ESG

Packaging is easy to overlook when everything goes right. But as products become more valuable and supply chains more demanding, companies such as Clean Pack are turning protection into an increasingly sophisticated part of manufacturing. Packaging is designed to disappear. Once an electronic component, piece of furniture or manufactured product reaches its destination safely, the foam, carton and protective materials surrounding it have largely completed their job. Few customers stop to consider what went into protecting the product along the way. Director of Clean Pack Sdn Bhd – Kok Keng Tong. But when packaging fails, everybody notices. A damaged component can mean rejected shipments, replacement costs, production delays and dissatisfied customers. Multiply that across thousands of products moving through increasingly complex supply chains, and packaging becomes less of a consumable and more of a business risk. That is the space occupied by Malaysian manufacturer Clean Pack Sdn Bhd. The company designs and manufactures industrial packaging including EVA, PE and PU foam, die-cut components, bubble bags, corrugated cartons and anti-static materials for sectors including electronics, furniture, apparel and other manufacturing industries. Its real business, however, is protecting value.   More Than a Box Industrial packaging is becoming increasingly technical. Different products respond differently to impact, vibration, pressure and static electricity. Standard packaging may be cheaper initially, but if it fails to protect what is inside, the eventual cost can be considerably higher. Clean Pack therefore works with manufacturers to develop packaging around individual product requirements, taking into account materials, dimensions, densities and protection levels. This changes the relationship between manufacturer and packaging supplier. The question is no longer simply how many cartons or foam inserts are required. It becomes: What are you transporting? What could damage it? How much protection does it actually need? And can that protection be achieved more efficiently? Increasingly, that final question matters.   Engineering Out the Excess Manufacturers today face simultaneous pressure to control costs, improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Packaging sits directly at the intersection of all three. Over-engineering creates unnecessary material, cost and waste. Under-engineering exposes valuable products to damage. Finding the balance requires more than simply using less packaging. It requires better design. Clean Pack’s approach is to create packaging that is fit for purpose — providing sufficient protection without adding material unnecessarily. Better-designed packaging can also improve storage, handling and logistics efficiency, making packaging part of the broader supply-chain equation. Over the past 12 to 18 months, the company has placed greater emphasis on material utilisation, manufacturing efficiency and waste reduction. Instead of focusing exclusively on higher production output, Clean Pack has invested resources in improving material yield, quality control and production processes to minimise scrap and rework. There is an environmental benefit, but also a clear commercial one. Every piece of unnecessary material represents cost. Every rejected component consumes resources without creating value. And every product damaged because of inadequate packaging can generate another round of manufacturing, transportation and waste. Efficiency and sustainability increasingly point in the same direction.   Managing the Complexity of Growth Clean Pack’s own expansion has created another challenge: maintaining responsiveness and consistency as operations become more complex. As customer requirements, product varieties and production volumes increase, businesses can no longer depend primarily on individual knowledge. Clean Pack has responded by strengthening standardised processes, quality management and delegation across the organisation. Its ISO 9001 quality management standards support that emphasis on consistency, while investments in automation, manufacturing capabilities and employee development are preparing the company for increasingly sophisticated customer demands. Leadership has evolved alongside the business, with greater responsibility given to managers and teams to solve problems and drive continuous improvement. That transition is particularly important in customised manufacturing. More customers and designs mean more variables to manage. The organisation behind the factory must therefore become more sophisticated alongside the products it makes.   Protecting More Than the Product Clean Pack’s next ambition is to move beyond being viewed simply as a packaging manufacturer. It wants to become a more integrated solutions provider, using engineering, automation, process improvement and data-driven decision-making to help customers address protection, efficiency and sustainability simultaneously. That ambition reflects how industrial packaging itself is changing. As manufacturing becomes more sophisticated, the companies supporting manufacturers must evolve with it. Packaging suppliers increasingly need to understand materials, logistics, product characteristics and environmental performance — not merely manufacture something to put around a product. Because what Clean Pack ultimately protects is larger than what sits inside the box. It protects the manufacturer’s investment in making it, the cost of transporting it, the reputation attached to it and the customer’s expectation that it will arrive exactly as intended. Those are things manufacturers cannot afford to lose.  

