How ‘Hoe Hin White Flower Embrocation’ keeps a century-old family legacy in bloom
The family’s fourth generation will drive medicinal oil business forward by protecting its trusted qualities that are unchanged since 1927
For any family business built up over many decades, succession is rarely as simple as passing down a title. Each generation must understand the values and qualities that have made the company popular with customers, while finding ways to carry on its legacy and ensure it endures.
That process often requires both emotional and practical preparation for family-owner businesses, says Christine Wong, Bank of Singapore’s head of wealth planning for Greater China and North Asia. “Succession is not only about deciding who will lead next, but also about putting the right structures in place so a family’s values, responsibilities and long-term vision can be preserved and continue to guide the business in the years ahead,” she says.
For Hoe Hin Pak Fah Yeow – Cantonese for “Harmonious and Prosperous White Flower Oil” – which is known on its packaging as Hoe Hin White Flower Embrocation, that question carries almost a century of history.
The company, founded by Gan Geok Eng in Penang, Malaysia, in 1927, is named after the medicated oil made from ingredients including the essential oils of eucalyptus and lavender, and menthol. First developed by the family for treating ailments ranging from headaches, dizziness and travel sickness to muscular pain, a few drops can be gently massaged on the skin, or applied to a handkerchief and inhaled.
Demand from friends soon grew so large that Gan started commercial production. In 1951, the brand entered the Hong Kong market and became deeply rooted in local life.
Today, the business, which is a subsidiary of parent company Pak Fah Yeow International, has its headquarters in Wan Chai, on Hong Kong Island, and is led by its CEO Sean Gan, a member of the third generation of the Gan family. His son, Gavin, an executive director, is now taking on greater responsibility as the company prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary as Sean looks ahead to his retirement.
For Sean, who has worked in the business since 1971, Hoe Hin Pak Fah Yeow has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Penang, he watched his grandfather mix and package the oil by hand, before taking over that responsibility himself.
“When you spend most of your life with a product, it is no longer like a business,” he says. “It is part of who I am now.”
Gavin says that Hoe Hin White Flower Embrocation was also a regular feature of his childhood. “Any time I got sick or my tummy ached, my parents would apply the oil on me and immediately I would feel a lot better,” he says.
Today, he reaches for the same bottle when his own daughter feels unwell. “This is how the product and the brand passes down through the family to the next generation,” he says.
Although Gavin grew up with the oil as part of his day-to-day life, he did not join the company as soon as he finished university. Instead, he worked abroad to learn how other companies functioned before sending his father an email in 2007, to ask if he could return to Hong Kong and join the family business.
“That email changed my life,” says Gavin, who started at the company as a trainee, earning less than he had in his first job after graduation.
That deliberate career choice has paid off, Sean says. “I told him, ‘Don’t think that just because you are born into the business, you are going to inherit my title’. You have to prove yourself.”
Since Gavin joined the company, Hoe Hin Pak Fah Yeow has evolved. He has introduced machinery into the mixing process, automating the job that his great-grandfather and father both did by hand, and also explored new markets and complementary products to expand the brand’s global reach and revenues while proving himself to his father.
“To be able to last 100 years for one particular product is not simple,” Sean says. “That is why we have not changed anything: the formula, the image, the packaging. Now Gavin has earned my trust to carry on the business successfully. Maybe it will last the next 100 years.”
Check out the video to hear two generations of the family behind Hoe Hin Pak Fah Yeow reflect on the business as it nears its centennial. This story is the first of a three-part series, “Building a legacy together”, produced by Morning Studio in partnership with Bank of Singapore.