Neo says that GKE could have sold more ready-mixed concrete. There is demand, and the two plants are running at just half their capacity. He explains that the company has been reluctant to accept more orders because there is a pile of receivables, and his auditors made it clear that GKE has to provide for some of these sales where payment has yet to be collected. “The business is there, but you have to tahan (a Malay word meaning “endure”) the drag,” he says.
Neo Cheow Hui, CEO of GKE Corp, recently had to disappoint some friends who thought he could get them early access to the newly launched iPhones. They assumed that GKE, which runs a chain of nine Singtel mobile phone reseller shops, could give them immediate access to the phones. Unfortunately, demand was so high that they had to wait as well. “It is the whole of Singapore, not just me,” he recalls with a laugh.
Actually, besides keeping tabs on the availability of iPhones, Neo has bigger things to keep his eye on. Apart from the mobile retail business, which GKE acquired recently, its main business remains in warehousing and logistics in Singapore, and the production of ready-mixed concrete in China.