Some industries are built around disruption. Others are built around things people have been doing for generations. Religious worship products firmly belong to the second category. The rituals are familiar. The symbols carry history. Many of the products have existed in one form or another for decades, if not centuries. Yet behind this deeply traditional market, consumer expectations are changing just as they are everywhere else. CEO & Founder of Suan Leong Hang (M) Sdn Bhd – Mr Goey Lai Poh. People still want tradition. They also want better quality, greater safety, longer-lasting products and increasingly, more environmentally conscious choices. That is where Suan Leong Hang found room to rethink an old industry. The Malaysian manufacturer and wholesaler supplies religious and worship products across Malaysia and Asian markets including Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia. Its portfolio spans worship table lamps, incense, prayer accessories, ceremonial offerings, eco-friendly paraffin lamp oil and candle wax. The interesting part of its story, however, is not simply what it sells. It is how frequently the company has been willing to change the products surrounding traditions that themselves remain largely unchanged.   First Came the Light Bulb One of Suan Leong Hang’s earlier opportunities came from worship table lamps. At the time, much of the market still relied on traditional incandescent bulbs. They consumed more electricity, generated greater heat and had shorter lifespans. Some imported lighting products also presented durability and safety concerns because they were not sufficiently suited to Malaysian electrical conditions. The company saw an opportunity to introduce something better. Suan Leong Hang became an early promoter of LED-based worship lighting, bringing the benefits already transforming conventional lighting — lower energy consumption, less heat, longer lifespans and reduced maintenance — into the religious products market. Nothing about the ritual needed to change. Only the technology did. It proved an important lesson for the business: even in highly traditional categories, customers will embrace innovation when it makes a familiar product safer, easier or more reliable. Then came the inevitable problem with being early. Everyone else catches up. LED technology became widely available and the market increasingly crowded. Technology alone could no longer provide meaningful differentiation. So Suan Leong Hang moved the conversation from what was inside the product to the quality of the product itself.   Ten New Ideas a Year Today, the company introduces at least 10 new products annually. That is a surprisingly aggressive innovation cycle for a business operating in a category most consumers would probably not associate with rapid product development. The strategy has taken Suan Leong Hang beyond the worship lamps on which it established its reputation and into premium incense and a wider range of devotional products. But entering a new category exposed another business reality: customers do not automatically trust a company simply because they recognise its name. When Suan Leong Hang moved into incense, customers initially associated the brand with lighting. Instead of relying solely on advertising to change that perception, the company concentrated on product quality, customer education and market engagement. Acceptance came gradually. Then came repeat purchases. For Suan Leong Hang, this revealed an asset more valuable than any single product: the ability to transfer trust. If customers believe in the quality behind one category, that credibility can eventually open the door to another.   Don’t Wait to Be Disrupted That philosophy has shaped how the company thinks about growth. Internally, Suan Leong Hang works around a simple idea: continuously improve before the market forces you to change. It is a useful rule in an era when businesses can lose an advantage remarkably quickly. Instead of waiting for competitors to dictate the next move, resources are directed towards product innovation, quality improvements, production efficiency and supply-chain optimisation. The company is equally clear about what it does not want to become. It does not pursue growth through imitation. Nor does it define progress simply by becoming larger. Its stated philosophy is to surpass rather than copy, while refusing opportunities that could undermine product quality or long-term brand value. That makes quality less of a manufacturing claim and more of a growth strategy. Its own phrase — “Quality Determines the Future” — captures the thinking. A customer who buys once contributes to sales. A customer who trusts the brand enough to return — or follow it into an entirely different product category — contributes to something harder to build. Longevity.   Tradition Has Consumers Too This may ultimately be the most important point about Suan Leong Hang’s market. Tradition does not exist outside consumer behaviour. People still compare products. They notice quality. They care about safety and convenience. Environmental considerations increasingly influence expectations. Younger generations may continue religious practices while expecting the products surrounding those practices to fit more naturally into modern life. The opportunity, therefore, is not to reinvent the ritual. It is to keep improving everything around it. Suan Leong Hang has already moved from incandescent bulbs to LED technology, from worship lamps into new product categories, and from Malaysia into markets across Asia. The next innovation will eventually be followed by another. Because an old industry does not necessarily need to behave like one. Sometimes the traditions that last the longest are supported by businesses willing to keep changing.  

AEON Delight (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (“ADM”) successfully hosted SPOGOMI 2026 at Pantai Bagan Lalang, Selangor, bringing together 52 teams and 233 participants from AEON Group Malaysia, business partners, educational institutions and local communities in a unique environmental sporting event that combines competition, teamwork and environmental stewardship. More than 200 participants from 52 teams gathered at Pantai Bagan Lalang for SPOGOMI 2026. The event brought together participants from eight other companies within AEON Group Malaysia, alongside business partners, government agencies, educational institutions and local communities, reflecting a shared commitment to environmental sustainability and community engagement. The participating AEON Group companies included AEON Co. (M) Bhd., AEON Credit Service (M) Berhad, AEON BiG (M) Sdn. Bhd., AEON Bank (M) Berhad, AEON Fantasy (M) Sdn. Bhd., AEON Global Supply Chain Sdn. Bhd., AEON360 Sdn. Bhd. and AEON Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn. Bhd. The event also received valuable support and participation from business partners and supporting organisations, including Majlis Perbandaran Sepang, SWCorp Malaysia, MILO Malaysia, Sunshine Bakeries, IMEC Hygiene and Neutrovis. Students from Sekolah Menengah Hin Hua also participated alongside corporate teams, highlighting the importance of engaging younger generations in environmental conservation. The event exceeded its target by collecting 371.10kg of waste. ADM extends its utmost appreciation to the business partners, government agencies, educational institutions, community members and supporting organisations whose participation and contributions helped make SPOGOMI 2026 a meaningful and impactful community event. Building on the success of Malaysia’s inaugural SPOGOMI event organised by ADM in 2024, SPOGOMI 2026 further demonstrates the Company’s commitment to promoting environmental awareness and encouraging communities to take practical action towards cleaner and more sustainable public spaces. Originating in Japan, SPOGOMI combines the words “spo” for “sport” and “gomi” – the Japanese word for “trash” – transforming litter collection into a competitive team activity. Participants compete to collect and sort waste within a designated area and time limit, with points awarded according to the quantity and categories of waste collected. The format makes