It is the ambition of every entrepreneur worth his salt to establish a world-beating business with best-in-industry operations and management.
Julian Ng, CEO and executive director of Grand Venture Technology (GVT), is no exception.
Ng, along with executive chairman Ricky Lee and other industry veterans, co-founded GVT in 2012 with the aim of becoming a “worldclass Singaporean contract manufacturer” in mind. Says Ng: “[Before GVT], a lot of companies in the sector were not local … and there weren’t a lot of small Singaporean companies that [could be] considered ‘world-class’.”
The pioneers wanted to start a company that would eventually become a “sizeable [Singaporean] contract manufacturer” that could compete with leading players in the US and Europe — not only financially, but more importantly, in capabilities such as ultra-precision manufacturing and mechatronics assembly.
Difficult early days
Despite having a team of veterans, things were not all smooth sailing for the new company. In the first four years of operation, the company did not turn a profit.
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MNC customers were not prepared to give business to GVT, given it had no track record. However, GVT continued to engage them and soon won them over.
The turning point came when GVT managed to get its factories qualified and a customer started to ramp up the manufacturing of a product which required GVT’s services. However, when they were preparing for a Catalist listing in 2018, former US president Donald Trump started his trade war with China, sending the semiconductor industry into a tailspin.
Still, GVT was listed on Jan 23, 2019, before transitioning to the mainboard in November 2021.
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But as 2020 rolled around and the semiconductor segment started to pick up, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, sending countries into lockdowns and disrupting production and supply chains. “We were thinking, what type of luck did we have [to have to deal with such headwinds]?” Ng rues with a laugh.
Nevertheless, the company and its leaders soldiered on, meeting orders despite broken supply chains. “We never let our customers have a ‘line down’ situation because of us,” Ng says, referring to a halt in the production line. “We managed to ship all the parts in time.”
In fact, GVT did not have to fire any employee during the pandemic but also expanded its factories in Singapore, Malaysia and China.
Looking back, Ng credits his journey with GVT to his “never give up” attitude. “I’m someone who always likes to take up a challenge [and that attitude] is transmitted down to the company,” he says, adding that “it is all in the mind”.
Present challenges
Ten years on, GVT may not have reached the level of the big boys in Europe or the US but Ng is confident the company is a step closer to achieving that goal. In 3QFY2022 ended Sept 30, GVT reported a 3.2% y-o-y increase in revenue to $32.9 million. Earnings however fell 33.4% to $3.45 million from $5.17 million a year ago as margins fell to 25.9% from 31.4% due to lower business activity in the back-end semiconductor segment and recent expansion of its capacities.
While GVT is aware of headwinds in the global economic environment, it has expanded its value chain to offer higher-value frontend semiconductor services and increased its engagement with potential customers.
To acquire new capabilities, GVT invested $24.4 million this year to acquire precision engineering firm J-Dragon Tech (Suzhou) and Formach Asia, a precision metal sheet maker based in Malaysia. The new entities will enable GVT to acquire capabilities that would have taken it years to organically grow.
With the expanded range of services and capabilities, GVT expects to gain a bigger wallet share from customers in sectors ranging from life sciences and medical products, as well as medical and aerospace.
A team effort
Winning this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for Advanced Manufacturing is definitely a recognition of Ng’s efforts although he is quick to share the honour with his compatriots.
“The growth of GVT is not a one-man effort,” he says, “It has been achieved with the support and dedication of my fellow team members, including co-founder Ricky Lee. I am merely receiving this award on everyone’s behalf.”
Ng and Lee go back a long way. Before GVT, Ng had started his career at engineering works firm Norelco Centreline, which was founded by Lee. In 2001, Norelco went for a public listing. Three years later, it was merged with UMS Semiconductor to form UMS Holdings.
Ng then struck out on his own to co-found Achieve Solutions, which was merged with Eng Tic Lee Engineering to form contract equipment manufacturer and sheet metal fabricator ETLA in 2006.
Lee then joined ETLA in 2007 and played a key role in its listing. In 2009, ETLA was acquired by Electrotech Investments — now known as Frencken Group — and delisted in a deal worth around $30 million.
Ng says credit for building up GVT should also go to Lee, whom he described as his mentor. “He started out as a machinist and worked his way up. He [has built a network] in all the industries he is in … which isn’t easy. He is also well respected across all the industries,” he says.
“He also does not keep his knowledge to himself, passing it on freely [to others],” he adds. “He could have chosen not to ask all of us to join him to set up GVT and keep it to himself or his family. But he didn’t.”
GVT’s secret
What then is the company’s secret to success? “There is no secret, really. If there was, I couldn’t tell you,” Ng says with a laugh.
What he does reveal is that GVT will engage deeply with a customer, understand their products and pain points, and then from there, work on a plan to address these areas and meet their demands.
Some of the positive feedback from customers is that GVT is always up for a challenge, unlike some other companies which refuse to learn and add new services when they grow to a certain size and become too comfortable.
In Ng’s view, challenges faced by GVT were useful in pushing it to gain new capabilities and innovate processes. “We don’t want to be viewed just as a service company. We want to build a service company with capabilities and also process development.”
