That provided the impetus for him to set up a business here selling nutritional supplements and natural food products.

Now, more than a decade on, the business is thriving - supplying a range of food, nutritional supplements and vitamins to fitness centres, natural food shops and even supermarkets such as Cold Storage.

British-born Mr Fenley, 48, now a Singapore permanent resident, had been scouting around for business opportunities while he was in Thailand and Hong Kong.

He found Thailand's regulations too complicated to navigate, while Hong Kong's lack of space was not ideal for his two young daughters then.

Singapore was an ideal choice. Mr Fenley says: 'Singapore is ideally situated - between India and China, which are home to a large proportion of the world's population.'

Other plus factors included the strong protection of investor rights and the English-speaking community.

'I have been a vegetarian since I was 21. I was looking for a healthier lifestyle and healthier options. The market in Singapore was not as developed as those in the United Kingdom and the United States, so I felt there was a niche that I could fill.'

While he has always had an interest in a healthy lifestyle, his interest was sparked further when one of his daughters, at the age of one, was diagnosed with a benign tumour in her arm. Mr Fenley was spurred to look into how diet can affect health.

So in 1991, Mr Fenley, with his own capital and some help from his family in Britain, set up a health food restaurant at Boat Quay called The Good Life Restaurant.

While business was strong at lunchtime, Mr Fenley admits that it was the wrong location because the dinner crowd wanted more 'fun food' and the option of having alcohol.

Eventually, the restaurant closed down. Mr Fenley then opened a health food store at Orchard Point which was later sold.

At around the same time, he set up a wholesale natural products firm, Essential Living.

'We needed supplies for the restaurant and the store, so we thought of developing a wholesale business.'

As this wholesale operation grew, Mr Fenley decided to concentrate on just that one business.

Essential Living supplies health food, vitamins, nutritional supplements, natural remedies and even hair and skincare products. About 80 per cent of its business is health food and supplements.

'The reason we supply this range of products is our belief that your health depends not only on your genes but also on what you put in your body, on your skin, what you drink and what goes on around in the environment.'

He adds: 'If you live in the countryside, with no stress, have enough exercise, eat organic food and breathe clean air, you would not need vitamins.

'But if you live in the city, with pollution, and lead a stressful life, then you may need supplements.'

About a quarter of Essential Living's sales go to supermarkets such as Cold Storage, another 5 per cent come from its retail website. But the bulk of its sales come from health food stores, pharmacies and even doctors. It also counts spas and fitness centres as customers.

Essential Living is one of the main distributors of such products in the Singapore market. Other well-known distributors focusing on health food include Origins Healthcare and The Organic Paradise.

Growing the market

BACK in the 1990s, the market was in its infancy. There were not many health food stores around. The business started off by word of mouth.

'We started off with home delivery for some customers and for some groups of people who had read about these food products,' says Mr Fenley, who is Essential Living's executive director.

As interest spread, more stores were set up, which helped to expand the market. It was only when Essential Living could show reasonable sales at these various outlets that supermarkets began to show some interest.

Mr Fenley says: 'Supermarkets weren't interested at all in these products then. Now, there are whole aisles of such products.

'Trading terms given to us then were tough. We had to pay high listing fees just to get our products on the shelves. If the products couldn't sell, we had to take them back.'

Now, things are on a more even keel. Locals, not expatriates, now make up the core of the firm's customers.

Essential Living has grown from a one-man show to a 10-person team. It has managed to break even and targets a revenue of close to $2 million this year.

Various plans are in the pipeline including a new eco-living website, with products ranging from environmentally friendly cleaning products to shopping bags.

Mr Fenley says: 'It's an extension of our philosophy. Most of our products now are for the individual, but we also need to use what is good for the environment. If we destroy the environment, there is no point in keeping ourselves healthy.'

The firm is also developing its own branded products under the Essential Living label. One reason is that the margins are better. Another factor is that these can be sold globally rather than be restricted to certain areas due to distribution agreements.

Mr Fenley also 'felt that we could do a good product'. The firm's first product, which took about six months to develop, is a rice milk. 'Unlike some other brands, ours uses whole grain brown rice, which retains most of the nutrients.'

Essential Living is now mulling over selling traditional natural remedies to the rest of the world.

'We have always brought in products from Australia, the US, the UK and places like that to Singapore and South-east Asia.

'We think that there are natural remedies from this region that consumers from those countries will welcome.'

Keen competition

WITH the market for natural food chalking up double-digit growth, competition is getting stiffer.

Mr Fenley believes that competition is good for the development of the market because more stores and more products create more awareness.

There are also more players muscling in on the game. For example, firms that distribute mass-market food products are now expanding into this niche area.

A key soymilk product that Essential Living sells was once one of a very few premium brands of soya milk in the market. Now there is a plethora of such premium brands in Singapore.

Mr Fenley refuses to be drawn into discussing the relative merits of the local soya bean milk and the more expensive imported soymilk, except to say that he prefers the taste of the imported variety.

But Essential Living still has an an edge. 'We spend a lot of time researching our products. We also have built up a strong grassroots relationship with our partners and customers. So when we bring in a product, they trust us that the product is reliable.'

Words of wisdom

ENTREPRENEURS have a bad habit of taking on more than they can handle, says Mr Fenley.

'Someone told me an entrepreneur is someone who avoids working nine to five by working 16 hours a day. That was one of my mistakes. I would do everything myself. It is important to find good team members.'

He has another word of advice for budding entrepreneurs.

'The Internet is very important - you must understand how it can be used to market things.

'So many people are looking on the Internet for information. It is a medium that can be automated fairly easily, so if it is set up properly, it won't need much management subsequently,' he says.

sushyan@sph.com.sg

LESSON LEARNT

'Someone told me an entrepreneur is someone who avoids working nine to five by working 16 hours a day. That was one of my mistakes. I would do everything myself.'

MR FENLEY, on entrepreneurs having a bad habit of taking on more than they can handle