History

In the early 1960s, the late Lim Jee Chye, the father of our Executive Directors founded a business of stocking and supplying electrical cables with three partners which, in 1974, became a company known as Guan Hup Electrical & Hardware Pte Ltd.

In 1988, after Guan Hup Electrical & Hardware Pte Ltd was voluntarily dissolved, the late Lim Jee Chye commenced business through BHET, together with Alvin Lim, Vincent Lim and Eileen Lim. BHET operated from a shop house at 31 Sam Leong Road. In 1992, Patrick Lim and Johnny Lim joined BHET.

In 1993, as its business expanded, BHET rented factory premises at 36 Kallang Place which it subsequently acquired.

In the early 1990s, we sourced our products from trading corporations in Japan and Germany and grew by marketing and supplying their products such as industrial and marine cables to ship chandlers in Singapore. With growth, we increased our range of products to include marine lighting equipment, marine lamps and other marine electrical accessories.

By the mid-1990s, we began to source our products directly from European and Asian manufacturers as we focused on our business with ship chandlers. In 1994, we incorporated SMSEA which utilised the word “Sanshin” as part of its corporate name to concentrate on the sale of “Sanshin” brand of products by Sanshin Japan which was at that time a key supplier with a relationship dating back to Guan Hup Electrical & Hardware Pte Ltd. We have a close working relationship with Sanshin Japan.

In 1995, we began the sale of our own brands of products. With growth in our sales, we identified certain types of marine lamps, which are consumable items that enjoyed good demand and could be manufactured under our own brands. As such, we had subcontracted to OEMs in the PRC, Japan and Korea to produce such marine lamps under our “Sunlux” and “Nippon” brands aimed at meeting European and Japanese technical standards respectively.

Between 1996 and 1997, BHET acquired three adjoining shop houses namely 28, 30 and 32 Sam Leong Road in Singapore for its operations. In the late 1990s, we began supplying our products to shipyard operators and ship repair contractors in Singapore.

In 2004, BHME acquired a warehouse at 8 Penjuru Lane with a gross built-in floor area of 52,097 square feet on a land site of approximately 91,795 square feet. In May 2005, we completed the extensions to add approximately 27,502 square feet of built-in floor area to such premises. We relocated to 8 Penjuru Lane in May 2005.

Our revenue increased from $17.5 million in FY2002 to $24.6 million in FY2004 whilst our profit before tax grew by a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 89.7% from $2.4 million to $8.6 million over the period under review.

Our Company was incorporated on 23 April 2004. On 1 August 2005, under the Restructuring Exercise, we acquired BHME from BHET pursuant to which BHET became our Controlling Shareholder. Prior to such acquisition, BHME had acquired the entire business undertaking of BHET excluding all real properties (namely the four shop houses at Sam Leong Road and the factory premises at 36 Kallang Place) and certain excluded assets, comprising primarily bank balances. We also acquired SMSEA from our Executive Directors and certain Executive Officers, namely Johnny Lim and Eileen Lim.