ESG

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

Walk through a supermarket today and almost everything seems to promise something. Natural. Wholesome. Clean. Better for you. Turn the package around, however, and the story can become considerably more complicated. Chief of Inspirations, Chief of Creations and Chief of Growth of Love Earth Organic – Samantha Ma, Jason Leong and Natasha Mah. Love Earth Organic was founded in 2011 around a deceptively simple idea: eating well should not require consumers to become food scientists. Fifteen years later, that belief has grown into a Malaysian organic and natural food business with more than 180 products, 4,600 retail touchpoints and a presence in 15 countries. Its products span superfoods, nuts, seeds, snacks, seasonings and breakfast cereals to nutrition for babies and mothers. The company says one Love Earth product is now sold every 10 seconds. Yet the philosophy behind those numbers can be reduced to four words: “We sell what we eat.” For Love Earth, that sentence has become less a slogan than a test.   Making Organic Ordinary When Love Earth entered the market, organic food in Malaysia occupied a very different space. It was expensive, relatively niche and frequently confined to specialist retailers. Healthy eating could feel less like an everyday choice than membership in an exclusive club. Love Earth saw an opportunity not simply to sell more organic products, but to make them approachable. The customer it had in mind was not an abstract wellness consumer. It was the working parent shopping for a family, the young couple trying to eat better, or anyone wanting cleaner ingredients without dramatically changing the way they lived—or spent. That proposition has become more relevant as consumers pay closer attention to labels and ingredients. Awareness has increased, but Love Earth argues that information is useful only when consumers have practical alternatives they can afford and understand. Its answer has been to bring natural and organic food closer to the everyday Malaysian pantry.   Why Control Matters Eight years ago, the company made a decision that changed the economics—and responsibility—behind that promise: it began building its own manufacturing capability. The logic was control. If a brand promises consumers uncompromising quality, relying entirely on others to produce its food eventually creates a limit to how much of that promise it can personally guarantee. Now Love Earth is taking that strategy further. Its first owned factory in Rawang is targeted for 2027, with the company working towards production-level organic certification and greater proprietary formulation capability. The investment is part of a broader shift towards what Love Earth describes as “depth before breadth.” After building a portfolio across multiple food categories, the next stage is less about adding products for the sake of expansion and more about deepening the relationship consumers have with the brand. That discipline means sometimes saying no. Love Earth says it has rejected formulations that would have lowered costs but compromised its standards, as well as distribution opportunities that offered greater reach at the expense of its positioning. It has consistently recorded year-on-year growth of more than 20%, but management argues that the more revealing measure is whether families continue choosing the brand. Its five-year ambition reflects that thinking: 30 million healthier choices made.   When Founders Have to Let Go Growth has created another challenge: how to preserve conviction when the founders can no longer personally oversee everything. Love Earth now employs more than 130 people. Its co-founders have had to move from operators to executives, while developing a middle-management structure capable of carrying the business forward. Processes that worked for 10 people no longer work for 50. Structures built for 50 have to change again at 130. The company has introduced structured SOPs and quarterly OKRs, embraced AI across functions and moved towards greater employee empowerment and flexible working arrangements. The difficult part is ensuring systems scale without allowing the original purpose to disappear inside them.   From Organic Food to Health Brand Love Earth’s next ambition is larger than food. It wants to become Malaysia’s most trusted health brand, building a relationship with families that extends across different stages of their wellness journey. International expansion into Europe and the Middle East forms part of that plan, alongside B Corp certification, ISO-grade management systems and a stated goal of PLC-readiness by 2028. These are significant ambitions for a company that began by trying to make organic food less intimidating. But perhaps the most difficult target is also the least measurable. Fifteen years from now, Love Earth wants consumers opening one of its products to recognise the same promise that started the company in 2011. Because products can multiply. Factories can grow. Markets can expand. Trust is much harder to manufacture.  