environmental conservation engaging, educational and impactful. During the competition, participants collected a total of 371.10 kilograms of waste, exceeding the event’s 100-kilogram target by 271.10 kilograms and achieving 3.7 times the original target. Compared with the approximately 74 kilograms collected during Malaysia’s inaugural SPOGOMI event in 2024, this represents approximately five times the amount of waste collected. The significant increase highlights growing awareness of environmental responsibility and demonstrates how collaboration among businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and local communities can contribute to cleaner and more sustainable public spaces. The competition concluded with an award presentation ceremony recognising teams that demonstrated outstanding performance in waste collection, sorting accuracy and teamwork. Shuji Gobara, Managing Director of AEON Delight (3rd from right), with ABM Team 7, the SPOGOMI 2026 Champions, ABM Team 7 emerged as the SPOGOMI 2026 Champion, followed by Green Sustain as Runner-Up and ABM Team 1 in Third Place. The Best Teamwork Award was presented to Hin Hua 6 while in recognition of the team’s exceptional teamwork, enthusiasm and commitment throughout the competition, while ABM Team 1 managed to win the Special Prize – Havoc Award in recognition of their spirited, enthusiastic and lively energy throughout the competition. The event was honoured by the attendance of Minister NIHEI Daisuke of the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia, together with representatives from Majlis Perbandaran Sepang and SWCorp, senior leaders from AEON Group Malaysia and representatives from participating organisations. Their presence underscored the growing support for environmental initiatives that strengthen community engagement and promote sustainable lifestyles. ADM’s first SPOGOMI event in Malaysia, held in 2024, brought together 150 participants across 27 teams and collected approximately 74 kilograms of waste. The substantial growth in participation, stakeholder support and waste collection in 2026 reflects increasing awareness of environmental responsibility and the positive momentum generated by the initiative. Through the continued organisation of SPOGOMI, ADM aims to encourage people from all walks of life to take practical action towards environmental conservation while strengthening collaboration among businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and local communities. ADM remains committed to contributing to safer, cleaner and more comfortable communities through its business activities and social initiatives, in line with its corporate philosophy of creating sustainable value for society.

They hang outside government buildings, line streets during national celebrations and dominate the backdrop of major corporate events. We see them so often that we rarely stop to think about where they come from. Flags are everywhere. Managing Director of Star Light Flag Trading Sdn. Bhd – Annie Chia.   But behind every Jalur Gemilang flying correctly, every state flag displayed at an official function and every corporate flag carrying precisely the right colours is a business where details matter more than most people realise. For one Malaysian visual communication and flag solutions company, those details have become its speciality. Its business spans national and state flags, institutional flags, customised corporate designs, banners and large-format visual branding for government agencies, corporations, educational institutions, event organisers and consumers. At first glance, it is a business about producing flags. Look closer, and it is really a business about identity and representation.   Getting the Symbol Right A flag is unusual because its value is rarely determined by the material alone. What it represents matters considerably more. A national flag carries identity and pride. An institutional flag represents authority and belonging. A corporate flag can turn an otherwise anonymous venue into a branded environment before anybody has even walked through the door. That leaves surprisingly little room for getting things wrong. Colour needs to be consistent. Specifications matter. Materials need to suit their environment. Outdoor flags must withstand different conditions from those intended for ceremonial display, while event branding can require entirely different dimensions and finishes. Then there is time. An event does not wait because a supplier is running late. Neither does a national celebration or official ceremony. The company identified this problem early. While many businesses could produce similar products, consistency in colour, durability, turnaround time and service was not always guaranteed. That gap became an opportunity. Its ability to handle both standardised demand — including Malaysian and state flags — and highly customised branding requirements within one operation has allowed it to serve very different types of customers without treating every order the same way. Sometimes the requirement is thousands of standard flags. The next project might involve a bespoke corporate design needed urgently for an event. The product changes. The expectation does not. It has to arrive right.   A Physical Business in a Digital World There is an interesting contradiction in the company’s growth story. Branding has become overwhelmingly digital. Companies invest heavily in social media, websites, digital advertising and content designed to make themselves visible on screens. Yet physical visibility has not disappeared. Walk through a city during Merdeka month and the power of a physical symbol is obvious. Attend a major corporate event and branding occupies walls, entrances, stages and public spaces. Visit an institution and flags remain one of the clearest visual expressions of identity. The medium may be traditional. Customer expectations are anything but. Clients increasingly want faster turnaround, clearer communication, more customisation and seamless service. This has pushed the company beyond being purely production-focused towards becoming a broader visual branding solutions provider. And that transition is changing the business behind the scenes. As order volumes and project complexity increase, activities once managed directly require formal processes. Quality control must remain consistent. Teams need clearer responsibilities. Decisions have to move faster without creating mistakes. Leadership has consequently shifted from hands-on involvement towards SOP development, delegation, performance monitoring and stronger operating systems. It is the less glamorous side of scaling, but arguably the one that matters most.   Growth Without Losing Control The company is equally clear that more business does not automatically mean better business. It is deliberately avoiding uncontrolled expansion or projects that could compromise quality and responsiveness simply to increase short-term revenue. Instead, capital and resources are being directed towards production efficiency, supplier reliability, digital presence and customer experience. Sustainability is entering those decisions too. Over the past 12 to 18 months, the company has introduced more environmentally friendly production materials, including eco-friendly inks for selected products, despite the higher costs involved. For an SME, that trade-off is tangible. Higher input costs can directly affect margins. Yet the company believes responsible growth sometimes means accepting an immediate cost for a longer-term objective. Now it is preparing for a larger transformation. The next ambition is to move from an execution-driven operation into a more integrated branding solutions business, supported by automation, stronger digital customer engagement, talent development and potentially broader regional reach. That means building a company where growth is supported by systems rather than dependent on individual effort. For a business whose products are designed to make nations, institutions and brands instantly recognisable, there is a certain symmetry to the challenge ahead. For years, it has helped others display who they are. Now it is defining what it wants to become.  

