Check out how Earth Arts is marrying mother nature to the modern metropolis

From humble beginnings to a 50,000 sqft property.

Amongst the heavy industrial sites and vehicle scrap-yards of one of Singapore’s lesser known suburbs, Sungei Kadut, is a business that has created some of the nation’s most famous facades and been integral partners in award-winning architectural triumphs. 

Singapore Business Review readers would not necessarily know it at the time but they have walked-on, walked past and admired home grown design business Earth Arts’ work in many of the CBD’s office towers, Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, City Link Mall, SMU, NUS to name just a few. Clean, attractive, modernist but showing a high respect for nature and eco-sensitivity, Earth Arts’ features are the pinnacle in sophisticated stone masonry.

Such historic and significant projects have propelled the business from strength to strength. A joint business venture managed by Celine Teh, Earth Arts’ growth has paralleled Singapore’s tremendous architectural coming of age. Executive Director Thomas Tan describes, “From humble beginnings in a small shop in Katong Shopping Centre, with five staff, we have overcome difficult times and now proudly occupy a 50,000-square foot warehouse, office and showroom facility in Sungei Kadut.”

One hundred staff members now produce approximately $25 million in turnover, ten-fold that of the company’s first year in business in 1996. Despite the Global Financial Crisis, Earth Arts’ best years have been the last five, the largest factor driving the company’s expansion being the capturing of projects such as Marina Bay Financial Centre and the greatest feather in the cap, Changi Airport Terminal 3. But securing major projects is only one factor in success.

“Singapore needed a one-stop complete service centre, from design to interaction with architects and interior designers right down to supply and installation. We have achieved that,” says Tan.

Master craftsmen are part highly-skilled tradesmen and part artists. They need to be valued. Tan suggests that a further reason for Earth Arts’ rise to prominance is the business’ staff culture. Staff training and development is taken very seriously by management, as is staff welfare; this leads directly to escalating turnover and low employee attrition.

“Employees are the most valuable assets to the company. Apart from sending employees continual training to upgrade their skills and knowledge, we provide
staff welfare, take care of general health, organise annual incentive holidays overseas for staff and often extended family, and give back to the community
that helped us succeed with various CSR activities.”

A pillar of the masonry community in Singapore, Earth Arts is paving the way to a sleek and unique built environment. The second part of this Singapore
Business Review two-part feature will focus on Earth Arts as a business with its values, growing awards cabinet and customer-and solutions-centric approach to some of the City-States’ most challenging architectural demands.