MONEY fell out of the sky, David Sng made it grow and eventually it bore fruit - a Chery to be exact. Or something like that if you wanted to cut a long story short.

The story is about Mr Sng and how he will always be known as the first person to import a China-made car to sell in Singapore.

On July 1, 2006, the managing director of Vertex Automobile unveiled the Chery QQ in a bright and spacious showroom in the Ubi motor belt. The QQ's arrival generated great anticipation and perhaps some scorn even. This was, after all, a car which American giant General Motors claimed bore 'extreme similarities' to its Chevrolet Spark (Chery says it has since settled the case with GM). But on top of that, the QQ's arrival immediately made it Singapore's cheapest new car.

This dubious distinction does not seem to faze Mr Sng, an unassuming and mild-mannered man who doesn't quite fit the stereotypical image of someone in the motor trade.

He is confident that even though some Singaporeans may not be able to accept the concept of a Chinese car now, he believes the sentiment will change as the cars develop.

'Each time I visit the Chery factory in Nanjing, I can see an improvement,' he explains in Mandarin. 'Improvements in technology, improvements in infrastructure and capital investment is rising. There are new buildings and the Chery model lineup is expanding all the time.'

Neither is he concerned about the recent influx of mainland marques into Singapore. At last count, there were four other China car brands here, with at least three more due to be launched in the near future.

'I'm not worried about competition because Chery has the full range of models,' says Mr Sng. According to him, most domestic auto manufacturers usually concentrate on only one line of cars in a certain bodystyle, for example, small sedans or sport-utility vehicles.

On the other hand, Chery has 20 distinct passenger car models ranging from small minicars and compact saloons, to large MPVs and SUVs. It also has a couple of commercial vehicle lineups.

In China, Chery is ranked No 3 after GM and Volkswagen in terms of sales. Its annual production of 450,000 units, of which 120,000 are exported, makes it the country's top domestic carmaker.

'Chery is also more well-developed as a manufacturer. It produces its own engines,' says Mr Sng, adding that most other domestic carmakers still rely on older-generation Japanese engines from Mitsubishi and Toyota.

Since Chery was launched in Singapore one-and-a-half years ago, Mr Sng has sold over 900 units. This is no mean feat considering that for the first 12 months, Vertex only had one model to offer - the 800cc QQ. In the last six months, the A5 and A168 sedans, the T11 SUV and the V5 MPV have arrived to bring the current range here to five models with eight variants, in engine sizes from 800cc to 2.4 litres.

But because only a quarter of them are available with an automatic transmission, Mr Sng believes he has yet to unlock the full potential of the Chery brand.

'If the rest of the auto models can come in June or July, we should be able to sell 1,200 units this year,' he says. By then, he is confident that his initial investment of $2 million will finally pay off.

Which brings us back to the story of how Mr Sng got into the car business in the first place.

It was the 1970s and instead of four wheels, he was working with two legs, rearing chickens on a farm in Choa Chu Kang to sell the eggs.

One day in 1979, a fighter jet crashed into one of the coops and killed all the hens in it. There was compensation from the damages and Mr Sng used it as seed money to dabble in the used car market. It proved to be lucrative and the business grew

Along with the rest of the market, he progressed to parallel imports in 1997. (In the meantime, the government had acquired his land and he was resettled, but he continued to remain in the egg supply trade by importing from Malaysian farms.)

In 1998, a visit to a Chinese car factory got Mr Sng looking towards the mainland and seriously exploring the possibility of importing China-made cars. He held back initially though, because 'the cars were substandard'.

But in late 2003, after identifying Chery as the brand with the most promise, he began negotiations to secure the franchise. The rest, as they say, is history.

So which is more profitable, eggs or cars?

'An egg only costs a few cents, so of course the turnover from Chery is much higher,' Mr Sng says with a laugh. But turning serious, he adds:: 'We will keep developing the Chery brand and reach out to more people. We are in this for the long term because we believe in it.'