Walk into a restaurant and something makes you want to stay a little longer. Step into a hotel lobby and it immediately feels warm and inviting. Enter a boutique and suddenly the colours, textures and products seem more appealing. We often attribute these feelings to good interior design. But there is another element quietly working in the background: light. It can make a room feel intimate or expansive, energetic or calming, luxurious or ordinary. It can draw attention to an object, soften an environment and influence how people experience a space without them necessarily knowing why. Executive Director of M Lighting Design & Renovation Sdn Bhd – Catherine Tee Yen Fang. For M Lighting Design & Renovation Sdn Bhd, this is where lighting becomes much more than something switched on when a room gets dark. It becomes part of how a space makes us feel. Established in 2003, the Malaysian company has spent more than two decades working across commercial, industrial and residential environments. Its role has evolved from supplying lighting products into managing complete lighting projects through Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC). The evolution reflects a changing market. Clients are no longer simply asking which light they should buy. Increasingly, the question is: What do we want this space to feel like? Consider a restaurant. Food may be the centre of the experience, but lighting affects how dishes appear on the table, how comfortable customers feel and even whether they want to stay longer. In retail, it can highlight merchandise and reinforce a brand’s identity. At home, it shapes warmth, comfort, safety and the atmosphere of everyday life. Sometimes clients know exactly what they want a space to feel like — warm, sophisticated, dramatic or comfortable — without knowing the technical formula required to create it. That formula involves decisions around colour temperature, brightness, glare control, beam angles, positioning and installation. M Lighting’s role is to translate a desired feeling into a practical technical solution, and then make sure the result on site delivers what was imagined. That last part matters. A lighting concept can look impressive on paper yet perform very differently once installed. A beam can fall at the wrong angle. Glare can make an otherwise beautiful room uncomfortable. A fitting chosen primarily for appearance or price can prove inefficient or difficult to maintain over time. M Lighting identified this disconnect between design and execution early in its business. It has since shaped the company’s move towards a more complete project-management model covering consultation, site measurement, design, procurement or production, installation, commissioning and after-sales maintenance. The objective is no longer simply to leave a client with lighting fixtures. It is to leave them with the intended experience. There is also something almost contradictory about good lighting: the better it is, the less likely we are to notice it. Instead, we notice the architecture, the food on the table, the merchandise on display or the person sitting opposite us. Lighting becomes the quiet layer holding the experience together. Behind that simplicity, however, is considerable judgement. Where should the light fall? Will it create glare? Does it complement the materials and colours? Is it suitable for how people move through the space? Will it remain practical to maintain years later? These questions have become increasingly important as sustainability changes the way businesses think about their spaces. For M Lighting, sustainability begins with practical choices rather than sweeping statements. A cheaper fitting may save money initially but prove more expensive if it consumes more energy, requires frequent maintenance or needs earlier replacement. The company therefore encourages clients to consider energy efficiency, durability and lifecycle cost alongside aesthetics and initial price. It also supports retrofits and upgrades where existing lighting can be improved rather than unnecessarily replaced. Its philosophy is straightforward: design correctly, select responsibly, install professionally and maintain for the long term. As M Lighting grows, however, another challenge has emerged — ensuring that expertise and attention to detail can be repeated consistently across more projects. The company is strengthening its processes, documentation, digital workflows, knowledge transfer and talent development. The goal is to move away from knowledge that sits primarily with experienced individuals towards standards embedded throughout the organisation. It is also taking a measured approach to expansion. Not every project needs to be accepted, particularly when unrealistic budgets, timelines or expectations could compromise delivery. M Lighting does not want its future to be defined by competing solely on price or simply completing more projects. It wants to become a long-term project partner. More than two decades after it began, M Lighting is ultimately building its next chapter around something surprisingly human for a technical business: how people feel when they enter a space. Because we may rarely look up and notice the lighting itself. But we almost always notice the mood it creates.  

