The story
In the 1870s, founder Eu Kong Pai, better known as Eu Kong, left the village of Foshan in Guangdong, China and settled down in the small mining town of Gopeng, Perak. He noticed that the tin mine coolies were heavily dependent on opium as the easiest method for immediate relief for their medical needs. The majority of them were illiterate and oblivious to the dangers of opium to their health.
Eu Kong brought in herbal remedies to nurse their health, thus the set up of 'Yan Sang' shop. Eu Kong opened his first Chinese medicine shop in 1879 in Gopeng. He died suddenly in 1890, aged 37.
Eu Kong's tin mining and medical hall business were inherited by his only son, Eu Tong Sen, when he was only 13 years old. However, Eu Tong Sen only took over the running of the business in 1898, after he turned 21. He did not have an easy start as the family businesses were failing, but prospecting of tin and diversification into rubber, property investment, remittances and banking brought him a greater fortune.
By the early 1910s, Eu Tong Sen expanded the family's TCM business to other parts of Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Southern China. The expanded business adopted the brand name, "Eu Yan Sang", with the attachment of the family name.
Eu Tong Sen died in 1941, in Hong Kong. In Singapore, a main street in Chinatown is named after him.
The family assets left by Eu Tong Sen was inherited by his 13 sons, in equal shares. By 1973, most of the businesses were sold or liquidated. Only Eu Yan Sang remained, with the family controlling 75% of the business.
In 1989, Richard Eu, a 4th generation family member, joined EYS Holdings in an attempt to keep alive the last family business.
In 1990, Eu Yan Sang Holdings was taken over by Lum Chang as Eu Yan Sang shares were sold off by the 3rd generation family members.
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Within four years in 1993, Richard Eu, along with cousins from the 4th generation, Robert and Clifford Eu, successfully bought over Lum Chang's shares in Eu Yan Sang Holdings. Once again family-owned, the company was renamed Eu Yan Sang International (EYSI). EYSI was listed on the mainboard of the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2000.
In 2016, a consortium led by The Eu Family, Temasek Holdings and Tower Capital Asia became the majority owner to invigorate the business, and brought it delisted from SGX.
As of 2022, Eu Yan Sang has 200 wholly owned "Traditional Chinese Medicine" retail outlets and clinics in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Macau.
It is now owned by a Japanese consortium of Mitsui & Co and Rohto Pharmaceutical.
From Wikipedia’s article on Eu Yan Sang, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4