99 Speed Mart’s Southeast Asia 500 debut is the latest milestone for the company and its founder, a childhood polio survivor
99 Speed Mart, one of Malaysia’s largest convenience store chains, is one of the newest firms on the Southeast Asia 500, making its debut after its 2024 IPO, Malaysia’s largest in seven years.
With $2.2 billion in revenue, 99 Speed Mart generated enough sales to land it at No. 158 on Fortune’s ranking of the largest Southeast Asian companies by revenue. The company currently has 2,833 outlets and 20 distribution centers across the country, and plans to reach 3,000 outlets by the end of the year.
But 99 Speed Mart’s story is also as much a story about its founder, Lee Thiam Wah, as it is about the growth of a convenience store chain.
Lee contracted polio at a young age and subsequently lost the use of his legs. He’s been wheelchair-bound for much of his life. “Nobody would hire me due to my physical limitations,” he told Forbes in a 2010 interview. In that interview, he quoted advice from his paternal grandfather: “If you don’t work hard, what will you amount to?”
Lee’s retail career got its start when he started selling snacks from a roadside stall. He then opened his first mini market in 1987 as a sole proprietorship, then established Ninety Nine Market in 1992. By 1998, he had a network of 8 mini markets, and established 99 Speed Mart two years later.
Now, 99 Speed Mart is the largest mini-market player in Malaysia, according to its IPO prospectus. 99 Speed Mart holds 40% of the market against global competition like 7-Eleven, and the chain also has an 11% share of the grocery market.
The company raised $532 million in an IPO last September, Malaysia’s largest in seven years. The listing made Lee a billionaire, and one of Malaysia’s richest men.
99 Speed Mart plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund its global expansion. In an interview with Bloomberg after the listing, Lee said he’s looking for “good opportunities” to go overseas, but has no “concrete plans” as of yet. (99 Speed Mart briefly had an outlet in Singapore, before withdrawing due to the COVID pandemic).
In addition to being the CEO of 99 Speed Mart, Lee also operates franchising rights for Burger King in Malaysia and Singapore, and is the third-largest shareholder of Alliance Bank Malaysia, according to Bloomberg.
Shares in 99 Speed Mart are up 9.57% since September’s IPO. Malaysia’s benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index is down about 8% over the same period.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com