Ten years of working as a farm assistant in a poultry farm in Melaka taught Lim Yeow Her all the things he needed to know to run a farm of his own. In 1989 Lim and his three brothers, Yeow Kian, Yeow Siong (Datuk now) and Yaw Tin started their poultry farm business on a 15 acre layer farm in Serkam, Melaka. In November 1994 the business was incorporated as Huat Lai Resources Berhad (Huat Lai) and in July 2002 was listed on Bursa Malaysia.

By 2014 the business passed the RM1 billion mark. Huat Lai had become a fully integrated poultry company with a hatchery, slaughterhouse, inhouse feedmill factory, and high-tech automated facilities for chicken processing and value added poultry products, production of fertilisers and manufacturing of its own paper egg trays for the sale of farm eggs. What a long way Lim Yeow Her and siblings had come from the days when they were farmhands!

Note that in 2012 Huat Lai bought a majority stake in listed eggs producer TPC Plus Berhad from London Biscuits Berhad. As at 29 March 2019, Huat Lai is still a major shareholder of TPC Plus. However, the latter is managed by another set of Lim brothers – Lim Yew Chua (Managing Director), Lim Yew Kwang and Lim Yew Piau. None of Huat Lai’s directors are on the board of TPC Plus.

For reasons not disclosed, Huat Lai went private after making an unconditional offer to buy up the remaining shares which they did not already own in January 2017. The company was delisted from Bursa Malaysia on January 9, 2017.