The 106-year-old Malaysian company you've probably never heard of

Most Malaysians have probably never heard of Claytan.

But this company has been around since 1920.

It survived the rubber boom, World War II, the Japanese Occupation, Merdeka and modern Malaysia—all while staying in family ownership and never listing on Bursa Malaysia.

What surprised me most wasn’t its age.

It was how the company kept reinventing itself whenever history changed. From pottery, to rubber tapping cups, to tableware, to toilets and sewer pipes, each chapter reflected a different stage of Malaysia’s own development.