The spelling of “Dezign” was a deliberate choice to reflect the company’s ability to think out of the box. Creatives need to think differently from others, and their thought process should not be linear, Nen Sing explained to The Edge Singapore in an interview on July 10. The letters “z” and “s” are close to being mirror images, signifying “reflection” — a key rhetoric of the design process.
The founding came about at a time when there was a growing demand in Singapore for design-and-build services, particularly in the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry. At the time, Nen Sing had also freelanced as a subcontractor for around two years.
Just a year later, Dezign Format marked its first milestone by securing a project with the former Plaza Hotel for design-and-build services for festive sculptures. That project clinched third place among the Christmas decorations along Orchard Road that year, which not only inspired confidence in their work but also improved their company’s visibility.
Listing and expansion plans
After 37 years in the business, now seems like a good time to IPO, says Mike. He adds that going public would also elevate the company’s status and attract more talent. More importantly, the company was seeking to expand its business, says Nen Sing.
Jonathan, Nen Sing’s son and part of the second generation of the business, shares that going public has been in the management’s plans even before Covid-19. Jonathan graduated from Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) in 2012, as well as the Beijing Film Academy, with a background in film-making. He joined the family business in 2020 after spending a few years running his own production house, as he saw potential for a booming industry in digital design technologies.
While Jonathan notes that Covid-19 disrupted many industries, Dezign Format has improved and achieved better results on a y-o-y basis since the pandemic. “[Going public] is where we see the next phase of growth coming in,” he says.
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Choosing to list on the Catalist board came out of necessity as the management was unfamiliar with the market. “This is a start,” says Mike, while Jonathan notes that the Catalist’s more streamlined process and minimal float seemed more approachable.
A place for growth
The company has three key business segments: event, exhibition and decor services; commercial and retail fit-out; as well as immersive location-based entertainment and experiences (LBEs).
“We consider ourselves a sub-sector of the MICE industry,” Jonathan said, adding that the Singapore government’s ambition to cultivate Singapore’s MICE industry bodes well for its players.
For the FY2024 ended Dec 31, 2024, Dezign Format reported earnings of $5 million, improving from its earnings of $3.3 million in FY2023 and $1.6 million in FY2022. Revenue also rose steadily in the three years, from FY2022’s $18.3 million, to FY2023’s $26 million and FY2024’s $33.4 million. As at Dec 31, 2024, the group has an outstanding order book of around $23.89 million, of which $10.47 million has been recognised as revenue for the 1QFY2025.
Though the company does not have a fixed dividend policy, the board intends to give out 30% of its net profit as dividends to its shareholders for FY2025 and FY2026.
Some of the IPO proceeds will be used to increase the firm’s intellectual property (IP) offerings for its LBEs, “whether or not is it through our own development of IPs or licensing existing IPs”. The rest of the IPO proceeds will be used for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), as well as working capital.
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While the LBE business was already in the pipeline in 2019, the pivot was timely given that the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought physical gatherings and events to a halt, disrupted the business’s operations.
New initiatives aside, Dezign Format has to maintain its edge in a highly competitive industry where clients have no shortage of options.
Ensuring good service and quality is key, says Nen Sing. That said, instead of looking to its competitors, Nen Sing believes the business, which counts reputable luxury brands such as Cartier, Chanel and Dior among its clientele, has to look internally to improve its processes in order to provide the best service possible to its customers.
“In any industry, especially like ours, service has to be impeccable,” he says, adding that quality will naturally follow. The result? Appreciative returning clients, some of whom have used Dezign Format’s services for 20 years and counting, according to Mike.
Going regional
In addition to maintaining its existing market share, Dezign Format has ambitions to expand the business into Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and become a regional stalwart in the LBE industry.
Dezign Format Malaysia was incorporated to set up a new production facility in Malaysia, which will commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2025. The production facility in Malaysia will help bring down production costs and improve the company’s long-term capacity and project delivery efficiencies, say Mike and Jonathan.
Jonathan says he sees a vested interest in LBEs in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand. The company intends to expand into Thailand and Vietnam. Companies in Thailand were particularly compelled by Dezign Format’s sustainability offerings.
“MICE activities are usually associated with waste… we want to go beyond just recommending sustainable materials to the client,” Jonathan says, adding that the company looks at how its set-ups can be reused and recycled, a move that will also help cut costs.
One such example is the use of collapsible booths during the Marina Bay Sands career fair in 2023 and 2024. Booths were kept in storage after the first fair, and reconfigured and reused the following year.
While service and quality remain the pillars of the business, it also has to contend with external factors such as the US-led global tariffs.
When asked whether the business would be affected, Mike shares the tariffs will definitely lead to rising costs, something the business has communicated with its customers. “Everyone understands that this is something we cannot control and it won’t be just us facing these problems,” he says.
In a business that places a strong emphasis on its people, Dezign Format is actively working to retain its team through employee share programmes (giving shares as a reward for performance) and structured succession planning.
In its prospectus, the company said its business depends “to a significant extent upon the continued services” of its executive directors, executive officers and employees for its “continued success and growth”.
When asked how the company intends to retain its staff, Mike shares that the company is focused on giving its employees a sense of ownership. This is done with regular meal sessions with the management team as well as efforts to bond outside of the office, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.
The company places a strong importance on succession planning and makes it part of every head of department’s key performance indicators (KPIs) to find a successor.
The company also ensures that it is never reliant on any one key personnel by ensuring documented processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that clearly define each person’s roles and responsibilities. That helps in reducing grey areas when the time comes to find their replacements, says Jonathan.
“We can’t retain people forever, but we can keep systems and when we hire a new person, he or she will be able to pick things up quickly,” says Mike.
When asked about hopes for the future, the family reiterated their ambitions for expansion in the region, reaching a diverse customer base in Southeast Asia, wanting to be a trusted global leader in delivering services while upholding the best standards of service.
“This is only the beginning,” say the Chongs.
