Youlian Energy, led by Zhang Xuebin, started as a downstream gas company, and later decisively seized the opportunity to reverse the upstream company, becoming the only local gas company in Singapore. It then challenged the monopoly and grabbed business from state-owned enterprises, eventually accounting for half of Singapore's gas industry. Zhang Xuebin also dared to be the first to establish Deyun Taxi, becoming the first person to restructure the taxi industry, and helped him firmly sit in the second position of the taxi company in Singapore.
Keeping pace with the times, he is also involved in the fields of electricity retail, new energy, etc., and his goal is to have its own power plant and build Unilink into a comprehensive energy company from upstream to downstream. In terms of corporate management and operation, he has always adhered to the concept of being prepared for danger in times of peace, not arrogant and impatient, promoting the sustainable and steady development of UEN, and playing a pivotal role in the economic map of Singapore and even Southeast Asia.
Take on the important responsibility of serving the Chinese community.
At the beginning of 2023, Teo Hok Bin, who served as the acting president of the Singapore Chang Clan Association, was elected as the 8th president of the World Chang Clan Association (hereinafter referred to as Shichang) with a high vote, becoming the youngest president of the Chang Federation since its establishment.
Founded in September 2003 in Hong Kong, China, Se Cheung is a worldwide Cheung clan association that connects and unites more than 100 million Cheung clans around the world. Sejang's members are mainly from Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, and on the one hand, they contribute to the country of residence, and on the other hand, they actively strengthen various exchanges and friendly relations between the country of residence and China.
This time, Zhang Xuebin was "ordered to be in danger" to replace the former president of Shizhang who resigned and served as the eighth president. Many of our leaders are in old age, and they need a young, bold leader. The 45-year-old Zhang Xuebin is very active in the club and has been appreciated by everyone, so the directors are very supportive of him, believing that he has the ability to make Shizhang better and continue to carry forward.
The election of President Zhang Xuebin was very surprising and made him feel a great responsibility. After he took office, he first visited the Zhang clan groups around the world. On April 10, he led the Shizhang delegation to visit the Genealogy Museum in Zhengzhou, Henan. In May, he went to Xingtai, Hebei Province to attend the first meeting of the 8th Council of Shizhang.
In his view, Sejang faces the challenge of having to realign its organizational goals and structure in the digital age. At present, Shi Zhang's data center in Wuhan has collected genealogy and membership information of the Zhang clan from all over the world, and he hopes to use the resources of the data center to promote art and culture and conduct business activities.
In addition to serving as the President of the World Cheung Association and the Acting President of the Singapore Teo Association, Teo Hok Bin also serves as the President of the Cheung Clan Association in Ching Ho, the Vice Chairman of the Chiu On Association, and the Vice Chairman of the 47th Board of Directors of the Singapore Teochew Pat Yi Association. He took it as his mission to promote exchanges and cooperation with the Zhang clan and the Chao Society at home and abroad, and made great efforts.
In 2022, under his leadership, the Singapore Chang Clan Association and the Cheung Clan Association of Ching Ho held celebrations to celebrate their 85th and 67th anniversaries respectively, and he led the association's youth league to organise the activities.
In February 2023, he also led a delegation from the Singapore Chang Clan Association to Bali to participate in the Spring Festival Gala Dinner held by the Indonesian Chang Clan Association, which enhanced the friendship and strengthened the cohesion of the Chang clan.
Seize the opportunity and reverse the fate.
Originally from Chaozhou, Guangdong, his father, Zhang Jian'an, came to Singapore with his mother when he was 9 years old.
In the 70s of the 20th century, when Zhang Xuebin was born, his father had become a small ** merchant of canned gas, and his mother opened a small grocery store. The husband and wife were too busy to take care of the children, so they could only let Zhang Xuebin live with his grandmother, which made him learn to be independent early.
When he was in elementary school, due to the lack of manpower in his father's company, Zhang Xuebin took advantage of his extracurricular time to help, he first started by serving tea and pouring water, cleaning and hygiene, and later learned electric welding, repairing pipes, and repairing trucks. This process not only allowed him to learn various skills, but more importantly, he realized the truth that hard work is rewarded.
After graduating from high school, Zhang Xuebin entered the army to serve in the military. Although life in the army was hard, it cultivated his good habit of self-discipline and tempered his tenacious will.
In 1996, after completing his military service, Zhang Xuebin officially joined the family business. At that time, my father's company was already small and changed its name to Union Energy.
Zhang Xuebin still started from the grassroots level, busy welding pipes and repairing trucks every day, and his body was often covered with oil. He then worked as a sales and delivery man, and through contact with customers, he was able to understand their needs and build a good relationship with them. Later, he studied finance and management, which gradually became the mainstay of the company. His father appreciated his performance and later took over the reins of co-managing the company.
Singapore's gas distribution is divided into four levels: refineries, inflatable companies, wholesalers and inflators, with hundreds of inflatable companies at the bottom of the industrial chain, while there are only four inflatable companies, such as ExxonMobil, Shell and Caltex. In order to win in the fierce competition, Zhang Xuebin and his father took the "human touch" as a magic weapon to win customers, specially established customer files, and gave them cakes on their birthdays. Such a thoughtful gesture touched the customer, so that the customer base of Unilink continues to grow, and the business is also booming.
