Like many success stories, the Leung Kai Fook Medical Company - maker and distributor of Axe Brand Universal Oil - began humbly and followed its dreams to worldwide success.

Founder Leung Yun Chee, from Shunde, China, was a mere lad in his twenties when he travelled to Singapore to in the 1920s. Here he crossed paths with another traveller, German physician Dr Schmeidler, who out of goodwill gave Leung Yun Chee the formula for medicated oil. In 1928, the entrepreneurial spirit sweeping through swiftly-developing Singapore seized the young man, and he decided to start his own medicated oil company under the name of Leung Kai Fook.

When initial response to the medicated oil was lukewarm, the enterprising businessman tried a new tack: advertising . He advertised in the local paper - a bold marketing technique at the time. He splurged on a fancy car, a local Malay chauffeur, and a nifty Western suit, generally looking so impressive while making sales calls that the "advertising" worked and orders began poring in. He and his chauffeur also took to distributing pamphlets, one side of which carried an advertisement for Axe Brand Medicated Oil, While the other featured gossip and shot stories, periodically updated.

The oil was sold primarily to locals in Singapore and Malaysia, and business flourished to the extent that the company moved into a three-storey shophouse, with a moved into a three-storey shophouse, with a retail outlet on the first floor and the manufacturing plant on the upper floors. After World War II, the company built the six-storey Leung Kai Fook building, still standing today. Since then, further expansion has seen the manufacturing plant relocated.

With the passing on of Leung Yun Chee in 1971, his son Leung Heng Keng, who has helped in his father's company since 1951, took over the reins of the family business and remains the present company chairman. Another son, Leung Mun Sum, returned to the company in 1986 to take up the position of Managing Director. Mun Sum had managed multinational companies in Malaysia after obtaining a Master degree in Pharmacy in the UK.

Founder Leung Yun Chee's business plan was clear: to keep to a small profit margin but focus on market growth. He continually sought to expand the business beyond the geographical confines of Singapore, marketing Axe Oil in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

The company has taken a leaf out of founder Yun chee's book and today the company has agents in 40 countries including the Middle East, Panama, Australia, Greece, Kenya, Pakistan and the United State of America.

After years of selling Axe Oil in china through HongKong, the company obtained in 1987 a permit to market its best-selling medicated oil directly in China. Since then sales of the oil in Guangdong and other southern China provinces have improved tremendously.

New markets for Axe Oil include Vietnam, Myanmar, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Philippines and Turkey.

In Singapore, the company has investments in real estate and computer companies. Interests in the HongKong property market and travel industry have been added to the investment portfolio. Since 1986 the company has ventured into the hospitality business, with investments in the US$65-million, luxurious Hotel Landmark Canton in Guangzhou, China.