In heavy industry, a machine stopping is rarely just a machine stopping. A compressor failure can interrupt production. A critical pump going offline can disrupt an entire process. Unplanned downtime can quickly become a problem involving lost output, missed delivery commitments, higher costs and, in the worst circumstances, safety. For Emerging EPC Sdn Bhd, that risk has become the foundation of a much bigger business proposition: keep industry running. The Malaysian industrial engineering company operates across mission-critical sectors including oil and gas, petrochemicals, power generation, manufacturing and future energy. Its capabilities stretch from engineering design and equipment supply to system integration, commissioning, maintenance, refurbishment, digital monitoring and lifecycle extension. But equipment is increasingly only part of the story. Emerging EPC wants to know what happens to that equipment five, ten or more years after installation — how efficiently it is performing, when intervention is needed and how its useful life can be extended. That is pushing the company from engineering supplier towards something broader: a lifecycle reliability partner.   Fixing It Before It Breaks For decades, maintenance across many industries followed a familiar pattern: something fails, then someone fixes it. The economics of modern industry are making that increasingly difficult to justify. Operators are under pressure to improve productivity while controlling costs, reducing energy consumption, meeting safety expectations and addressing sustainability requirements. Equipment cannot simply work; businesses increasingly need to understand how well it is working. Emerging EPC sees this shift as an opportunity. Through its Emerging Data Analytics (EDA) and EARS platforms, the company is adding digital monitoring and data into its engineering capabilities, helping customers move towards more informed maintenance and reliability decisions. It represents an important evolution in the company’s business model. Instead of supplying a compressor package and considering the transaction complete, Emerging EPC can remain involved throughout the asset’s operating life. The commercial logic is equally significant. Its preferred model of growth is not simply finding more customers. It is becoming more valuable to the customers it already has. A relationship might begin with compressors, expand into filtration, move into rental solutions and eventually incorporate IoT monitoring and lifecycle services. In other words, growth comes from depth, not simply volume. That philosophy also means being willing to turn business away. Emerging EPC says it is deliberately avoiding contracts where it cannot maintain its quality standards, rather than chasing revenue for the sake of a larger top line. For a company whose reputation rests on reliability, a short-term sales gain is not worth a long-term credibility problem.   Sustainability Before It Became Fashionable That longer view is also evident in Emerging EPC’s approach to sustainability. The company began its sustainability journey in 2022, treating it not simply as an ESG reporting exercise but as part of how the organisation itself needed to evolve. Investment has gone into ESG data collection, sustainability reporting, ERP development, industrial IoT capabilities, staff training, governance and operational efficiency. For an SME, those investments involve a genuine trade-off. Money and people committed to long-term capabilities cannot simultaneously be deployed towards immediate sales. Emerging EPC chose to invest anyway. Its sustainability proposition also extends directly to customers. Improving equipment reliability, reducing downtime, extending asset life and optimising energy consumption can make existing industrial operations more efficient without simply replacing assets. The company has subsequently gained recognition through PETRONAS and wider industry sustainability platforms, while sharing its experience with other SMEs through SAMENTA and industry programmes. But its next transformation could be larger still.   Malaysia Is No Longer the Finish Line Emerging EPC already has a regional footprint. Now it wants those markets to become businesses in their own right. Its ambition is to become a genuine regional energy solutions company, capable of independently securing significant projects in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia rather than simply being a Malaysian company with overseas offices. At the same time, the energy transition is forcing the company to think about where industrial demand will come from next. Its Emerging Zapp platform is intended to build capabilities around customers navigating the shift away from pure fossil-fuel dependency, positioning the business for an energy landscape that will look increasingly different from the one in which it was built. Technology and geography, however, are only two pieces of that expansion. The third is people. For Emerging EPC, its ability to scale across Southeast Asia will ultimately depend on developing another generation of technical and commercial leaders capable of running the business in individual markets. That may prove to be the company’s most important engineering project yet. Because equipment can be purchased, technology can be developed and offices can be opened. Building an organisation that performs reliably across borders is considerably harder. And for a company that has built its reputation around keeping critical assets running, the next test is whether it can apply that same philosophy to itself.  

Consumers are notoriously difficult to stand still for. What tastes good today may feel ordinary tomorrow. Price still matters, but so do ingredients, convenience, dietary preferences and increasingly, confidence in how a product was made. Food manufacturers are not simply competing against other brands; they are trying to keep pace with customers whose expectations continue to evolve. Director of CWP Food Manufacturing – Yanice Cheong Ming Yan. For CWP Food Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, that change is shaping what comes off the production line — and what happens behind it. Established in 2008 and based in Ipoh, Perak, CWP manufactures traditional and plant-based products for domestic and export markets. Its strategy increasingly combines differentiated products with something less visible to consumers: stronger manufacturing standards. The company believes the next stage of competition will not be won on taste or price alone.   Giving the Market Something Different CWP sees an opportunity in consumers looking for alternatives to conventional products. Its Double Triple Sweet Potato product, for example, uses sweet potato and is positioned around characteristics including naturally occurring anthocyanins, higher fibre, lower oil content and no artificial colouring. Its SeaVit seaweed product approaches the market differently. The plant-based offering is positioned around higher protein and fibre content, zero cholesterol and Halal recognition. Both reflect CWP’s attempt to create products with a clearer reason to exist in an already crowded market. That distinction matters. Consumers walking through a supermarket have no shortage of choices. A new product therefore has to compete not only for taste, but for attention, perceived value and relevance to changing preferences. For CWP, product development is consequently becoming more closely connected to identifying gaps in what consumers want rather than simply producing another variation of what already sells. But getting someone to try a product is only half the challenge.   