How three brothers built Singapore’s multibillion-dollar Sheng Siong supermarket chain from small pork stall

The chain, which has 88 stores across Singapore as of 2026 according to its website, is also among the biggest companies listed on the Singapore Exchange with a market cap of over S$4.5 billion (US$3.5 billion).

Lim serves as the group’s CEO, his older brother Hock Eng is executive chairman and his younger brother Hock Leng is managing director.

But long before they oversaw a multibillion-dollar retail empire, the trio, born to a Hokkien family with nine children including their six sisters, were helping out their father with a different business: pig farming.

The middle child with eight siblings that include six sisters, Lim left high school due to difficulties with English. He then took a two-year car mechanic course at a local vocational institute and completed national service before returning to the farm.

Due to a pork surplus in 1984, Lim and his wife rented a stall at Savewell Supermarket in Ang Mo Kio, where they sold chilled meat to help move excess stocks.

But by the time the surplus had been sold, the store owner was facing financial issues while the Singapore government was phasing out pig farming.

Seeing an opportunity, Lim borrowed money from his father to buy the store and, together with his brothers, turned it into the first Sheng Siong outlet in 1985.

They gradually expanded the business through prudent planning and sourcing.

A second outlet opened in 1988, with a third following in 1995 before expansion picked up with over a dozen stores in the next decade.

Hock Leng said building the business from scratch had made them more careful about growth.

“Outsiders who have gone to business school may want to open a new store every two to three days, but it’s different when you’ve grown the business by figuring your way up,” he told the South China Morning Post in a rare 2021 interview—his CEO brother usually handles the business’s media front.

Sheng Siong stood out for offering lower prices than its rivals and for pioneering a model that offers both dry and wet shopping options.

Many of its subsequent outlets were opened in quiet locations that others considered less desirable, but the brothers saw value in their lower rents.

“We didn’t worry about competing with the bigger chains,” Lim told The Peak in 2015. “We just worked very hard, because we didn’t want the business to fail.”

In 2007, the group adopted a new logo and the slogan “Sheng Siong…all for you!” and launched a Chinese-language live variety program called “The Sheng Siong Show” to boost its visibility and promote sales.

It went public in Singapore in 2014, the same year it reported over S$700 million in annual revenue from its network of 34 stores.

As supermarkets became a preferred destination for shoppers during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sheng Siong shares surged in 2020 and propelled Lim and his family into the billionaire ranks, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Forbes ranked the family 31st on its Singapore rich list last September with a net worth of US$1.85 billion.

Sheng Shiong’s founders (left to right): Lim Hock Leng, Lim Hock Eng and Lim Hock Chee. Photo from FM Food Court’s website

According to a 2019 report by The Straits Timeseach family member within the business has their own responsibilities, with Hock Eng, his wife and their daughter managing the fruit and vegetables segment and Hock Leng overseeing seafood and frozen products.

Lim manages human resources, IT and the pork department while his wife is in charge of dried food.

When it comes to business, Lim focuses on the human factor. He is said to have made his mobile number publicly available in stores so customers could contact him directly for feedback or urgent matters.

The decision led to unexpected calls, including people alerting him to issues such as abandoned shopping trolleys. Lim has told The Business Times that the move also encourages staff to reduce complaints, knowing customers could escalate issues directly to him.

While it has also drawn unwanted attention at times, he has stood by it as part of his commitment to treating customers well.

This focus extends to employees as well. The chain has made headlines several times for its staff bonuses, such as when it awarded long-serving staff who had been with the company for five to 20 years gold coins weighing between 20g and 100g late last year, according to AsiaOne.

Lim once said being the middle child in his family gave him an early exposure to business. He was often tasked by his father with errands such as banking trips when he was young.

Though he would complain at the time, he later understood it was because his older siblings were already busy helping out while the others were too young to understand anything.

Looking back, he said he became the one who learned the most thanks to those errands.

“Don’t grumble. Whatever people tell you to do, just do it,” he told ST in 2019.

“Once you’re done with the task, you stand to learn the most. It may not be in monetary terms, but you will learn many things.”