EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
The making of
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IN SPIRING T HE BU SIN E S S W O RL D
YCH GROUP’S
ROBERT YAP
EXCELPOINT’S
ALBERT PHUAY YONG HEN
PET LOVERS CENTRE’S
DAVID NG WHYE TYE
SANCHOON BUILDERS’
SHIRLEY KIU
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THE LATEST MASERATI GHIBLI IS SMOOTH AS SILK • TIME OUT IN THAILAND
Leader of
the pack
Asia’s preferred pet store, Pet Lovers Centre,
is winning worldwide acclaim for its range of
products, innovative pet services, and use of
modern communication channels.
IMAGES
YEW KWANG
“S
ome people talk to animals. Not many listen, though. That’s
the problem,” cautioned AA Milne, from whose pen the beloved
fictional animals of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet
have been so vividly drawn into our imagination. Growing up on
a farm, surrounded by an animal menagerie of their very own,
brothers David and Robert Ng can hardly be accused of not listening to animals.
The pet-loving siblings shared a single goal — to open Singapore’s first shop
devoted to supplying everything the family pet could ever want.
The brothers’ early research and development activities consisted of converting
car cushions into cat baskets and using carpet offcuts as scratch pads in their
quest to build up an inventory.
Their ambition was finally achieved in 1973 with the opening of Pet Lovers
Centre, in Shaw Centre. It was Singapore’s first pet store and still stands
proudly today, one of the chain’s 65 stores in the city.
Name David Ng Whye Tye
Company Pet Lovers Centre
Position CEO
HQ Singapore, Singapore
Employees 600
69
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
across South East Asia.” Along with its
Singapore stores, Pet Lovers Centre has
expanded to include branches in
Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and
Brunei. Both Singapore and Malaysia
are also home to its The Pet Safari
concept stores — pet megastores
that encourage owners to include
their pets in the shopping experience.
The Pet Safari store in Singapore’s
Nex shopping mall even boasts a
rooftop play park for pets.
“If we talk about the key milestones
since I came onboard in 2003, that
very same year we started our first
store overseas, in Malaysia. That’s
definitely a highlight.” At the time, the
28,000-square-foot The Pet Safari store
at Ikano Power Centre was the largest
of its kind and won the company a
place in the Malaysia Book of Records.
A quick look at petloverscentre.com and
it doesn’t take long to understand the
The second generation has inherited
their father’s and uncle’s passion for
pets, and three of Robert’s sons have
taken their place at the helm of the
family business. “My father and uncle
had the foresight to spot the gaps in the
pet industry back in 1973, but Pet
Lovers Centre was very much treated as
a family hobby business until the
second generation took over in 1995,”
says David Ng Whye Tye, the CEO of
Pet Lovers Centre. “At that time in
Singapore, pet owners were feeding
their pets whatever food scraps they
could lay their hands on. In the West,
however, there was a whole industry
growing up around specialist
manufactured pet food. They
recognised the opportunity that the
concept presented locally. The shop in
Shaw Centre really created a stir and
was a success from the moment the
70
doors opened,” he recalls proudly.
“My family was responsible for bringing
so many products to the Singapore
market for the first time: items like
dry, extruded dog food, anti-flea
and tick shampoo, and nutritional
supplements for pets.”
“The date was a good one
because, if I didn’t succeed, then
it would probably be the best
April Fool’s joke ever.”
An engineer by training, David spent
the decade after graduating from the
University of British Columbia in
Vancouver, Canada, immersed in the
electronics industry, both in North
America and back on home soil in
Singapore. He joined the family
business on 1 April 2003.
the semiconductor manufacturing
industry, “to build something from the
ground up. It’s something that is not
very easy to do. The date was a good
one because, if I didn’t succeed, then it
would probably be the best April Fool’s
joke ever.”
The date was deliberate. “I was giving
up a nice, cushy role,” he says, as a
senior global account manager for
Axcelis Technologies, the American
provider of equipment and services to
– David Ng Whye Tye
David first joined his brother Whye
Hoe, and Whye Keong joined thereafter
(the current Managing Director and
CFO respectively) and “together we’ve
taken the company from where it was,
with one store, to the 97 we have today
sheer scale of its range. Pet lovers
can indulge their furry (or scaly)
companions with the latest in food,
bedding, clothing, grooming and toys,
or purchase health supplements to
keep them in top form. The business
is the only store of its kind in Singapore
to have vet-trained, pet-care
consultants stationed in its stores to
provide professional pet-care advice
and to offer customers on-time delivery
to their doorsteps, as well as the option
to make purchases and check their
membership points online.