Taste Gets You In. Consistency Keeps You There. Behind CWP’s product strategy is a less glamorous problem: making sure the same product can be produced reliably at scale. Buyers expect repeatable taste and texture. Distributors need stable supply. Larger customers increasingly require documentation and traceability alongside the product itself. That makes manufacturing discipline part of the commercial proposition. CWP operates with Halal compliance as a baseline and is strengthening its Food Safety Management System through ISO 22000 implementation. Its focus includes supplier controls, standard operating procedures, quality checkpoints, documentation, traceability and staff competency. As production volumes increase, those systems become more important. Scaling creates greater opportunities for variation and human error. CWP has therefore strengthened coordination between production, quality assurance and warehousing while clarifying responsibility for inspections and approvals. The objective is simple: growth should not make the product less predictable.   The Higher Price of Bigger Markets CWP’s ambitions also explain its emphasis on compliance. The company wants to expand into new markets and ultimately reach customers with more demanding procurement requirements. ISO 22000 is part of that preparation, with CWP looking longer term towards internationally recognised schemes such as FSSC 22000 to support access to higher-requirement channels and international chain retailers. That changes how growth has to be measured. Revenue remains important, but CWP also considers repeat orders, customer retention, delivery performance, consistency and reductions in non-conformities. It is deliberately avoiding expansion that would require compromises in food safety, Halal integrity or documentation. For smaller manufacturers, that discipline can determine how far they are ultimately able to travel. Selling into more sophisticated markets does not simply require a product consumers like. Buyers need confidence that the manufacturer behind it can repeatedly meet their requirements.   Less Waste, More Discipline The same operational thinking extends to sustainability. CWP has tightened production planning to reduce material losses and improved handling processes to minimise damaged products. Waste streams are separated for appropriate disposal, while used cooking oil is handled through registered recycling vendors. None of these initiatives is particularly dramatic on its own. But reducing waste also reduces cost, while better handling can improve hygiene, efficiency and product quality. Responsible manufacturing and commercial efficiency do not necessarily have to pull in opposite directions. For CWP, both depend on better processes. That may ultimately be the more important transformation taking place inside the company. CWP started as a manufacturer responding to demand for food products. Its next phase requires it to become increasingly sophisticated in understanding not only what consumers want, but what retailers, distributors and international buyers expect from the companies supplying them. Those expectations will continue moving. Today’s differentiator can become tomorrow’s minimum requirement. Plant-based products become more common. Food safety standards rise. Traceability becomes expected. Consumers discover new ingredients and move on to the next preference. Manufacturers cannot predict every change. They can, however, build businesses capable of responding to them. For CWP, that means combining product development with stronger systems, better-trained people and manufacturing standards capable of supporting larger ambitions. Because what consumers want is constantly changing. The real competitive advantage may be building a company capable of changing with them.

Thousands of everyday purchases have helped support children undergoing cancer treatment, with RM156,305.23 raised for Majlis Kanser Nasional (MAKNA) through Lotus’s Malaysia’s fourth anniversary campaign. For a child, school, friends and everyday routines are simply part of growing up. But cancer can suddenly put those simple joys on hold, bringing fear and uncertainty into a young life. The diagnosis can also bring emotional distress to patients and their families, while the demands of treatment can add financial pressure to households already struggling to make ends meet. From left to right: Rais Asraf, MAKNA Executive; Hanita Hanim, MAKNA Assistant Project Manager; Erica Tam Lotus’s Commercial Director (Grocery); Azliza Baizura Azmel Lotus’s Executive Director Corporate Services; May Li Lotus’s Commercial Director; Azlina Mohd Rashid, MAKNA Head of Department; Ravi Varman, MAKNA Assistant Head of Division; Tarmizi Abdul Rahman, MAKNA Assistant Project Manager. Through its Bursary Assistance, MAKNA helps patients and families meet some of the practical costs of cancer care, including transportation to hospitals, medical appliances and other treatment related needs. The assistance can help patients continue treatment when these costs become barriers to care. The funds will also support MAKNA’s Scholarship Programme for children from cancer affected families, helping those whose education may be disrupted by illness and financial difficulties to continue their studies and work towards better opportunities. Through its annual Kongsi Ceria anniversary initiative, Lotus’s contributes 0.5 per cent of sales from its Own Brand products during the anniversary month towards children’s healthcare needs. The campaign ran from 7 May to 6 June 2026. “MAKNA is committed to supporting cancer patients at every stage of life, from children to the elderly. Cancer does not discriminate by age, and neither should access to care. We are not just helping patients through today’s challenges; we are giving them the strength and opportunity to look towards a better tomorrow,” said Puan Farahida Mohd Farid, General Manager of MAKNA. Childhood cancer can disrupt schooling and everyday life, with time spent in hospital often meaning missed classes, time with friends and other childhood activities. Parents also have to balance treatment costs with household expenses. For underprivileged families, these pressures can make it harder to maintain continuity of care and education. MAKNA’s bursary and scholarship assistance addresses some of these practical and financial challenges. Fifi Nurdianna (L), MAKNA Executive and Noor Suhaila, MAKNA Executive with a pediatric cancer patient. The contribution came from customers who bought Lotus’s Own Brand products during the anniversary month. While individual purchases may have seemed small, collectively they generated funds that can be channelled towards children and families receiving support from MAKNA. The initiative demonstrates the value of long term collaborations between charitable organisations and corporate partners. By combining Lotus’s broad customer reach with MAKNA’s experience supporting cancer patients and their families, the partnership helps ensure assistance reaches those who need it most. Lotus’s Malaysia said its anniversary is an opportunity to give back to the communities it serves. “Through our customers’ everyday purchases, we hope to ease the burden on families and give children fighting cancer a better chance at recovery,” said Azliza Baizura Azmel, Executive Director Corporate Services of Lotus’s Malaysia. Lotus’s has also extended its anniversary giving beyond cancer care. As part of its wider 2026 initiative, brand partner P&G raised funds through product sales at Lotus’s stores to support children with special needs under the care of Tender Touch Rehabilitation Center and Gabungan Anak Anak Palsy Sereberum (GAPS) Malaysia. For children and families navigating cancer, such support can help maintain access to treatment and education while easing some of the financial pressures that come with care.

