Thursday, March 10, 2005
March 10, 2005
Former C&C boss Chua Boon Peng dies at age 89
by Christopher Tan
THE man who secured the lucrative Mercedes-Benz franchise for local dealership Cycle & Carriage (C&C) more than 50 years ago, Mr Chua Boon Peng, died last week at age 89.
Mr Chua had been wheelchair-bound for the past few years, said his son Humphrey, 58. He died in Gleneagles Hospital last Friday.
'He was alert, but when he stopped walking in the last few years, he deteriorated,' said the younger Mr Chua. 'It's just old age.'
It was Boon Peng who clinched the Mercedes-Benz sole distributorship in 1951 for what was then Malaya, awarded by Germany's Daimler-Benz.
At that time C&C was a smallish company owned by the Chua family and Boon Peng was a thirty-something executive assisting his father and uncles.
And amazing as it may seem to Singaporeans now, the Mercedes brand was relatively unknown in these parts back then.
Yet Boon Peng could see the potential - as could others. Indeed, representatives from a keen competitor, Wearnes Brothers, were on the same train as him when he went to meet the Germans in London more than 50 years ago.
His father, Mr Chua Cheng Liat (whom Liat Towers in Orchard Road was named after), was anxious. In the book, 1899-1999: The Cycle & Carriage Century, Boon Peng's younger brother, the late Mr Chua Boon Unn, recalled: 'My father asked him, 'What can we do to make sure that we get this deal?'
'This chap thought about it. It was a close fight. Then he told my father, 'Just place an order. Even if you have no buyers yet, just do it'.
'And my father did. He ordered six cars and we got the franchise.'
It took a while before the cars were sold. Mr Chua Cheng Liat started the ball rolling by buying one himself. Two taxi companies followed (the cars were diesel models), and the rest, as they say, is history.
'My father was a man of vision,' Humphrey told The Straits Times.
'He was a gentleman, exceptionally kind and selfless, always thinking about others.'
He was also 'a loyal Singaporean' who served on many civic committees, including one which transformed Orchard Road - which had a big open canal running through it - into a modern shopping and tourist belt.
He was a member of Club 200 (an association of foreign envoys here), Pyramid Club (formed in 1963 for key decision-makers from the public and private sector), and the Goethe Institute, his son said.
'He was a very good father who taught us many things and showed us the world,' said Humphrey, who was once general manager of bus company Tibs, but has since retired.
Boon Peng was the last surviving member of the family to run C&C before it lost control of the company because of other failed interests.
His brother, Thomas, the family's last managing director there, died in 2002 at 68.
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