Our Story

  • The first John Chen company was founded – A sole proprietorship
    – John Chen Engineering Service Co.

    Key business was the custom design, fabrication, installation, and maintenance of factory M&E systems, mechanical structures, material handling equipment, and allied equipment

  • Purchased the free-hold property at 6 Little Road, Singapore, as our operations HQ. All warehousing and manufacturing activities were shifted to this site.

  • John Chen (Private) Limited was formed to take over the sole proprietorship as a going concern.

  • Obtained the rights of representation of European and Japanese manufacturers in the region as their sole distributor and/or agent. The equipment included fork lifts and stackers, hand pallet trucks, safety valves and taps, safety clamps, loading docks and ramps, lift tables, platform trolleys, etc

  • Wholly-owned subsidiary, John Chen Engineering Service Pte Ltd was form to take over the daily operations of the company as a group, with John Chen (Private) Ltd being the holding company of the group, owning building assets, as well as the distributorship and agency agreementsand rights of the products and services held by the group.

  • Ventured into new business direction - took on distributorship rights to market and sell shopping carts and display systems, as well as automated storage & retrieval systems.

    Went into the niche-market of designing, fabrication, installation and maintenance of aircraft maintenance dockings, access steps, air cargo and luggage towable trolleys and dollies for commercial airliner, cargo aircrafts, and military fighter jets.

    Secured the contract that marks the start of the group in the business of the supply of passenger luggage trolleys.

  • Worked with a local software company to develop and sell customised inventory management software that drives the automated storage & retrieval systems under our product range.

    Began the distribution, sales, and installation of conventional storage racking and shelving systems, library shelvings, office static and mobile shelving system, and supermarket display shelving systems.

  • Formed the wholly-owned subsidiary, John Chen Engineering Service Sdn Bhd, with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia to take over the business with local customers started with our Singapore companies.

  • Began business with the hotel and medical care industry with the supply of equipment for housekeeping, front office operations, in-roomdining, laundry services, back-store racks and shelves, and display shelving system for retail pharamacies.

    Also started our venture into RFID and tool tracking, storage & vending systems.

    Secured long term supply contracts to provide the 2 largest chains of supermarket/hypermarkets with shopping carts.

  • Entered the HORECA food & beverage business proper with distributorship rights secured for premium porcelain, glassware, flatware, buffetware, and allied equipment.

    Began work with automation systems for distribution centres, and pneumatic waste management systems for hospitals and housing projects.