138 years of murder, sellout, buyout, growth
The Eu Yan Sang Group is one inspiring family enterprise and undoubtedly deserves to be in the top spot of my Family Business Longevity Series because of the resiliency and resolve of the fourth generation members to regain control, where they ended up owning the majority shares after engineering a buyout from an outsider/investor.
It is a classic “stalls to stars to almost stalls and back to stars” turnaround story!
According to an account by Rachel Cheung in the South China Post, “despite years of family strife, the murder of the founder’s wife by her brothers-in-law and a takeover by a Singapore investment group, traditional Chinese medicine maker Eu Yan Sang has survived and flourished as a Hong Kong icon.”
Founded in 1879, Eu Yan Sang is Asia’s leading brand in the healthcare industry, with a core focus on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). They market quality Chinese herbs, Chinese Proprietary Medicines, as well as health foods and supplements, offering more than 900 products under the Eu Yan Sang brand and sub-brands plus over 1,000 different types of Chinese herbs and other medicinal products.
The company’s ability to control the total supply chain enabled it to expand across Singapore with more than 50 retail outlets in major shopping malls and residential estates.
Overcoming years of strife and betrayal, the Eu Yan Sang Group is celebrating its 138th anniversary this year. It is now being run by the fourth-generation family members headed by the savvy and daring Richard Eu, two cousins together with institutional shareholder Temasek Holdings & Tower Capital.
In the 1870s, founder Eu Kong Pai, better known
Eu Yan Sang has retail outlets for its natural health and wellness products, as well as Chinese Medicine clinics and concept lifestyle stores.
as Eu Kong, left the village of Foshan in Guangdong, China and settled down in the small mining town of Gopeng, Perak (now Malaysia). After failed ventures in a bakery and a textile dyeing business, Eu joined thousands of Chinese miners on a tin rush and noticed that his fellow mine workers were heavily dependent on opium as the easiest method for immediate relief for their medical needs.
He decided to start selling traditional Chinese herbal medicine using the ancient recipes that had been passed down through Chinese culture. Eu Kong opened his first Chinese medicine shop in 1879 in Gopeng.
In a 2009 biography by Ilsa Sharp about his son, Eu Tong Sen, the father was pictured as a savvy entrepreneur, acquiring land that was rich in tin deposits. Eu Kong eventually became a prominent businessman, supported by his second wife Mun Woon Chang, a well-connected Nyonya (female Malacca Strait-born Chinese).
The book also recounted that Eu’s success was short-lived. A disease suspected as smallpox, claimed his life at the age of 37. All his possessions went to Mun, triggering the envy of his two gambling addict brothers, who murdered her by lacing the family dinner with poison during a visit to China.
Sixteen-year-old Eu Tong Sen, who inherited his father’s business, narrowly escaped death himself. Toughened by the traumas of his early life, he went on to become one of the richest men in Southeast Asia in the early 20th century, owning tin mines, rubber plantations, properties and even a bank.
To be continued...