Benjamin Chua Isn't Just Interested In Doing Well, But Doing Good

In these troubled times, cleantech entrepreneur Benjamin Chua isn’t just interested in doing well, but doing good.

- Charmian Leong

With so many industries in pandemic-related distress, it can be difficult to feel anything more than a begrudging respect for the ones that are not only alive and kicking, but thriving from everyone’s shared misery. Cleaning services, obviously, are among these, but the story of Spic & Span and its CEO and founder Benjamin Chua isn’t one of seized opportunity, but of persistent magnanimity.

Chua founded his housekeeping and cleaning business, Spic & Span, in 2017, with the aim to give jobs to disadvantaged and marginalized Singaporeans, such as ex-offenders, single parents, victims of abuse, persons with disabilities, and the homeless. “We started by hiring a group of retrenched, mature housekeepers, so it seemed natural to start the journey by using their existing skill sets,” says Chua.

Not wanting his growing team to be performing the same tasks for the next 10 years, Chua decided (presciently, as it turned out) to also focus on research and development, leading to the creation of the proprietary Speco cleaning solution in 2019. Speco was developed as an antimicrobial protection that would be effective against 99.9 per cent of bacteria, mould, and viruses — and it arrived just in time to battle COVID-19.