Thank you National Heritage Board (NHB) for the mention!

Organisation Transformation Grant (OTG) Project Highlight

Heng Foh Tong Medical Hall 杏和堂参茸药行 was started by Lee Chin Siong’s great-grandfather in 1957 and sells products that have been developed over four generations. Learn more about how multi-generational businesses address challenges to meet modern market demands through the Organisation Transformation Grant (OTG).

Grant applications are open from 4 Nov – 15 Dec 2024. Submit yours today!

Read more: https://www.nhb.gov.sg/What-We-Do/Our-Work/Community-Engagement/Grants/Grants/Organisation-Transformation-Grant/Heng-Foh-Tong


Could you share with us about your heritage business?

Heng Foh Tong Medical Hall was started by my great-grandfather in 1957 along Upper Bukit Timah Road. We’ve been providing medical dispensary services for over 70 years to all walks of life, and have been situated in the Bukit Batok neighbourhood since 1984.

What made you decide to return to the family business?

Initially, I never did intend to return to the family business, but as the eldest sibling, I wanted to repay my parents for supporting me through my education and corporate career as an engineer. I first started in 2019 with a simple wish to put Heng Foh Tong online, then came COVID in 2020, and I found myself faced with both challenges, but also opportunities to develop projects that could make the most of my family’s knowledge and skills in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices to a wider and younger audience.

Can you tell us more about the project you developed through the Organisation Transformation Grant?

We developed two items from the Grant, all of which were developed in-house and based off over 100 years of knowledge that my parents have with TCM. The first was a series of confinement herbal packages for post-partum mothers. I was drawn to this from my own gratitude and experience from how my mother took good care of the herbals needs of my wife during the critical period of healing and revitalising. Happy to share that I have four wonderful and healthy children today thanks in part to her! The second project was a series of triangle floral tea bags with modern packaging for new audiences. You can simply pour hot water over it and enjoy the full benefits of the medicinal herbs. This greatly complements my other projects under our HFTea part of the business.

Can you share more about the challenges faced and how you overcame them?

When I was young, I would often see tai tais (affluent women) purchase pearls for them to be ground into power and consume, as this was known to promote fair and glowing skin. I wanted to include this in my triangle teabags but was told that no manufacturer in Singapore was able to do so. As an engineer, my mind often wonders and tinkers about solutions to problems, and after some Research & Development, we came up with a solution to place the powder into a plant-based capsule that would dissolve under hot water of 80 degrees. I also needed to walk the production floor to ensure that the manufacturing was done right and am proud to say that we are the first in the world to launch a consistent 600mg of pearl powder in a ready-to-drink teabag – Timeless Beauty Tea.

What have the results of the project been like?

Our initial pilot of 800 tin cans of teabags sold out within the first month at NTUC Fairprice. We have since produced a further 13,000 tin cans for sale since and are positive of the results. The redesign supported by the Grant has also helped boost sales of our confinement packages by 20-30% since it was launched in 2023.

How has Heng Foh Tong benefitted from the Organisation Transformation Grant?

The Grant has helped us to jump start our brand building journey, and to develop more sophisticated herbal solutions for new audiences. We now have a wider variety of products, and it has also provided us with the impetus to work with bigger partners like NTUC Faireprice Finest and Xtra to have flagship displays and corners to reach an even bigger market. I’m also continuously innovating new ideas for the business which aim to retain the holistic benefits of TCM but presented in newer forms (e.g. capsules). I’m even looking at how to improve my economies of scale and production with the help of Artificial Intelligence.

Any words of advice for other heritage businesses looking to innovate?

You may find that your current heritage offerings may not be able to catch up with the time, but you are part of this generation to find a relevance to evolve. Even as a small business, nothing is stopping you from being creative and imaginative.


The Organisation Transformation Grant (OTG) aims to encourage and support heritage businesses and organisations to adopt transformative and/or innovative projects that will contribute to the sustainability and long-term viability of their business.