Dato’ Chia, CEO of Chia Trading, after finishing high school set up a hardware store with his younger brother. “We sold just about anything related to construction, wood, and cement ... every kind of building material,” says Dato’ Chia as he casts back to 1986, the year they started.
“We were selling goods, especially sand and aggregate, so we started to have delivery issues. We were still small so we were not a priority customer for the truck companies and sometimes we were unable to deliver our orders,” explains Dato’ Chia. The frustration was too much for the young businessman, so he went out and bought his own truck. “I got my Goods Driving License (GDL), bought a one-ton truck and drove it myself,” he remembers proudly.