Sunny Disposition

THOUGH TAXI OPERATORS MAY SEEM THREATENED BY COMPETITORS LIKE UBER, GRAB AND OTHERS, CEO KC CHOI IS CONFIDENT SUNLIGHT TAXI GROUP CAN COMPETE WITH THEM BY MODERNISING AND EMBRACING NEW IDEAS.

- ELLIE FEATHERSTON

Today, it’s Malaysia’s largest taxi conglomerate and operator, so it’s hard to imagine that Sunlight Taxi Group began with just a single taxi in the 1960s. Teo Men Choi, himself a taxidriver, began to work with other taxi-drivers, buying their cars from them when they became too expensive to maintain and leasing them back to drivers. By 1996, when Sunlight was officially founded, the fleet was just 50 cars while, today, the Group now boasts nearly 4,000 vehicles.

In all those years, Sunlight has grown not only to be a dominant player in Malaysia’s taxi industry, but a family-run business as well. Teo Men’s seven children have since joined Sunlight, including his son, KC Choi, who is today the CEO of the Group. As the sixth child of seven, the business had been around for a long time before KC developed an awareness of it and it made an impact on him from a young age.