 In 1949, with a nod from Lee Kong-Chian, Koon-Teck, all by himself, started and ran a factory, on 50 acres of land at Elias Road, to manufacture concrete blocks.The factory turned out 1,000 special concrete blocks a day at a time when there was a shortage of bricks and homes.His objective was to help build more houses at prices within reach of the working man which he saw as the best way of solving the housing shortage problem.