Robert and David grasped early on the
value in creating their own products,
and by 1996 had introduced two house
brands to the market: Trustie, a range
of pet accessories, and Burp! pet food.
Both ranges have grown to become
trusted names in pet supplies. Today,
the impressive selection stocked by Pet
Lovers Centre is hovering close to
14,000 individual products.
What really sets the company apart,
however, is the series of extra services
it has cleverly introduced to appeal
to those pet owners who consider
their pooch or kitty a fully fledged
member of the family and like to
treat them accordingly.
This includes a stylish pet taxi,
a day-care facility which comes with
a webcam to allow owners to check
on their pets remotely, training, spa
services, and an instore dog bakery
in select stores which sells freshly
baked and preservative-free sweet
and savoury treats such as pizza,
meatballs and doughnuts.
Visitors to the website are also able to
consult pet-parenting tutorials hosted
by industry experts, addressing topical
issues such as the use of essential oils
for pets, behavioural tips, organic diets
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“Success in retail is more than
just about bringing a product
into the store and simply selling
it.” – David Ng Whye Tye
to strive to give the best to our
customers and our pets,” he continues.
“By focusing on customer service, we’re
able to maintain a group of very loyal
customers. Therefore, we’re very
meticulous,” he says.
When reflecting on his leadership,
David acknowledges the influence of
his technical background. “I manage
the entire business as if it was a factory.
We’re extremely automated.” This form
of organisation, he believes, is a key
strength of Pet Lovers Centre. “It makes
us very successful because it allows us
to be extremely productive.”
of our family and shareholders.”
He continues, “We also have a strong
technical team that allows us to
develop our KPIs and processes.
This, in itself, is a very powerful edge
over our competitors because success
in retail is more than just about
bringing a product into the store
and simply selling it.”
One of his current areas of focus
is creating a seamless ‘click-andmortar’ shopping experience. “We
know that we have several brick-andmortar stores, but we’re really talking
about the omnichannel right now.
With the support of a strong marketing
team, we’re able to provide a complete
omni-environment. We have our
stores, we also have the digital
channel, and now we have social
media. We’re very much integrated
in this complex web, and the people
who are running our business
The lessons he has learned from his
Six Sigma Black Belt training
(undertaken during his time working
for Seagate Technology, a data storage
company in the US) have equipped
David with the necessary techniques
to undertake detailed analysis across
the organisation’s entire processes.
“I measure every aspect of the
business,” he says, “from our products
to how much our customers like us.
All this translates to one main goal,
which is productivity.”
for animals, and approaches to holistic
pet care. “We’ve been able to educate
people in the region on how to look
after their pets. That’s been an
important achievement for us,” he says.
Opportunity to innovate has also arisen
from Singapore’s strict regulations
around veterinary qualifications.
“There’s no veterinary school in
Singapore, and the government only
recognises vets with degrees from the
US, UK, Australia and New Zealand,” he
72
explains. “So we’ve been able to hire
qualified vets from the Philippines as
instore pet-care consultants.” Offering
advice on both health and nutritional
subjects, many of the consultants have
been with the company for years, he
says, “but twice a month we have an
afternoon training session to keep them
up to date with the latest knowledge.
“From training to staff remuneration to
data analytics, everything that we do on
a daily basis has one thing in common:
“Productivity,” he shares, is paramount,
since “it allows us to be sustainable
today and tomorrow. You’d be
surprised how much engineering work
is put into the company to be able to
grow and manage the business,” he says,
drawing further parallels to his previous
career. “We have a very strong
management team,” emphasising the
importance of family. “My brothers and
I wouldn’t have been able to achieve
what we have without the support
understand that. The world has
changed, and so we have to be willing
to change alongside.”
In the four decades since the store first
opened its doors in Shaw Centre, Pet
Lovers Centre has been awarded its fair
share of accolades, including the
Excellent Service Award by the
Singapore Retailers Association/Spring
Singapore in 2002, the Top 10 Best Pet
Shop Award by PETAS (Pets Enterprises
& Traders Association) in 2004 and
2005, and the Singapore Prestige Brand
Award (SPBA) 2008 – Overall Winner
(Heritage Brands) by ASME/Lianhe
Zaobao/Citibank/EDB in 2008.
For David, however, there’s one which
means more than most. “In 2013, Pet
Lovers Centre was crowned Winner of
the Global PETS Award in Prague,” he
beams. “The award is one of the most
prestigious in the industry and we’re
the first Asian retailer to win it.”
In awarding the prize, the judges
commended the company for not only
its products and services, but also the
innovation displayed in its use of
modern communication methods.
