How Spritzer’s Lim Kok Cheong turned 100 ringgit a month into Malaysia’s largest mineral water firm
- The son of impoverished rubber tappers, entrepreneur Lim rose from a humble background to launching the famed Red Eagle cooking oil and meeting Xi Jinping
- In a rare interview with This Week in Asia, he reflects on a journey that began with his grandparents leaving China in the 1920s and has since come full circle
Spritzer, which is listed on the Malaysian stock market, has had a wholly-owned trading company in Guangzhou since 2016 – and its business licence runs until 2045.
Lim knows all about growing businesses. He also founded Yee Lee Group, which manufactures Red Eagle cooking oil, a staple in Malaysian households for more than four decades.
Speaking to This Week In Asia in a rare interview, Lim recounted with wit and humour his family’s history and his own struggles, a man defined by the odds which he has beaten and not the hardships he was born into.
“My grandparents came over to Malaysia on a ship – it was not a nice ship, mind you, but a cargo ship where they occupied the lower deck,” said Lim with a grin during the interview at a beautiful colonial bungalow which his wife Jun Chua converted into a restaurant named STG Tea House Cafe.
Back then, life in Fujian was very difficult – the province was reeling from the aftermath of the Chinese revolution which had overthrown the Qing dynasty and created a republic. Amid the ensuing turmoil, his grandparents decided to leave.