Bob Ang getting ready to enter Hong Seafood’s cold store
It was a rainy Wednesday morning when we arrived at the office of Hong Seafood located at Tai Seng Avenue.
We were greeted like old friends as Bob ushered us through the door into a meeting room. There we were served with a cup of warm and soothing tea each. I still remember how fuzzy and warm I felt after drinking the tea, as the 47-year-old bubbly sales executive who is also a union leader beckons us to try the tea.
“It’s Rooibos tea, good for health and it’s caffeine-free!”, he said as his face beamed with pleasure.
Bob Ang has been with the company for as long as he remembers. The father of one began working in Hong Seafood after completing full-time National Service (NS).
Like every other year, the seafood supplier was busy preparing for the upcoming Lunar New Year. It was one of their most significant economic events – until the COVID-19 hit our shores.
The unexpected pandemic saw supplies piling up in Hong Seafood’s cold store amidst a drastic slump in sales. Sales declined drastically by 95% as customers cancelled their orders.
“It was extremely demoralising,” Bob recalls.
Leveraging digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic
The plunge in sales hastened the company to quickly take the business online.
“To be honest, going digital has always been at the back of our mind. But we just never got around to it due to the hectic day-to-day business. This was until COVID-19 hit. We had no choice but to accelerate the adoption of e-commerce and diversify our offerings to not just the businesses, but directly to the consumers as well.”
The Hong Seafood team launched an online marketplace called Food Explorer for consumers.
And it didn’t stop just there. Besides setting up an e-commerce business, Bob started to turn to live selling on Facebook some two months ago to promote their products.
When asked how he came to the idea, he shared, “Well, the main thing for me was to make sure things are still moving. When there is a business, the employees will have work to do.
Together with the company, we just want to make sure employees’ livelihoods are not affected. Till date, my boss has not taken the route of pay cuts and we are thankful for that.”
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