For decades, food manufacturers have been trying to save consumers time. The trade-off was often understood: the faster the meal, the further it moved from the flavours, ingredients and rituals that made it worth eating in the first place. Asia Food & Beverage Sdn Bhd is betting that this compromise is becoming obsolete. The Malaysian manufacturer and distributor has built a portfolio around translating familiar Asian flavours into products designed for modern life. Traditional herbs, spices and pre-mixed herbal soups sit alongside freeze-dried coffee, instant white coffee, milk tea, instant noodles, cooking pastes and popcorn. Key Account Manager at Asia Food & Beverage Sdn Bhd – Koh Kai Bin. Through brands including Uncle Sun, Vilavie, Sunsoya and Old Village, the company serves retailers, supermarkets, wholesalers, importers and distributors while pursuing a wider international market for Malaysian food and beverage products. But the more interesting proposition is not the size of the portfolio. It is the problem the company is trying to solve: how do you compress hours of preparation into minutes without stripping away what made the food distinctive?   Putting Time Back on the Menu Consider herbal soup. Traditionally, creating it can involve sourcing specific ingredients, understanding how they work together and allowing them to simmer over time. The result carries associations that go well beyond convenience—family, culture, wellness and the familiar taste of home. Asia Food & Beverage has made converting such experiences into accessible formats one of its core strengths, particularly through Uncle Sun’s pre-mixed herbal soups. The same thinking extends across its portfolio. A cup of coffee or a cooking paste may be an everyday product, but the company sees an opportunity in removing preparation complexity without removing the character consumers expect. Historically, the market often forced a choice. Instant meant convenient; authentic meant effort. Asia Food & Beverage positioned itself somewhere in between. Today, that middle ground is becoming more valuable as expectations rise. Consumers increasingly want convenience accompanied by better quality, consistency and products that fit more health-conscious lifestyles.   The Factory Gets Smarter Delivering that proposition at scale requires more than recipes. Asia Food & Beverage is investing in automation, digital integration and real-time inventory and production tracking as it modernises its manufacturing and supply-chain operations. The challenge is complexity. Producing across categories as different as herbs, powdered beverages and convenience foods requires quality control and inventory management to remain closely aligned with production. As volumes increase and brands expand internationally, small inefficiencies can quickly become larger operational problems. The company has consequently been moving away from siloed management towards a more data-driven model, giving teams greater visibility into what is happening across production and warehousing. That information is intended to move decision-making closer to the factory floor, allowing problems to be identified and addressed faster.   Saying No to Growth Asia Food & Beverage’s ambitions are international, but management is selective about how it intends to get there. Growth, in its view, is not simply a matter of producing more. The company is deliberately avoiding low-margin volume battles and highly commoditised price competition. It is similarly cautious about pursuing fashionable product categories that may generate attention but offer little connection to its manufacturing strengths. Instead, capital is being directed towards operational resilience, technology and product categories with repeat-purchase potential and the ability to scale internationally. That discipline extends to sustainability. Rather than framing sustainability around a single initiative, Asia Food & Beverage has concentrated on process improvements, quality assurance and operational efficiency intended to reduce waste and improve productivity. It has also remained selective about partnerships and expansion opportunities where short-term revenue could come at the expense of margins, quality or supply-chain reliability.   Taking Malaysian Flavours Further The next test is whether Asia Food & Beverage can take products rooted in familiar regional tastes and make them increasingly mainstream elsewhere. Its ambition is to expand its brands across broader international retail markets while moving towards greater digital automation throughout manufacturing and logistics. That will require more than new machinery. The company’s workforce must also make the transition from traditional manufacturing practices towards a culture where data moves quickly from warehouse and production floor to management decision-making. There is an interesting paradox at the centre of that strategy. Asia Food & Beverage is using increasingly sophisticated technology to sell something fundamentally familiar: the taste of home, without the hours traditionally required to create it. In the global race to make food faster, the company’s opportunity may lie in ensuring convenience no longer feels like a compromise.

