience, thet second is in the area of real esta te to either manage a property f for others or to takeover dilapidated d properties, and the third area is in building a food hub.
Curating food concepts is very important, he explains, as food is a very big thing in Asia.
He is also eyeing opportunities to expand his business in the region.
“I always wanted to be regional from day one,” he declares.
Ee is in the midst of assessing a site in Bangkok, Thailand in the hopes of replicating APW’s success there. He is also in talks with potentiallti fforeigni partnerst whoh are interit ested to bring their brands into Malaysia or into the Asean region for projects similar to APW.
Ee enjoys the excitement that comes with this new potential of being able to operate throughout the region. Things are certainly looking up for Ee and his venture in APW. “We do much healthier numbers now. But it’s only because we invested in all these things. I think our revenues are likely going to jump three to five times what we are doing now because opportunities have started to open up for us,” he says.
The company’s revenue is currently derived from rental and eventst and d E Ee expectst futuref t growth to come from its new sites.
So what’s left of the family’s print business? “The print is still there. We still have existing customers, most of them are contract-based. But we have not grown the business. But in time to come, exit will be the natural way,” he says.
They didn’t know what I was trying to do. Imagine, they are in their 50s, they started a print business and they’ve been printing all their lives. Suddenly, you want to go put a coffeeshop in a factory. Ee Soon Wei