Furniture business Lim’s Holland Village closing early 2025: ‘No sob story, just a powerful decision’

In an era with 11.11 ads bombarding you with information about which ecommerce platform to get what shelf at a steal to spruce up your home, Lim’s Holland Village is somewhat of an anomaly amid an array of cookie-cutter home decor.
The corner store located at #02-01 Holland Road Shopping Centre, right beside the escalator, is known among regular customers for furniture that’s full of character. No matter the table, cabinet or their signature blue and white porcelain pieces you pick, each item is a conversation starter – the kind of conversation you would not want to end.
But after over 50 years, the beloved family business that’s become a Holland Village institution is slated to close all three branches across Singapore by early 2025, co-owners and sisters Diana, Rachel and Audrey announced via Instagram on Tuesday (Nov 5).
Lim’s Holland Village also operates at Joo Chiat Road and a warehouse in Henderson. The latter is currently temporarily closed. 
There is no pressure to move out of their flagship store at Holland Road Shopping Centre by a certain date, because the family owns the unit, the youngest Lim sister Audrey, 35, told CNA Lifestyle on Friday.
But with customers starting to buy out the remaining furniture at heavily discounted prices since she and her sisters announced the closure, Audrey believes the stock would likely be cleared by the end of Chinese New Year. 
After their late father and co-founder Lim Choo Kuan passed away earlier this year, the three sisters took a few months to reflect on the future of Lim’s Holland Village, eventually deciding it was time for them to move on. 
“It’s just the end of the chapter for us. I think we have explored so many options to keep the business alive: (Go) online, go somewhere else, be in a warehouse, (sell on a) pre-order basis. It was just not viable for us. And I feel that, to some extent, it would not have fulfilled what my dad would’ve wanted for the business,” said Audrey, who’s based in Australia.
“We want to honour what was important to him, and I just felt that it wasn’t the essence of what he would have wanted as well.”
Lim’s Holland Village was founded in 2016 by the three Lim sisters and the late Mr Lim. 
The furniture store was previously known as Lim’s Arts and Crafts, which was founded by the late Mr Lim and his elder brother Lim Chor Pian in the 1970s. But following differing views from extended family members about the business direction in early 2015, the business was split.
The late Mr Lim, Audrey’s father, however, felt “compelled to continue his passion”, she shared. So when the unit was put up for sale on the open market, he took part in the auction and bought it back, reopening the business under Lim’s Holland Village with his daughters.
To avoid confusion, Lim’s Holland Village and Lims Legacy – a similar store right beside the former – are separate entities. Both trace their roots to Lim’s Arts and Crafts, and it’s business as usual for Lims Legacy, which also has a few outlets under its name.
And to avoid even more confusion, Lim’s Uniforms and Lim Meng Keng Departmental Store on the same floor are not related to these Lims who sell furniture.
“In running his business for over 50 years, (my late dad) was so passionate … It also gave him a lot of strength in the last five years (of his life), when it was very physically challenging for him. It brought him so much happiness,” Audrey added.
Lim’s Holland Village was different from their competitors because of their “authenticity and storytelling”, she believes. Her eldest sister Diana would be able to tell customers unique details about each piece, like which village it came from, for instance.
“The fact that the founder (my late dad) and myself and my sisters travelled to build relationships with our suppliers makes such a big difference in the outcome of the products that we managed to bring in,” she added. These suppliers were the original ones her late father worked with when he went to China decades ago.
But Audrey feels her late father wouldn’t have an issue with the decision to close up shop. He was a “serial entrepreneur” after all – he was involved in property, and he and his brother also founded now-defunct local jeweller TianPo Jewellery in 1992. So he understood that business cycles “ebb and flow”, she said. 
“He knew that as his children, we’d have different dreams and pursuits. So he always encouraged us to develop ourselves, to get good at what our strengths were, and then eventually, he gave us his blessing to close the store if we decided to.”
Neither rising rent nor the presence of bigger competitors like IKEA influenced the closure of this heritage business. 
Rather, Audrey acknowledges that Holland Village is evolving, from the upcoming residential developments to the closure of the iconic Thambi Magazine Store in May, and so have customer needs.
“What has changed are people’s housing needs and living habits. There are customers who come to the shop now and say, ‘I love your stuff, but I just do not have the space for it.’ Or ‘I really like your stuff, but I bought one decades ago and it’s lasted me so long; I don’t need another piece and it’d be such a waste to buy something.’ I can understand that, because I don’t want people to be wasteful as well,” she explained. 
“So I think the customers who really want to spend and buy things are down to such a small pool. I don’t really think it’s because there are more businesses on the market – it’s just that there’s no need for so much stuff nowadays.”
A rational decision, of course, doesn’t make it any easier. The impending loss has yet to fully sink in for Audrey, especially since the business has been a major part of her family.
“We talk about business in the car; we talk about it at the dining table. And when we’re at work, we talk about it again … We go on holiday and we think, ‘Hey, if it works here, it could work at home.’ It’s such a big part; the loss is not just about the business, but the way my family interacts,” she said. 
Audrey herself grew up behind the cashier wrapping goods for customers, many of whom now visit with their teenage children. “So many people have the same experience I did, just running around the store,” she recalled.
“The experience that people have here goes far beyond the shopping. It’s the memories … It’s very emotional. I’m not sure I’ll fully get over it, to be honest.”
But she clarifies that the changing face of Holland Village, from residential demographic to resulting tenant mix, is not necessarily a negative shift as many believe.
“Sometimes when things change, you can feel the energy of rejuvenation in that area, and it’s not a bad thing. It’s just uncertain for now, and I think we’ll deal with that,” she said.
“A lot of who we are is because of this experience, like what we’re good at, where we’re going from here. So I wouldn’t say there’s any sob story here. It’s actually a very powerful decision.”