Hewlett-Packard in Singapore

Hewlett Packard established its Regional Office in the Republic on 22 January 1969. One of the key persons for this set up was Mr Al Hannmann who held important electronic posts in various parts of the worlds. Hewlett Packard is major manufacturer of electronic, medical, analytical and computing instrumentation. Its first factory was opened in April 1970 at the sixth floor of Block 2, Redhill Industrial Estate on Jalan Bukit Merah. The operation was established to manufacture core memories for HP 211X computers. Few months later, in November 1970, the vice president of HP, Mr. P. Dolittle came to Singapore. HP reduced its reliance on outside suppliers by setting up manufacturing operations. Clyde Coombs was the initial manager of the core memory production in Singapore, following months HP Singapore began manufacturing low cost diodes for the Associates Division. In March 1972, the SILO won the right to represent workers of Hewlett Packard and Co.

In March 1973, HP Singapore presented a new HP 80 calculator to the SILO, marking its production of locally made products. In June, HP began building a new site in Penang Malaysia for the assembly of core memories. The plant was opened in October in the same year. By September, HP had 1800 employees in Singapore, still operating out of the top two floors (50,000 square feet) leased from the Singaporean government. In October, HP Singapore Pte Ltd was awarded a pioneer certificate by the then Finance Minister, Mr Hon Sui Sen. With the pioneer status, income from the Singapore operations was largely tax free for the first several years. A new factory in Depot Road with an area of 150,000 sqft was expected to be completed by 1975, the factory in Redhill produced portable and desktop calculators, semiconductors and magnetics.

Thomas Lauhon moved to Singapore in December 1972, was appointed a Director and Managing Director of HP Singapore and HP Malaysia in May 1973.  In 1975, Tom Lauhon was the general manager of the Singapore Division. In June of 1976, Lauhon returned to the US to become general manager of the new Customer Service Division within the Computer Systems Group. In 1974, semiconductor memory began replacing magnetic core memory in the design of new computers. Other products produced in 1974 included the HP-65 pocket-sized programmable calculator. By 1975, HP Singapore carried out operations in two plants in Lower Delta Road and Redhill Industrial Estate.

In late 1977, HP Singapore moved in to its newly completed 5-storey building, the first HP building to be equipped with escalators. Employment at HP Singapore did not reach 2000 until early 1980. By the mid-1984, HP Singapore was headed by Walt Sousa, with 2500 employees. HP Singapore was manufactured ThinkJet printers (for Vancouver Division), floppy disc controller boards (for Greeley Division) and keyboards for the HP-150. By 1987, employment at HP Singapore had grown to 2700 with Koh Boon Hwee as managing director. In 1989, two new divisions were formed in Singapore. The Asia Peripherals Division under Koh Boon Hwee was responsible for hardcopy products. The Asia-Pacific Personal Computer Division was headed by Steve Cakebread.

Reference NewspaperSG (nlb.gov.sg)