before opening their own coffeeshop, pang lim and his wife operated a stall selling bee hoon and nasi lemak in a hawker centre in hougang. in 1990, pang lim and his wife, ng hoon tien, opened their first coffeeshop, aik hua and expanded the business in 1992, when the government launched the sale of tenanted shop scheme, which gave business owners operating out of shops leased from the government in the public housing estate to buy over their shops instead of renting them, resulting in more business owners renting out the newly bought shops. in 1994, the government further introduced a policy of selling shop houses at subsidised rates to help local enterprises, which enabled aik hua to become the largest coffeeshop chain at that time with 56 outlets across the country.