Home-grown gaming chair firm set to create 100 more jobs

Home-grown gaming chair company Secretlab is set to create about 100 more jobs, mostly in product development.

The seven-year-old ergonomic chair retailer currently employs more than 200 staff, about 90 per cent of whom are Singaporeans. It makes about a million chairs a year that are sold to about 60 countries.

Co-founder and chief strategy officer Alaric Choo said the company is looking especially to hire more engineers and designers.

Mr Choo was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a visit yesterday by Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong to the company's new global headquarters and research and development (R&D) lab in Braddell.

The lab allows for the testing of the durability of materials - in humidity chambers and pressure mapping stations, for example.

Mr Ian Ang, co-founder and chief executive of Secretlab, said the company invested $10 million to set up the headquarters and R&D centre.

"We will continue to invest $50 million over the next few years into research and development to further boost our product development and innovation capabilities," he said.

He noted that with the company's current scale, even a defect rate of 0.1 per cent would affect a thousand users.

"This is why we are investing this much... The impact of this investment is further amplified by our economies of scale, which enables us to access new technologies that we will continue to use to... further innovate our products," said Mr Ang.

Mr Gan told reporters that the Covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for Singapore companies to expand and look at overseas markets.

"Some would look at it as a crisis, and some will look at it as an opportunity. There is a window there for us to take this opportunity to move our products overseas because other companies and markets are also facing challenges."

He noted that the Government's approach to helping local companies focuses on individual enterprises, and is not "scheme-centric".

"We have a lot of schemes for companies who want to grow and expand… But the key is that we are quite prepared to work with companies individually, to tailor our support scheme to the needs of the company... We don't have a one-size-fits-all programme that people just sign on for."

Mr Gan also highlighted the importance of innovation as a key strategy for companies to remain relevant, grow and go global.

He noted how Secretlab went from producing gaming chairs to desks as well. "This shows that the company is very progressive. They continue to innovate, look for new products and new markets."

Mr Choo said that professional gamers serve as a "litmus test" for the chairs, but the company's target audience has expanded to include other working professionals.

He said that "if it works for (the gamers), then the office worker is going to be able to use it as well", as most office workers need much less from a chair than competitive gamers would.