‘Coffee shop king’ and owner of Kim San Leng chain dies at 72
SINGAPORE — Local businessman Hoon Thing Leong, the owner of the popular chain of Kim San Leng coffee shops, died at the Singapore General Hospital on Thursday (April 29) night.
He was 72.
Posting on the demise of Hoon on its Facebook page, Kim San Leng said that its founder was known for his “tenacity for life and (that his) continuous strive for self-improvement is second to none”.
“His legacy will live on at Kim San Leng and in all our hearts. He will be greatly missed,” said Kim San Leng.
According to The Straits Times, Hoon came to Singapore on a ship from Fuzhou in China with his mother when he was five years old. He was the eldest of six children.
Hoon started out as a coffee boy at a coffee shop in Hougang that his father started, called Kim San Eating House.
He then opened Jin Fa Coffee Shop in Bukit Timah when he was 23 years old.
Hoon was perhaps best known for his acquisition of a coffee shop in Bishan Street 13 in 1990. He paid S$3.52 million for the shop, S$2 million more than the starting bid.
He then renamed all his coffee shops Kim San Leng as a tribute to his father. Today it has more than 30 outlets around Singapore.
Hoon was also an active committee member of the Wushu Association for the past 13 years.
Chinese daily Lianhe Zanbao reported on Friday that Hoon — known by the moniker Coffee Shop King of Singapore — died at about 10.40pm that evening.
Hoon’s son, Mr Hong Qiqiang, confirmed his father’s death to the newspaper.
Mr Hong said that his father had been in and out of the hospital in the past few months and had undergone heart and brain surgery.
The last time that the elder man was admitted to the hospital was about two weeks ago.