You can buy new machinery. Build a bigger factory. Replicate a recipe. But there is one part of this soy sauce business that money cannot recreate: 70 years of living culture. Director & General Manager of Thean Heong – Nicky Woo and Ong Poh Liang. Inside its fermentation vats exists a microbial ecosystem cultivated over seven decades—one that has become inseparable from the flavour of every batch it produces. Combined with traditional sun-brewing and a fermentation cycle that can take six to 12 months, it represents something increasingly rare in modern food manufacturing: a process that refuses to be hurried. For Nicky Woo and Kelvin Ong, that patience is not nostalgia. It is a competitive advantage. Their business produces naturally brewed artisanal soy sauces and premium condiments for home cooks, high-end restaurants and food industry partners. At a time when manufacturing technology can dramatically accelerate production, the company has made a deliberate decision to protect the one ingredient it believes cannot be engineered: time.   When Faster Isn’t Better The business traces its differentiation to a longstanding gap in the soy sauce market. Decades ago, chemically hydrolysed alternatives offered manufacturers a faster route to production but often produced a markedly different flavour profile. Today, the conversation has moved further. Consumers are increasingly scrutinising what goes into their food, creating demand for cleaner labels, fewer ingredients, reduced use of chemical preservatives and greater transparency around raw materials. For the company, this has reinforced the relevance of traditional fermentation rather than diminished it. Its approach combines longstanding brewing knowledge with modern food production standards. Technology is welcomed where it can improve safety, consistency and precision—but not when it interferes with the natural fermentation process. The principle guiding investment is straightforward: modernise the operation without modernising away what makes the product distinctive.   A Competitive Advantage That Is Alive Perhaps the company’s most unusual asset cannot be purchased, installed or easily replicated. Over seven decades, its fermentation vats and production environment have developed their own microflora ecosystem, supported by proprietary koji mould strains. This hyper-localised microbial environment contributes to the distinctive flavour profile of its naturally fermented sauces. In practical terms, the factory itself has become part of the product. A competitor can purchase similar machinery and ingredients, but reproducing a microbial environment developed over generations is considerably more difficult. Preserving that advantage while scaling presents its own challenges. Natural fermentation remains sensitive to agricultural inputs, outdoor conditions and ambient temperatures, meaning production involves managing variables that conventional manufacturing often attempts to eliminate. The company has responded by bringing together two generations of expertise. Its leadership structure has evolved from a traditional family-controlled hierarchy towards a more professionalised organisation, pairing veteran master brewers with younger food scientists. Traditional knowledge is increasingly supported by scientific measurement and data, allowing expertise accumulated over decades to be preserved while improving consistency.   Choosing Premium Over Volume That philosophy also determines what the business will not do. Growth is being pursued through premiumisation and expansion into international markets where consumers value artisanal food heritage. But management has no intention of entering mass-market price wars or shortening fermentation cycles simply to increase output. Chemical accelerators that could reduce production time are deliberately off the table. It is a strategic trade-off: accepting limitations on short-term volume to protect the characteristics on which the brand’s long-term value depends. The same willingness to make difficult trade-offs extends to sustainability. Over the past 14 months, the company moved away from a cheaper plastic packaging supplier and invested in a closed-loop glass bottle recycling system. Solar-powered temperature monitoring has also been introduced across its fermentation yards. These decisions temporarily compressed margins but reduced single-use plastic waste while introducing technology into the brewing process without replacing the tradition behind it.   Taking Tradition Somewhere New The company’s next chapter will test how successfully a product rooted in heritage can respond to a new generation of consumers. Nicky Woo and Kelvin Ong are preparing to develop a functional wellness range encompassing certified low-sodium, organic and allergen-free soy sauces—without sacrificing the traditional umami profile at the heart of the product. Achieving this will require stronger internal R&D capabilities and training for traditional blending teams to meet stringent international organic certification standards. It is an intriguing direction for a brewing culture seven decades in the making. The company is not preserving tradition by refusing to change. It is using science, technology and changing consumer expectations to give an old process new relevance. In an industry constantly searching for ways to make food faster, its most valuable advantage may be knowing exactly what should never be rushed.  

