In the 120 lunch interviews I’ve done so far, not a drop of alcohol has passed my lips or those of my guests.The man who grew Hafary, his father’s tile shop, into Singapore’s leading building materials supplier, arrives for our lunch with a bottle of wine.Now, I’m pretty much a teetotaller – I’ve only ever drunk umeshu once; at weddings, I pretend-sip champagne. I wouldn’t be able to tell good wine from plonk.
The company also supplies surfacing materials used in big developments such as schools, condominiums and malls. The restaurant has given us a private room. Hafary’s senior business development manager, who helped arrange this lunch, is joining us as Mr Low is not used to doing personal interviews. He gets the waitress to chill and decant the wine. “I’m sure you’ll be happy with it,” he says. “Your birth year, right?” he jokes, referring to its vintage.The wine is actually still cold as he had just taken it out from his wine cellar. He lives near Dempsey, in a good class bungalow.Hafary was set up by Mr Low’s father, Mr Low Kok Ann, who was born in China and came to Singapore when he was eight with his mother and an uncle.
At Nanyang Technological University, he studied accountancy, becoming a stockbroker after he graduated. “During our time, there was no crypto, there was no NFT and there was no online business, so only three trades where you can achieve success very fast. One is to be a stockbroker, second is to be a property agent and the last one is to be an insurance agent.”
In the earlier days, tiles were regarded as just another commodity, and home owners had limited choices. By the time Mr Low entered the trade, the industry was more advanced. “There were more able people in the trade, it was not like, you know, the old uncle sitting down there in the shop smoking away.”
“It’s a piece of tile, but that tile is important because it is the basis to set the concept of a house. If you want your house more Zen, you use darker tone tiles on the floor, if you want it to be more in the ’60s, you use mosaic.” He shares a tip: “If you are a young business start-up, you must always remember: you need the profit to grow. That’s your oxygen.”
“If we are in a showroom now, I can get the best guy who does procurement for us and he can tell you what is the difference across different surfaces, different textures, even colours,” he says. Believing that “the masses also deserve good design”, he worked with Italian designers to produce tiles in factories in China. Those did very well for Hafary. “I would say that if during that time there was no China, we would not have made it.”He laughs: “No lah, it doesn’t work this way. That would make my life very easy.”
That’s not long after you joined Hafary, I point out. “Yah. Life is short, you don’t waste time,” he replies.‘But you sell duck rice’: Siblings behind Chicha San Chen bubble tea in S’pore on early scepticismTwo years later in 2015, the Lows sold a 50.82 per cent stake of Hafary to Malaysian group Hap Seng, which has a building materials arm. The Lows retain a 39 per cent share in Hafary.