34: Transforming weakness to strength | Ken Koh, director and third-generation successor of Nanyang Sauce

The Singapore Noodles Podcast

Ken Koh: “We had been losing money for years, not because our sauce was not good, but we had no marketing, no awareness. It was a sauce that survived for 60 years purely because of word of mouth and the quality of our products. We don’t have a price advantage – my cost is a lot higher, nine months versus two weeks of soy sauce brewing. I visited 13 soy sauce breweries around Asia and realized that no one makes soy sauce like us anymore. I went to a soy sauce museum which showed how soy sauce was made in the Qing dynasty. I started taking pictures and, after a minute, I stopped and my hair stood up and I was like, ‘Why are we making soy sauce the same way as them in modern day Singapore?’ And that’s when I realized we had something worth preserving. That became our unique selling point (USP), our weakness became our strength.”

Koh, director and third-generation successor of Nanyang sauce, shares about what soy sauce means to him, plus: *Light, dark & sweet sauce* *Soy sauce crystals* *Why some soy sauce producers choose to use defatted soy beans* *Ken’s strategy to revitalize the brand* *Ways of enjoying premium soy sauce*