Entrepreneurs: Lawrence Chia
Family took a risk on a failing billboards firm and turned it into a creative brand, writes Peter Guy
If you've ever seen a major booth or exhibition at a shopping mall, theme park or event, chances are it was put together by Lawrence Chia Song Huat and his team at Pico Far East.
Pico builds the booths and stands found at major exhibitions. It also makes the signs that companies such as McDonald's, KFC and HSBC put on their buildings.
It's not glamorous, but it makes money - the firm generated 2011 net profits of HK$248 million on HK$3.5 billion of revenue. Pico is publicly listed, with offices in 24 countries.
Pico's manner of growth through the decades would be familiar to many. Its successes were hard won, made largely on the back of a cohesive family team of nine brothers, including Chia.
The brothers attribute this to their working-class upbringing, living together in a small, public housing flat in Singapore. "Because we were so poor, we stuck together. Any brother could count on the others to pitch in," Chia says.
Pico was started in 1969 by Chia's older brother, S.L. Chia, who trained as a commercial artist. When the sign-making firm the brother worked for went bust, S.L. Chia decided to take over and continue serving its clients. All the brothers joined the business, which in those days involved painting signs and billboards. By the mid-1970s, Pico was growing, but it was still an entirely Singapore-based business.