In the oil and gas industry, some of the most valuable work happens before anything goes wrong. A defect in a tubular or critical rig component may be barely visible. Left undetected, however, equipment problems can contribute to failure, interrupt drilling operations and create significant safety and operational risks. On an offshore or upstream operation where downtime is costly, prevention carries its own economics. General Manager & Director of DESA 7 Resources (M) Sdn Bhd – Syamil Arib. Finding those problems before equipment is deployed is the business of DESA 7 Resources (M) Sdn Bhd, better known as DS7. Established in 2009, the Malaysian company provides certified inspection, maintenance and asset integrity services to the upstream oil and gas sector, operating across Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Singapore. Its role sounds technical because it is. But the underlying proposition is straightforward: determine whether critical equipment is fit for use before it becomes a problem. DS7 inspects tubulars and rig components, helping customers identify equipment issues early, reduce the risk of failures and downtime, and maintain safer, more reliable operations throughout an asset’s lifecycle. In an industry built around increasingly sophisticated equipment and enormous capital commitments, that assurance has become progressively more valuable.   The Cost of Finding Out Too Late When DS7 entered the market, it identified a relatively practical gap: there were limited specialised local providers capable of independently inspecting critical drilling components with the accessibility and responsiveness operators required. More than 15 years later, the underlying need remains, but expectations have changed considerably. Customers still need technical competence. Now they also expect speed, traceability, transparency and increasingly digital evidence of what has been inspected and verified. Inspection itself is becoming more data-driven. DS7 has consequently been developing digital initiatives that improve the traceability and efficiency of its inspection and verification processes. The objective is not simply to tell a customer that equipment has passed inspection, but to strengthen the information and assurance surrounding that decision. The company operates with ISO 9001, ISO 29001 and ISO 45001 certifications, supporting its quality, sector-specific and occupational health and safety systems. For DS7, these disciplines matter because the product it ultimately sells is confidence.   Why Being Cheaper Isn’t Enough Growth has introduced another reality: competing on price becomes increasingly difficult as operations become more sophisticated. DS7 does not necessarily see that as a disadvantage. As upstream operations become more complex, the consequences of poor execution increase. The competitive conversation therefore shifts from the lowest inspection price towards reliability, safety, uptime and quality. It is a trade-off familiar across industrial services. A cheaper service can appear attractive when viewed as a line item. Its economics look rather different if inadequate execution contributes to disruption later. DS7 has therefore chosen to stay close to its core technical expertise rather than diversify aggressively into unrelated businesses. Its definition of growth centres on stronger technical capabilities, greater digital maturity and expansion within inspection and asset integrity, including international oil and gas markets. The company believes credibility is easier to protect when expansion remains anchored to what the organisation knows how to do well.   The Advantage Customers Rarely See Some of DS7’s differentiation is less technical than might be expected. The company says customers frequently value its responsiveness: how quickly teams adapt to changing requirements, communicate throughout an assignment and complete inspections without creating an unnecessary coordination burden. That agility becomes significant in operations where schedules can change quickly and delays cascade through other activities. Digitalisation is intended to reinforce that advantage by improving visibility, traceability and control. It also forms part of DS7’s wider approach to ESG. Rather than treating sustainability purely as a reporting requirement, the company has begun incorporating it into everyday operations. Environmental initiatives include reducing waste and managing electricity and fuel consumption. On the social side, DS7 continues to invest in employee training and development, educational contributions, CSR activities and employee engagement. Governance measures include more structured customer feedback and complaints management, stakeholder feedback, risk management and greater ESG awareness internally. The common thread is operational discipline. For DS7, responsible growth means that becoming larger cannot come at the expense of how safely or transparently the company operates.   An Oil and Gas Company Preparing for What Comes After There is, however, a larger question hanging over almost every company whose expertise has been built around hydrocarbons: what happens as the energy system changes? DS7 is not abandoning oil and gas. Quite the opposite. It intends to deepen its inspection and asset integrity capabilities within the upstream sector and expand its presence beyond Malaysia into Southeast Asia. But management is also beginning to explore opportunities in renewable energy and adjacent sectors. The strategy is gradual rather than abrupt. Instead of chasing diversification for its own sake, DS7 wants to determine where the technical disciplines it has developed — inspection, verification, safety and asset integrity — can remain relevant as the energy landscape evolves. That transition will demand internal changes. Processes will need to become more standardised if DS7 is to deliver consistent quality across multiple countries. Technical and leadership capabilities will have to deepen. Digital systems and governance structures will need to support a larger and geographically broader organisation. In other words, regional expansion will depend as much on what happens inside DS7 as where it goes next. There is an interesting irony to the company’s position. Its business has been built on finding weaknesses before they become failures. Now DS7 is applying a similar philosophy to itself: strengthening systems, developing people and preparing for changes in the energy market before they become urgent. The oil and gas industry may be changing, but equipment will still need to work, infrastructure will still need to be trusted and increasingly complex energy assets will still need to be inspected. For DS7, that creates a path forward. Because whether the asset belongs to today’s energy industry or tomorrow’s, someone still has to find the problem before the problem finds everyone else.  