Of course, a little celebrity endorsement
does no harm either. “Famous dog
trainer Cesar Millan comes to
Singapore frequently and, because we’re
the largest pet shop chain in Singapore,
he works together with us.” In 2012,
Pet Lovers Centre hosted a meet-andgreet for 700 of its VIP customers
with the famed Mexican–American
dog behaviourist best known for his
television series Dog Whisperer. A firm
friendship has since been established.
“Whenever he’s in town, my brothers
and I will catch up with him for dinner.”
Being Singapore’s largest pet shop
chain has its advantages. “Because
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showing no sign of abating. “In Europe,
Fressnapf has 1,300 stores across
12 countries and Pets at Home has 360
stores in the UK. In the US, Petco has
1,300 stores and PetSmart has 1,400
stores. These are the major global
players. I see Pet Lovers Centre growing
to 1,000 stores across the region to
become one of them,” he says.
The burning question is left until last.
Does David have any furry friends of his
own? “Of course,” he enthuses. “It’d be
quite hard to be in this business and
not be a pet owner.” Growing up
breeding rabbits and surrounded by
dogs, turtles and terrapins, today he
limits himself to pet koi fish. “They
swim in my garden and I don’t have to
walk them!” he laughs, before admitting
that he’s too busy for anything more.
“When my old dog passed away, we
made a conscious decision not to have
another dog because we felt that we
PetLoversAd.qxp_Layout 1 30/11/2016 09:25 Page 1
“Our strategic supplier relationships have allowed us to grow the
business at a rapid pace which, in turn, has provided our suppliers
with good volume, good brand focus, and tons of word-of-mouth
brand support from the Pet Lovers Centre team.” – David Ng Whye Tye
of our size, we’re able to keep up with
the latest global trends and ensure
that the best products are quickly
introduced to the markets we serve.
We can continue to keep pet lovers
excited.” He acknowledges that this
would not be possible without a close
relationship with his suppliers, whom
he is quick to distinguish between.
“We have two levels of suppliers,”
he explains. “The first suppliers are
local distributors. They have a portfolio
of products that they import into
Singapore and sell to me, but, of course,
also to our competitors. The other
group of suppliers are from outside
74
Singapore. They’re from all over the
world, from the US, the UK, Norway,
Australia, Malaysia and Thailand.” The
relationships with these international
suppliers are much more profound, and
many involve exclusive distribution
rights. “Pet Lovers Centre is their
distributor in Singapore and in many
parts of South East Asia,” he continues.
“We distribute their products within
our network of stores.”
David personally manages many of
these mutually beneficial relationships.
“Our strategic supplier relationships
have allowed us to grow the business
at a rapid pace which, in turn, has
would not be responsible pet parents.
A dog requires a lot of commitment;
you cannot just leave them at home
because they need companionship.”
Despite a schedule that keeps him away
from home for long stretches of time,
David makes sure the company finds
time to give back to the community
through its CSR program. The Pet
Lovers Foundation was established in
2009 with a large charter, which ranges
from fundraising on behalf of
Singapore’s abandoned pet shelters to
organising visits to schools and
retirement homes. Some of its
initiatives include The Common Cause
calendar, which has raised close to
S$100,000 to help support animal
shelters and stray animals living on the
streets; donations to Club Rainbow
(Singapore), a not-for-profit
organisation which raises funds to
support children living with chronic
illnesses so that they can live enriching
lives; its Adopt 1st! Initiative, a drive to
help homeless companion animals find
good homes; and a partnership with
Free Coffee Sunday (FCS) to serve
food and beverages to the migrant
community on the first Sunday of
every month.
“We believe we’re successful in the
society where we reside simply because
our customers accept us for what we
do. To say thank you for this success,
we need to make sure we put our
efforts into giving back to this same
society. We do a lot of things through
the foundation: we visit aged-care
homes, and then we donate to charities
that are animal related and human
related. We always talk about the three
Ps — pets, people, and our planet.
What we do is we make sure that,
through these three Ps, we are helping
society as a whole.”
provided our suppliers with good
volume, good brand focus, and tons of
word-of-mouth brand support from the
Pet Lovers Centre team.”
He recognises, however, the importance
of creating a balance between the two
supplier networks. “The local suppliers
are very important, as we realise we
cannot possibly import everything
ourselves; therefore, we need to work
very closely with them to ensure we
continue to have the depth of range
that we have.”
In late 2014, the company moved into
new corporate premises at Singapore’s
North Spring Bizhub and christened
the building IHQ to reflect its
international expansion. The company
motto, ‘A sia’s preferred pet store’,
reflects how far the company has come
from its early days on Scotts Road at
the Shaw Centre. It’s a growth that’s
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