Made in Hong Kong: Eu Yan Sang’s 138-year journey making traditional Chinese medicine has been a bumpy one
Despite years of family strife, the murder of the founder’s wife by her brothers-in-law and a takeover by a Singapore investment group, traditional Chinese medicine maker Eu Yan Sang has survived and flourished as a Hong Kong icon
After an 80km ferry ride south from Penang, then days on a wooden boat up the Perak River and a tedious trek through the jungle, Eu Kong, with his wife and baby, arrived in Gopeng, a remote but prosperous tin mining town in what is now Malaysia.
Eu had been sent from Foshan, in China’s southern Guangdong province, to British Malaya by his father, a feng shui master who believed his family would prosper in Southeast Asia. After failed ventures in a bakery and a textiles dyeing business in Penang, Eu moved inland to join thousands of Chinese miners on a tin rush.
When Eu saw the condition of his fellow Chinese, many addicted to opium, he decided to start selling traditional Chinese herbal medicine made using the ancient recipes that had been passed down through Chinese culture.
It was 1879, and that humble shop in the Malayan countryside was to be the seed of what is now Eu Yan Sang International – a traditional Chinese medicine company and iconic Hong Kong brand with 248 retail outlets and 34 clinics in Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and farther afield. Its most popular products are Bo Ying, a soothing remedy for coughing babies, and Bak Foong Pills, which help alleviate menstrual symptoms.
The saying “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” implies family businesses cannot survive for more than three generations. But Eu Yan Sang, which celebrates its 138th anniversary this year, is an exception. It is now in the hands of fourth-generation family members Richard Eu Yee Ming and Robert Eu (and institutional shareholder Temasek Holdings & Tower Capital).
Despite the longevity, the ride has been far from smooth. Riven by family strife, a corporate takeover and drama in the boardroom, the history of the company and the Eu family reads like the plot of a soap opera.