The modern office is no longer a static environment. How companies work, organise teams and use space continues to evolve—and the businesses responsible for creating those environments are having to evolve with it. For Yuansheng Furniture Sdn Bhd, that shift is changing what it means to be a furniture manufacturer. The Malaysian company specialises in office system furniture, partitions, cabinetry and customised interior fit-out solutions for commercial and corporate environments. With in-house manufacturing facilities, CNC machinery and digital design technologies, Yuansheng manages the process from design development and production through to delivery and installation. Serving corporate clients, interior design firms, contractors and project management companies across Malaysia and Singapore, the company has built its reputation around customisation, consistent quality and reliable execution. But its next phase is increasingly about turning those manufacturing strengths into a more integrated solutions business.   Technology Changes the Factory At the centre of that transition is digitalisation. Yuansheng is investing in ERP systems, digital design workflows and production optimisation software to create greater accuracy and visibility throughout its operations. For a business dealing with customised projects, the implications are significant. Designs can change, deadlines can tighten and specifications can differ substantially from one project to another. Connecting design more closely with production allows Yuansheng to respond to those variables while reducing errors and inefficiencies. Its combination of digital design systems, CNC technology and in-house production also provides greater control over the journey from concept to finished product. That integration is one of the company’s less visible competitive advantages. While customers ultimately see the completed workspace, much of the value is created through the coordination, planning and manufacturing discipline behind it.   Not All Growth Is Good Growth As Yuansheng expands, it is also becoming more deliberate about the type of business it wants to build. Revenue and project volume matter, but management views stronger operational capability, product quality, customer relationships and resilience as equally important measures of progress. That means resisting the temptation to compete solely on price. The company deliberately avoids aggressively pursuing low-margin opportunities where commercial pressures could compromise quality or service standards. Instead, investment is being directed towards technology, systems and people that can strengthen its competitiveness over the longer term. It reflects a broader philosophy: scale should follow capability rather than come at its expense. Three priorities now guide that strategy—operational excellence, digital transformation and market expansion. Singapore remains an important market for the company, while a planned showroom investment is expected to create a stronger platform for customers to experience Yuansheng’s products, materials and capabilities firsthand.   A Different Kind of Sustainability The materials and energy behind the modern workplace are changing too. Yuansheng has been gradually adopting environmentally friendlier and lower formaldehyde-emission materials, including formaldehyde-free options where suitable. The move addresses both environmental considerations and growing attention towards healthier indoor environments—an increasingly relevant issue for the commercial spaces in which people spend much of their working lives. The company has also begun integrating solar energy into its operations as part of efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce dependence on conventional energy sources. Neither transition happens without cost. Yuansheng acknowledges that these initiatives require additional investment and planning, but views them as long-term operational decisions rather than isolated sustainability exercises.   From Manufacturer to Solutions Provider Yuansheng’s next challenge is perhaps its most significant: changing how the business itself is positioned. Its ambition is to develop from a manufacturing-focused company into a more integrated solutions provider combining manufacturing capability with digital systems, customer engagement and greater regional reach. The new showroom will form part of that transition, alongside further investment in production optimisation and operational visibility. But transformation on the outside will require transformation within. Yuansheng expects to strengthen organisational capabilities, develop future talent and improve internal systems as the complexity and scale of the business increase. There is a larger shift taking place here. As offices evolve, customers are asking more of the companies that create them. Manufacturing capability remains essential, but so too are customisation, speed, technology, sustainability and the ability to manage an increasingly complex project from beginning to end. For Yuansheng, staying competitive means recognising that change early. The company may still manufacture the physical components of the workplace. Increasingly, however, its business is about building the systems, capabilities and solutions around them.  

For BIG ONION®, food may be at the heart of the business, but its ambitions increasingly extend beyond what is served on the plate. The Malaysian company is evolving from its traditional catering base towards a broader ecosystem spanning facilities management, franchise development, central kitchen capabilities and hospitality solutions. The shift reflects a market where clients increasingly expect food service partners to deliver not only quality, but also operational efficiency, consistency and the ability to scale. Managing Director of Big Onion Food Caterer Sdn Bhd – Foo Kuan Liang. BIG ONION® sees this evolution as a response to a fundamental change in the industry: managing food operations today is as much about people, systems and experience as it is about the meal itself.   Building an Ecosystem Around Food One of the gaps BIG ONION® identified early was the shortage of reliable food service partners capable of combining quality with operational efficiency at scale. Clients increasingly needed more than a supplier. They required partners capable of understanding manpower requirements, customer experience, operational consistency and the realities of maintaining service standards across different environments. Those requirements have become more complex as ESG considerations, technology, workforce management and brand experience play a larger role in corporate decision-making. BIG ONION® has responded by broadening its capabilities. Through facilities management and franchise development, the company is looking to create food service ecosystems that can address operational challenges while providing a foundation for longer-term growth. This means thinking beyond individual projects towards systems that can be replicated and scaled.   