But Zhang Xuebin and his son know that if they want to become bigger and stronger, they need to extend to the upstream of the industrial chain. So, in 2000, when they learned that an inflatable company was going to sell $1 million in Southeast Asia, they didn't hesitate to take over.
However, $1 million was not a small amount for UniUnion at that time, and in order to seize this only opportunity to change the fate of being controlled by others, the father and son decided to fight against the water, and even did not hesitate to mortgage the property. In the end, they got their wish and successfully entered the upstream of the industrial chain, breaking the industry pattern controlled by foreign companies for decades, and becoming the first local gas company in Singapore.
This incident made Zhang Xuebin more deeply realize what his father often said, "There is only one way to success, and that is hard work." Don't back down when you encounter difficulties, but be brave enough to overcome them."
Challenge monopolies and break the rules.
Unilink, which has jumped to a higher platform, has stronger competitors. Zhang Xuebin knows that if you want to "snatch food from the tiger's mouth" and win more users, it is far from enough to rely on "human touch", and it is still low ** to really conquer customers.
In fact, Unilink itself has the best advantage, it is the only gas company in Singapore that extends from product to retail, which means that it does not need to subcontract layer by layer, can effectively control costs, and provide customers with lower than competitors.
In addition, due to the perennial dealing with customers, Unilink has a clear understanding of each customer's needs, and can formulate the best ** that meets their expectations according to their demand and psychological price.
In order to further control costs, Unilink did not recruit professional managers with an annual salary of tens of millions of yuan, but benefited customers with the saved funds.
With the dual blessing of the best advantages and localization strategy, the development of Youlian is like a bamboo, and a few years later, its market share is dominant.
But the ambitious Teo didn't stop there, and in 2006 he decided to challenge Singapore's energy monopoly. Singapore has two main energy sources, gas and natural gas, and large food centres, shopping malls and wholesale centres have long been piped by state-owned Singapore City Gas**, and individual energy operators are not eligible to get involved.
In Zhang's view, canned gas is much cheaper than piped natural gas, which helps merchants save costs, and he is confident that he will break this rule. But when he actually implemented it, he found that there were many difficulties, the biggest obstacle being the policy red line that had been implemented for many years.
He decided to find a breakthrough from the merchants, and whenever he had time, he went to the major deli centers to communicate with the merchants. However, merchants believe that this is a policy issue and it is impossible to achieve it. Even his father thought he was not doing his job.
Zhang Xuebin, who was not supported, was not discouraged, and after two years of perseverance, he finally persuaded the heads of several cooked food centers. On this basis, he drew up a reform and bidding plan and took it to visit parliamentarians. The councillors promised a fair tender with merchants voting, and if UU loses to City Gas, the matter will end there.
Surprisingly, in the voting, Unilink won by an absolute vote and successfully settled in the first delicatessen center. The head of City Gas was unimpressed, but after that, ULIAN was unstoppable, capturing half of Singapore's gas industry in just a few years, and even expanding its business to China and Cambodia.
Zhang Xuebin did not rest easy, and with a sense of worry, he concluded that the use of piped natural gas was the general trend of the future, so he founded Union Gas. The company mainly focuses on ** compressed natural gas and diesel, and was listed in Singapore in 2017.
In 2020, UG entered the pipeline natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fields, mainly serving customers in the local manufacturing and service industries.
At the same time, Zhang Xuebin is also optimistic about the prospects of electricity retailing, and founded Union Power in 2017 to provide electricity retail services for household, industrial and commercial users.
He also plans to build an independent power plant, which will create a complete and efficient energy chain.
Keep pace with the times and diversify development.
While Zhang Xuebin and his son are deeply engaged in the energy field, they also set their sights on other fields to find new profit growth points for the company.
In 2003, Singapore's taxi industry was officially opened to private capital, and Zhang Xuebin smelled business opportunities and founded Trans-Cab Services with his father, becoming a pathfinder in the restructuring of the industry. Thanks to the hard work of the father and son, Fortune Taxi became the second largest taxi company in Singapore.
When the competition in the taxi market became increasingly fierce, Zhang Xuebin took the lead in operating public bus routes and car rental business.
In addition, with the global supply of traditional energy production in short supply, people's awareness of environmental protection is increasing. Singapore** has implemented a greening policy to encourage the development of low-carbon, carbon-free alternative energy and new energy, and since then, the potential of the innovative solar energy market has gradually been revealed. Union Solar, a subsidiary of Unilink, has been fully deployed and is ready to share the big cake of the market.
In recent years, Singapore** has made a big push to use electric vehicles, requiring all vehicles and taxis to be powered by cleaner energy by 2030, which has contributed to the rapid growth of electric vehicles. In the next few years, the speed of setting up charging piles will be accelerated, and Union Solar is ready to fully participate in the construction of charging stations, installation of charging piles, and provision of charging services for new energy vehicles.
