Ban Hoe Seng - The Challenging Years

The last two decades of the 20the century beginning from 1988 till 1997 was a challenging time for Ban Hoe Seng.

The subsequent Honda Civic models were well received. Similarly with the Honda Accord 1.6 cc introduced later had a waiting list of one year.

Although Honda and Ban Hoe Seng continued to do well the Malaysian economy was in a tailspin due to the drop in the tin price which occurred in 1985.  

It was reported that in the period following the collapse of the International Tin Council in 1985, Malaysia shut 30 percent of its tin mines, eliminating 5000 jobs.

Before the start of the crisis there were 32 Honda dealers but the at the end were left only 8 dealers in the country.

Ban Hoe Seng was not spared this recession. Its Genaral Manager and Sales Manager were retired at this time and entire sales staff were let go.

Chew  Choon Kok’ son Ignatius Chew who returned from overseas in 1982 was understudying the business but was abruptly tasked to oversee the operations.

When the recovery returned they appointed dealers once again. But within a few years they once again experienced another economic crisis the Asian Economic Crisis of 1996/97.

Ban Hoe Seng had been a family business all along. They had seen the crises through by being conservative, prudent and lean.

With few loans and with good maintanence of their business and their sound financial strength they had pulled through both crises and came out unscathed.

End