Lim Chee Guan

Lim Chee Guan is a Singaporean food business specialising in the production and retail of bak kwa (a dried, barbecued meat product similar to jerky). As of June 2020, the business is managed by the second-generation owner, Rod Lim and his two sons, Benny and Jerre. Lim Chee Guan's snaking queues during the Chinese New Year season have attracted mainstream media coverage in the past. As of 2023, the brand has since expanded to selling other types of products in addition to their eight types of bak kwa, including flosses and tidbits.

The storefront of Lim Chee Guan's flagship outlet. Photo credit to The Ordinary Patrons.

Background

According to OPENGOVSG, the Lim Chee Guan brand was incorporated in 2002.

Founder

Lim Chee Guan was founded in 1938 by Lim Kay Eng, a Chinese immigrant from Xiamen, China. Kay Eng had two daughters and two sons. He passed away in 1988 at 79 years old.

Origins

Lim Chee Guan pictured in its early days at New Bridge Road. Retrieved from Channel News Asia.

Lim Chee Guan started as a provision stall along a five-foot way at Chin Chiew Street selling tidbits and bak kwa. The founder, Kay Eng had learnt how to preserve meats from his mother. However, he was responsible for developing the recipe for Lim Chee Guan's bak kwa marinade. After 18 years of operations, Kay Eng moved his stall to New Bridge Road in 1956. As reported by Channel News Asia, Lim Chee Guan was also operating from 61 Pagoda street in 1980s and 1990s.

Business expansion

Lim Chee Guan's flagship store is situated at New Bridge Road. The Straits Times reported that Lim Chee Guan had three outlets in the Chinatown area by the 1960s. Over the years, Lim Chee Guan also shifted production from its stores to a manufacturing facility at Pandan Loop. According to Google maps, Lim Chee Guan 林志源 Food Industries Pte Ltd still operates from that location as of June 2020.

The newest Lim Chee Guan outlet at Jewel Changi. Photo from Facebook.

Retail timeline

As of June 2020, Lim Chee Guan has four retail outlets in Singapore, two of which are located outside of Chinatown. The following table lists a timeline of its retail expansion in Singapore.

Year	Outlet	Refs.
2019	Jewel Changi Airport
2009	ION Orchard
-	People's Park Complex	-
1956	New Bridge Road

The exact year in which the People’s Park Complex outlet opened is not known.

In a 2009 interview with Life!, Rod Lim shared that Lim Chee Guan chose to open at ION Orchard to target tourists and a younger Singaporean demographic. The exact years in which the Chinatown outlets were opened are not known.

Branding

According to the brand: "Providing customers with an authentic taste is a time-honoured tradition at Lim Chee Guan. Purveying Lim Chee Guan's tradition and quality is all in the family."

Family business

Rod Lim inherited the business from his father, Kay Eng when the latter passed away in 1988. His two older sons, Benny and Jerre, have been involved in running the family business since finishing their university studies. In a video interview with MissTam Chiak that was published on 21 October 2016, Benny and Jerre introduced themselves as the third-generation owners of Lim Chee Guan, also stating that their father was "still actively involved in the business". Benny and Jerre each have two children of their own.

Traditional methods

While the raw pork is mechanically sliced and minced, the other processes such as spreading the meat to cook, marinating and grilling the slices over charcoal are still done by hand. In an interview with SALT Magazine that was published in 2018, Rod Lim, the second-generation owner of Lim Chee Guan, said:

"We are very stringent with the grilling, all the staff doing it needs [sic] to have at least a few years of experience."

Apart from the Pandan Loop production facility,The Straits Times reported in 2014 that Lim Chee Guan's flagship store in Chinatown also has a designated grilling station.

Media coverage

The Straits Times (2022)

The queue outside Lim Chee Guan’s New Bridge Road outlet. Photo by Mark Cheong for The Straits Times.

In a The Straits Times article published on 25 January 2022, Lim Chee Guan was featured as one of the bak kwa shops that saw long queues at their Chinatown branches ahead of Chinese New Year.

In this report, the newspaper interviews several people in line about the rising prices of bak kwa and the risk of getting COVID-19. Those interviewed did not mind either of the situations, stating that they rarely buy bak kwa and that “it's the festive season, so the price will increase”. As for the COVID-19 risk, many said that they were vaccinated and following safe distancing measures put in place by the Lim Chee Guan staff, so they were not worried.

Eatbook (2021 and 2019)

2021

In a YouTube video published on 28 January 2021, Eatbook challenged their host, Hui Qing, to make homemade bak kwa. Said bak kwa will then be pitted against Lim Chee Guan’s signature sliced pork bak kwa in a blind taste test, to see if the tasters can tell the difference between homemade and store-bought bak kwa as well as which one they liked better.

Unsurprisingly, Lim Chee Guan ended up winning the challenge.

2019

In episode 91 of another Eatbook series, Taste Testers, Lim Chee Guan was one of four bak kwa brands given to the hosts to try.

The hosts describe Lim Chee Guan’s bak kwa as a good balance of sweet and savoury, and is especially recommended for the elderly and younger children, since it breaks off into smaller pieces easily. They also say it is a good combination of lean and fatty.

Vulcan Post (2021)

In a feature published to Vulcan Post on 20 January 2021, the publication speaks to Jerre and Benny Lim, third-generation owners of Lim Chee Guan and the grandsons of founder Lim Kay Eng. In the feature, the siblings talk about continuing their grandfather’s legacy, dealing with dropping sales, and their future plans for the family business.

Both brothers say that growing up with the business “meant that joining it wasn’t much of a choice for [them], though [their] father never pressured [them] into it.” However, when they first formally joined the business, they butted heads a lot with the other members of their family on “how to run and modernise [the business] without sacrificing the value and tradition of Lim Chee Guan”. Eventually, a “happy compromise” was reached when each realised everyone “wants the best for the business”.

It has not all been smooth-sailing, though. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has badly affected business, with sales dropping “more than 70%" in 2020. Sales have since picked up since the 2021 Chinese New Year period, but due to restrictions, Lim Chee Guan does not allow walk-in purchases for all BBQ bak kwa products.They chose instead to open online pre-orders, available from 13 January to 9 February 2021, with free delivery for orders above 15kg.

It is worth noting that despite their immense popularity here in Singapore, Lim Chee Guan has no plans of expanding overseas, for now. In fact, the closest customers can get to an overseas branch is the one in Jewel.

“Should we go overseas, manpower might be an issue in producing the same quality of products. Hence, we wish to concentrate on Singapore first, given that Singapore is our home.”

When it comes to what the secret behind Lim Chee Guan’s long-standing reputation and success is, Benny thinks it is simply “hard work and dedication”.

“We were brought up in a household that focused on family, tradition and quality so these are also the three main values that drive us forward.”

8 DAYS (2019)

In 8 DAYS’ 2019 ranking of the best bak kwa in Singapore, Lim Chee Guan ranked third out of 16 contenders.

The bak kwa is described as follows:

“The sultry maroon slices are aptly charred, with the right thickness: neither too stingily thin nor fat and unwieldy. The unctuous meat has some bite, yet gives way easily when bitten into. Our only bugbear is the slight inconsistency of the bak kwa we bought: while some slices are great, others taste ever so slightly of what seems like stale fat — despite the bak kwa being roasted on-site at their outlets. Still, this is one of our favourite go-to brands for bak kwa.”