Overall, Unilink's investment footprint is mainly focused on the areas of people's livelihood, and the group is currently focusing on real estate and hydrogen production, and is stepping up its efforts to explore overseas markets on the basis of the Singapore market to seek more investment opportunities.
Poverty alleviation and poverty alleviation, and joint efforts to do good deeds.
Cheung has a loving heart, and in his early years, when he was delivering gas door-to-door, he noticed that the people living in rental flats were living in poverty. He secretly decided that when he made some money, he would help these people as much as he could. Therefore, he worked with his father on charity early on, and donated to charities such as Sian Chay Medical Institution many times.
Sian Chay Medical Institution was founded in 1901 and has a number of branches in Singapore. With the facilitation of the father and son, Sian Chay Medical Institution established a branch in Ang Mo Kio (Fortune Headquarters) in 2016, and Fortune Taxi provided them with two years of rent waiver and free water and electricity**. At the opening ceremony, Teo also donated S$10,000 to help more than 1,000 elderly people come to Sian Chay Medical Institution for free consultation and medicine. In July 2019, at the "Sian Chay Love Night" TV fundraising gala held by Sian Chay Medical Institution, Teo Hok Bin donated S$300,000. In October of the same year, Teo Kian 's mother passed away, and Teo donated all the platinum (about S$100,000) in his family to Sian Chay Medical Institution to help more seniors. In 2022, as the Honorary Chairman of Sian Chay Medical Institution, Teo Hok Bin donated S$300,000 to Sian Chay Medical Institution again.
When he was young, Teo had the ambition to set up a charity clinic in the company, and it was not until 2021 that UUD officially moved its headquarters to Telford Lane, a nearby HDB estate, that he had the opportunity to fulfill his wish. At the housewarming ceremony, he announced the opening of the Chinese medicine clinic and Leyi Station in cooperation with Zhonghong Welfare Association. Unilink will be 325After the 16-square-meter space is renovated, it is used by Zhonghong, and only a symbolic monthly rent of 1 yuan is charged, and the water and electricity bills are also included. Not only that, Teo also donated a cheque of S$150,000 to Zhonghong to set up a charity facility.
The clinic will have a resident TCM practitioner to provide free consultation, acupuncture and medicine services. The station provides leisure activities for the elderly in the area, with tai chi classes, singing and dancing classes, handicraft classes and computer classes, and free hair and nail clips for the elderly in the first week of each month, and often handing out gift bags. Zhang Xuebin, who has a deep relationship with his grandmother, treats every lonely old man as his grandmother. He believes that the biggest enemy of the elderly is loneliness, so the staff of the Leyi Station often take them to dinner, and have also taken 600 elderly people to the movies to alleviate their loneliness.
Zhang Xuebin is not only enthusiastic about charity, but also gathers like-minded friends to join the charity ranks. But he has limited friends after all, and when he asks others to donate, he is often rejected. But he will not give up, and will persist until the other party is moved and willing to donate the money. "Everyone who donates is doing what they can, little by little, like stars in the night sky. He said.
Zhonghong's volunteers come from all walks of life, many of them come from well-off families, and some even drive sports cars, but they still come to help deliver meals and chat with the elderly. This moved Zhang Xuebin a lot, and also inspired him to make Leyi Station better.
He believes that it is not about having money to do charity, everyone should do some good deeds within their ability, and doing charity is actually to bring happiness to others. He will do his best to do charity, gather more friends, and do good deeds together. After all, his own resources are limited, and he hopes to attract more people, especially the younger generation and some new immigrants, to help the disadvantaged in society.
Down-to-earth and be prepared for danger in times of peace.
Since starting his business, Zhang Xuebin has experienced several economic crises, but he has never laid off employees, which is also a principle of his business. He adheres to the "235" principle in his operation, that is, 20% of profits are used for spending, 30% for investment, and the remaining 50% for reserve funds. It is this kind of reasonable capital planning that allows the company to develop healthily and sustainably.
In his view, companies and individuals should adhere to the concept of sustainable development, one step at a time; Be prepared for danger in times of peace, don't panic, and don't follow the trend; Don't touch unfamiliar industries, and do business with a long-term vision.
After years of steady development, there are currently about 600 employees in Youlian, who get along very well and support each other in times of difficulty. Zhang Xuebin believes that there are no bosses to feed employees, only bosses to support employees, so you should reward them more, so that they will still support you when the ** is not good. The boss must not forget his roots and be grateful to the employees. In order to attract local talent, Unilink offers more non-paid benefits in addition to a more competitive salary.
As a manager, Zhang Xuebin emphasizes the need to lead by example, and he will work more than 10 hours a day. When the team went abroad, he set a good example for his employees by flying economy class like everyone else.
Now that Unilink has expanded its business to Cambodia and China's Chaoshan region, the next step is to make them bigger and stronger, and start to develop markets in more countries and regions.
For Zhang Xuebin personally, his lifelong wish is to build a hospital and donate it to the country, and now he is working hard for it. If it can't be built in this life, it will be handed over to the next generation to make it happen. With this spirit of "foolish man moving mountains", I believe that he will be able to achieve his goals and make his wishes come true.