Chew Boon San's Ban Hoe Bee & Tin And Rubber Trading.

Ban Hoe Bee

When Chew Boon San shifted to Gopeng he started with tin trading operating from his shop house at 6, Sungai Raia Road the main trunk road that ran through Gopeng town.

His trading company was called Ban Hoe Bee Tin Ore Shop and traded in tin ore at the time.

His customers were the dulang washers, mainly Chinese with some being Malay, that panned the land surrounding Gopeng for tin

The site of their former rubber factory (now a driving school) behind No 6 Sungai Raia Road

In later years due to the demand for rubber he purchased a plot of land behind Ban Hoe Bee and opened a rubber trading outlet and factory which processed rubber. 

The outlet was a sizable and consisted of a working area, a space for drying the rubber sheets and worker quarters. 

His clients were the rubber small holders surrounding Gopeng who would bring in rubber and latex to the centre.

Boon San also owned a rubber plantation in Segari near Lumut which had a factory for processing rubber.

When he was getting on in years Boon San requested his second son Chew Choo Peng to return from Penang to assist him and his elder brother in the business.

On returning to Gopeng he became the treasurer for the local Chinese school SJK ( M ) Man Ming and was active in the local Hokkkien Association and temple.

Chew Choo Peng with his wife and family

Choo Peng married Chang Poh Yoke and they were blessed with 6 daughters and 1 son.

Chew Soak Leng with her
mother Chang Poh Yoke

Chew Soak Leng, Choo Peng's 2nd daughter said she and her sisters used to help their father in the tin trading shop. This would involve receiving the tin, drying and packing the tin ore in standard amounts.

When there was sufficient volume of tin and rubber stocks their father would load their lorry and send the stock to Ipoh to be sold.

Regarding the rubber plantation at Segari her father would visit it once every fortnight taking his family with him.

On those excursions father would drop the family off at Lumut and proceed to the plantation. Only occasionally would he take them to Segari. When at the estate they were to remain in the office due to ‘the ferocious mosquitoes’.

On the return journey home they would stopover at Sitiawan for dinner before heading home.

Several times a year father would go to Penang for a weekend at the beach sometimes staying at the holiday bungalow belonging to Eastern Smelting Company. 

In the late seventies there was a recession. It affected both the commodities of rubber then tin causing the family to sell off their assets gradually until family had to shift from No 6 Sungai Raia Road.

End

Chew Boon San (1) – The Third of the Chew Brothers

Chew Boon San 

Chew Boon San was the third of the Chew brothers. He came over to Malaya from China after their mother died in early in the 20^th century. 

Boon San came over bringing his family which included his wife Toh Bok Wai, Chew Gaik Khim, Chew Choo Beng and Chew Choo Peng. The family stayed at Kg. Kepayang.  

In 1909 he moved to Gopeng, a shop house he purchased, at No 6 Sungai Raia Road which became his new residence as well as his business premises.

From here he operated his business, Ban Hoe Bee Tin Ore Shop first trading in tin and later in rubber.

Chew Boon San and Toh Bok Wai had 4 sons and 5 daughters

In time to come he built his Gopeng Bungalow which was situated at the next the block.His eldest son, Choo Beng was married in the Gopeng bungalow.

Chew Boon San's Gopeng bungalow was located after his block now occupied by the Petron gas station.

When elder brother, Boon Juan was building his bungalow at Jalan Chamberlan Hulu Boon San decided to join him and built his unit behind his home.

Not long after he built another bungalow located at Kampar Road. This bungalow was eventually turned over to the Salvation Army.

Boon San’s second son Choo Peng was married at the Kampar Road bungalow.

In later years, according to Soak Leng the grandaughter, Boon San lived in a rented house next door to his house No 4 Sungai Raia Road.

“This house was large. It had a big hall and he and grandmother lived downstairs. Upstairs there were five rooms where the family lived”

Chew Boon San was a quiet man and similarly his wife Bok Wai.

Boon San's built his 2nd bungalow (left photo) back to back with Chew Boon Juan's bungalow at Jalan Chamberlain Hulu (currently the Raja Perempuan School)

Boon San's 3rd bungalow, currently the Salvation Army Girls Home on Kampar Road. (Inset) Chew Choo Peng marriage photo was taken at the Kampar road home.

During the day he would be in the tin ore shop. He read the newspaper while his sons Choo Beng and Choo Peng, tended the business.

We would all have dinner in the evening at 5pm. We had a cook who would prepare the food for the family including the workers.

Sometimes after dinner Boon San would visit his friends. They would meet in a sundry shop at Jalan Kampong Rawa and chat for about an hour.

My sister and I would tag along and grandfather would buy us sweets.

Other times we would talk with our grandparents in their room. During this time she (Soak Leng) would try to get pocket money from the grandparents for school.

She observed that her grandparents had separate beds. Grandfather slept on a big wooden bed while grandmother had a big metal bed which could hang a mosquito net.

Of her grandmother, she observed that she was a China bride as she had small feet, the kind that had been bound since young.

Chew Soak Leng at the former location of their Gopeng bungalow now a petrol station.

This is an account of Chew Boon San was told by his grand daughter Chew Soak Leng. 

End

The Bangkok Training Of 1988 - A Turning Point For Ban Hoe Seng

Seated  (second from right) Matsuro Sato followed by Pauline Hsu and Datin Loh Cheng Yuen (daughter of Loh Boon Siew). Standing (1st from right) Ignatius Chew.

When Ignatius Chew went to Bangkok Thailand for training in 1988  it made an impact on him such that when he returned he was a totally changed person and a plan for Ban Hoe Seng.

At Bangkok he was trained by Matsuro Sato, the Asian Honda Motor Co Ltd President whom Ignatius described as a “Superman who performed miracles for the Thai automobile market”

According to Ignatius, Sato at that time thought of car salesmen as unprofessional cowboys unlike the top American companies that saw the customer as Number 1.

He also saw how the big business such as banks, hotels and airlines treated their staff and had adopted that concept for the car business”.

Ignatius spent 7 days walking around showrooms and learning from Sato. When he returned he immediately implemented the Thailand system.

Both Pauline and Ignatius actually changed Ban Hoe Seng in 1988. Besides implementing the management system he gave the showroom and service centre a facelift for maximum customer comfort and introduced customer service personnel.

For all his effort he achieved the first Dealer of the Year award in 1990.

 

(left photo) Ignatius Chew receiving the 1st Dealer of the Year award from Dato Robert Wong

Every other year after that, he achieved a string of other awards for Customer Service, Technician and Sales Advisor. 

In later years the system developed between the managements of Boon Siew Motors and Kah Motors which in turn was controlled by Honda’s management brought benefits to the entire group.

In 2009 he won the award of Dealer of the Year a second time.  

"Dealer of the Year Award" in the year 2009

Since 1988 when he took over till when he divested the business to Ban Hoe Seng (Auto) in 2017 Ignatius had grown the business more than tenfold.

He had learnt from a good Master and had faithfully been a good disciple and together with sound management practices had managed to grow the company.