Washroom hygiene products and services specialist Calfarme (Singapore) Pte Ltd was recently selected as a Promising Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) by the Productivity and Standards Board (PSB) of Singapore.

Since its founding in 1977, Calfarme has steadily grown and established itself as the leader in innovative product and marketing. Competing against other international players in the Asia Pacific region, Calfarme has been quick to wield its strong advantage to take a clear position in the market. Now it has received further endorsement from the Singapore government.

Calfarme is an integrated product development, manufacturing, marketing and services company. This strength allows the company the option of delivering superior customer benefits at highly competitive price levels.

Raffy Paguio, corporate planning division director, said: "We are encouraged by the Singapore government’s drive towards professionalising and upgrading the image and standard of the cleaning industry, including the washroom hygiene sector."

As part of the support from the PSB, Netherlands based TNO Industrial Technology was recently commissioned to facilitate a value management project within Calfarme. The value management analysis threw up some interesting ideas to re-engineer products, which Calfarme will be implementing.

From the manufacturing point of view, Calfarme will be making a formal application for ISO 9002 certification for its production and service systems. The certification is seen as official endorsement of procedures, which are currently in practice.

In the last 2 years, realizing that there is a huge demand for its products and services worldwide, Calfarme embarked on a Franchise Development Programme which was readily supported by the Singapore Trade Development Board.

To drive the franchising operation laterally, Calfarme have decided to expand its franchise operation by initiating smaller scale franchisees in the Singapore market.

While previously the island-state was carved into 10 to 11 big areas according to geographical sectors, now there are 60-70 zones. Calfarme also intends to penetrate the household market. This involves a strategy of selling through the Internet with payment facilitated by credit card. Franchisees will be called upon to do installation and delivery.

"Enhancing our strength and maintaining our edge is our strategy to meet the challenges of the new millennium. We will continue to focus on our strength and competitive advantage," concludes Raffy.

Refer Clean Asia January/February 2000 issue, page 13 editorial "Singapore Update"