Lee Meng Chuan is the eldest son of a night market vendor. He opened his first drugstore in his 20s with a modest goal: make enough money to improve his family’s finances. Today the business he built with his wife has 668 outlets, Malaysia’s biggest chain of dispensaries, and it debuts on Bursa Malaysia on 19 November.
A business started for family
Lee is now 45. According to an interview with Bloomberg published by The Star on 4 November 2026, business had always appealed to him as a way to improve his family’s finances.
He trained as a pharmacist and worked for short stints as a pharmacist at a government hospital and as a medical sales representative. Then, in 2006, the journey that became Big Pharmacy began.
That detail matters. Lee did not start out chasing a billion ringgit company. He started with a reason that was close to home, and that reason kept him going through the years when growth was slow.
The slow years
Many people see the success and miss the patience. By 2018, twelve years after the journey began, Big Pharmacy had just 12 stores.
Twelve stores in twelve years is not the kind of growth that makes headlines. But those years were the foundation for what came next. Every business owner who feels stuck in the early years should remember this part of the story.
The bold move: fixing what was broken
In 2018, Lee made the decision that changed everything. He bought loss-making RedCap Pharmacy, adding 22 outlets in one shot. His team returned the business to profitability within six months, he said.
The RedCap deal also brought private equity firm Creador in as a shareholder through a share swap. Lee described the experience of working with them this way:
“It was like getting a Masters in Business Administration course for two to three years.”
In late 2023, the company went further and bought Caring Pharmacy Group from 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings, adding 256 outlets. The enlarged group eventually took the name Big Caring.
Built side by side
Lee did not do it alone. His wife, Lim Sin Yin, co-founded Big Caring and serves as its executive director. They sat together for the Bloomberg interview at the company’s headquarters in Klang.
“We are still young, very hungry, very confident, and still very bullish.”
For the financial year ended 30 June, the company’s revenue rose 18% to RM4.02 billion, and net profit rose 57% to RM191.6 million. The group has also grown beyond retail pharmacies into medical product distribution, manufacturing and a digital health app.
The public portion of its IPO drew 29,474 applications and was 4.31 times oversubscribed, according to a statement reported by The Star on 10 November 2026.
“I always wanted to do business until it is very big, but I didn’t expect it to happen so fast.”
What this means for your business
- Start with a reason bigger than yourself. Lee started to help his family. A strong reason keeps you going when the numbers do not.
- Respect the slow years. Twelve stores in twelve years was the foundation for everything that followed. Slow is not the same as failing.
- Look for businesses you can fix. Buying a loss-making competitor and turning it around can grow you faster than building from zero, if you know the business well.
- Learn from bigger partners. Lee treated working with an investor as an education. Every partner, supplier or mentor can teach you something.
- Build with people you trust. Big Caring was built by a husband and wife team who still run it together.
- Dream big. In Lee’s words: “I want to make Malaysia proud.”
This article is a business story, not investment advice.
Sources
- The Star / Bloomberg, Big Caring founder eyes growth as Malaysia IPO gets underway, 4 November 2026
- The Star, Public portion of Big Caring IPO 4.31 times oversubscribed, 10 November 2026
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