For almost 30 years, Cooltec Industries Sdn Bhd has watched the rules of manufacturing change around it. The Malaysian company began in 1996 as a modest automotive air-conditioning service provider. Today, it is an industrial group spanning manufacturing, assembly, formulation and distribution, serving automotive, consumer and household, electrical and electronics, and gifts and souvenirs markets in Malaysia and abroad. Managing Director of Cooltec Industries Sdn Bhd – Mr. KK Yeaw. But the model that helped build manufacturing businesses such as Cooltec is coming under pressure. Labour is harder to secure. Customers are relocating production. Overseas manufacturers have scale and technology advantages. Electric vehicles are changing automotive supply chains. Sustainability expectations are rising. And automation is turning from competitive advantage into industrial necessity. For Cooltec, standing still is no longer an option. The company is responding by attempting something more difficult than simply expanding: changing the kind of manufacturer it wants to become.   When Cheap Is a Losing Strategy One decision illustrates that shift particularly clearly. Cooltec is deliberately moving away from declining products and low-demand markets — and it has little appetite for competing solely on price in commoditised segments. There is a practical reason. Manufacturers in larger overseas markets can bring formidable advantages in volume, cost and technology. Trying to beat them at their own game can become a race towards thinner margins. Cooltec’s alternative is differentiation. Its strategy increasingly centres on technical capabilities, automation, process improvement, specialised products and markets where quality and reliability matter alongside price. That thinking is particularly relevant to automotive manufacturing. As the industry moves towards electric vehicles, Cooltec sees the competitive gap shifting from basic production capability towards precision, automation and smarter manufacturing. Overseas companies currently possess significant technological advantages, raising the stakes for Malaysian suppliers seeking to remain part of future automotive supply chains. Cooltec is responding with projects including automated visual inspection, fully and semi-automated production machinery and paperless data-logging systems. Automation is not simply about making the factory faster. It is becoming part of how the company manages another structural challenge: people. The Labour Problem Isn’t Going Away Manufacturing has traditionally depended heavily on manual labour, including foreign workers. Cooltec says tighter labour availability and regulatory constraints have made that dependency increasingly difficult. As the business grows, finding people with the right technical capabilities has become harder rather than easier. The company is consequently approaching the problem from both directions: automating processes where possible while investing in upskilling and reskilling the people it already has. That represents a broader change in what growth means to Cooltec. Becoming bigger is no longer enough. The company wants to become more productive, specialised and resilient — even if that means walking away from business that adds volume without strengthening its long-term position.   From Car Parts to Durian Leaves Perhaps the more unexpected expression of Cooltec’s transformation sits far away from the production of automotive components. Through its MyLEAF brand, the company has been experimenting with turning natural materials, including rubber and durian leaves, into premium gifts. It may seem an unusual extension for a precision manufacturer. But it reflects Cooltec’s attempt to combine manufacturing capability with circular-economy thinking and the commercialisation of underutilised materials. The company identified traditional rubber-leaf handicrafts as an area constrained by manual production, high costs and limited scalability. Its response has been to explore how design, production methods and branding could turn the concept into a more commercially viable product. MyLEAF has obtained SIRIM ECO 009:2019 and Circular Economy Certification, while Cooltec is also pursuing MyHIJAU recognition. The initiative sits within a much wider sustainability programme. Cooltec maintains six management and certification systems spanning automotive quality, general quality management, environmental management, occupational health and safety, eco-labelling and circular economy practices. It is also preparing sustainability reporting despite such disclosure not yet being mandatory for many SMEs. For management, the certifications are intended to be more than plaques on a wall. The company says they provide the internal discipline governing how quality, safety and environmental considerations are managed across daily operations. That discipline has commercial consequences too. Cooltec points to eight projects awarded by Perodua as evidence that its emphasis on quality, compliance and capability is being recognised by customers.   Growth Gets Expensive Transformation, however, requires capital. Automation requires machinery. Larger orders consume working capital. New capabilities require training. And expanding production eventually creates another unavoidable problem: where to put everything. Cooltec says its existing facilities are increasingly constrained by space, prompting consideration of new properties, factory reorganisation and more sophisticated layout planning. Financing those investments while protecting cash flow has made financial discipline increasingly important. It is a reminder that scaling an industrial company is very different from simply selling more products. Each stage of growth can demand another layer of capital, infrastructure, people and systems before the return becomes visible.   The Next Problem Is Succession Yet the company’s biggest long-term challenge may have little to do with machinery. Cooltec is now thinking seriously about who will lead the business next. Its ambition is to develop a capable next-generation successor while transferring knowledge and decision-making away from individuals and into a stronger institutional structure. That requires formal leadership development, better knowledge transfer and management systems capable of surviving a generational transition. For a company approaching its fourth decade, it may be one of its most consequential transformations. Cooltec has already reinvented itself once, moving from automotive air-conditioning services into a diversified manufacturing group. Now it is attempting another transition — towards automation, higher-value manufacturing, sustainability and a less labour-dependent operating model. The pressures driving that transformation are unlikely to disappear. EVs will continue reshaping automotive supply chains. Automation will accelerate. Environmental expectations will rise. And low-cost competition will remain relentless. For established manufacturers, longevity alone offers little protection. The businesses that survive the next industrial cycle may be those willing to abandon parts of the playbook that made them successful in the last one. After almost 30 years, Cooltec’s biggest challenge is no longer