Clear Goals

With a focus on quality products and a beautiful new showroom that represents its brand ethos, homegrown brand Sapphire Windows starts a new chapter with scions poised to second-generation succeed the family trade

- Ryan Reuben

The year was 2008, and many Singapore firms were in the throes of the global financial crisis. Sapphire Windows, like several other local companies, had been struck by the damaging effects of this economic catastrophe, which was trigged by a downturn in the US housing market the year before that had caused a seismic ripple throughout the world.

"Business was bad," states Sapphire Windows founder and managing director Jeffrey Liew candidly. "The management had already taken a pay cut, but the staff were still worried about who might be axed." In a bid to allay their fears and help get the business back on track, the entrepreneur gathered his workforce for a heartfelt talk. “We had a meeting with everybody, and we offered two options: to kill some jobs, or for everyone to take a pay cut, work shorter hours, and save all the jobs. It was good to see everybody deciding to go for the second option.”

Getting its staff involved in such crucial corporate decisions is par for the course with Sapphire Windows, a family-run company that places a premium on building robust relationships with internal and external stakeholders, making them part of its own burgeoning brood. “Some of our foreign workers have been with us for over 20 years; we have built a good workforce culture,” states the founder with pride.

Today, the firm is helmed by Jeffrey and his wife, Lee, who is sales director, while his sons Sean and Ken are general manager, and sales and marketing manager, respectively. All pull in the same direction about upholding the firm’s guiding principles of perseverance, integrity and trust, on top of quality workmanship and attentive service.