Growth That Goes Beyond Revenue That approach is also shaping how the company defines growth. For BIG ONION®, becoming bigger is not necessarily the same as becoming stronger. Its focus is increasingly on building a business that can create sustainable value for clients, employees, partners and communities. Operational capability is central to that strategy. As the organisation expands into areas such as facilities management and franchise development, maintaining consistency across a larger network becomes increasingly challenging. Growth introduces complexity in manpower, communication, quality control and decision-making. It has required the company’s leadership to move from being predominantly hands-on operators towards building stronger structures, clearer processes and teams capable of taking greater responsibility. The transition is significant. Leadership in a growing organisation is no longer simply about overseeing daily execution; it is about creating an operating model capable of functioning effectively as the business becomes larger and more diverse.   The Work Behind the Experience Much of BIG ONION®’s competitive strength, it says, happens away from public view. Behind a catering operation, large-scale event, facilities management contract or franchise business sits considerable coordination. Manpower must be deployed, problems resolved quickly, standards maintained and different operational components brought together. The company’s emphasis on adaptability and execution has therefore become an important part of its proposition. Its ability to respond under pressure while maintaining quality and client confidence is supported by the systems, processes and people behind each operation. In this sense, BIG ONION® views its competitive advantage not simply as the food it produces, but the operational ecosystem surrounding it.   Putting Sustainability Into Operations Sustainability is becoming another component of that ecosystem. Over the past 12 to 18 months, BIG ONION® has strengthened ESG practices across its operations, including more efficient resource management, efforts to reduce unnecessary wastage, increased adoption of paperless processes and improvements in operational planning. The company has also invested in systems, process improvements and employee development despite recognising that such investments may not produce immediate returns. It reflects a longer-term view of sustainability—one that connects responsible practices with operational resilience rather than treating ESG as a separate corporate exercise.   Building for Regional Potential BIG ONION®’s next phase will see it work towards becoming a more integrated food, hospitality and facilities management ecosystem with regional potential. Facilities management, franchise development, central kitchen operations, ESG-driven initiatives and strategic partnerships are expected to form important parts of that expansion. But the company acknowledges that external growth will require internal transformation. Greater standardisation, stronger systems, leadership development and digital integration will be necessary if the business is to scale without losing the agility and execution capabilities on which it has built its reputation. For BIG ONION®, the next stage is therefore not simply about entering more markets or adding more services. It is about creating an organisation capable of supporting them. As the food and hospitality industry becomes more complex, the businesses positioned to grow may be those capable of looking beyond individual services and building the infrastructure around them. BIG ONION® is betting its next chapter on exactly that.  

Satu Creative has launched the third edition of Creative Sprint, a venture development programme designed to help social enterprises strengthen their businesses, access funding and build industry partnerships. Creative Sprint 2026 will focus on three areas — Income Pathways, Heritage Conservation and Circular Solutions. The programme is supported by Yayasan Hasanah, Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), Digital Penang, Malaysian Business Angels Network (MBAN) and Artem Ventures. The partners will support participating social enterprises through funding, business development expertise, market opportunities and investment guidance. Satu Creative CEO Ahmad Azuar Zainuddin said Malaysia has many social entrepreneurs with ideas that can create meaningful impact, but stronger support is needed to help them grow. He said Creative Sprint aims to bring together organisations with different expertise to give social enterprises access to funding, knowledge, networks and business opportunities. Selected participants will take part in bootcamps, mentoring sessions and workshops covering areas such as business development, customer research, investment readiness, strategic partnerships and growth. They will also have opportunities to connect with entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts, mentors and potential funders. Yayasan Hasanah managing director and trustee Siti Kamariah Ahmad Subki said long-term investment in people, ideas and partnerships is important to creating lasting social impact. She said the Hasanah Social Enterprise Fund 2026, in collaboration with Satu Creative, provides social enterprises with opportunities to strengthen their businesses, learn from experienced professionals and connect with organisations that can support their growth. Applications for Creative Sprint 2026 are now open. The Central Region Bootcamp will take place in Kuala Lumpur from Aug 18 to 20, followed by the Northern Region Bootcamp in Penang from Sept 8 to 10. Each three-day programme will end with a Demo Day, where participants will present their ventures to ecosystem partners, mentors and industry leaders.

Malaysia’s initial public offering (IPO) market is entering a new phase focused on strengthening environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures, as companies are now required to provide more detailed information on their sustainability performance. ESGpedia vice-president Josef Acabo said such information is becoming increasingly important to investors in making investment decisions. He said ESG reporting requires companies to disclose how they manage issues such as carbon emissions, energy use, environmental impact and other sustainability matters, alongside their financial performance. Citing Deloitte’s Southeast Asia Mid-Year IPO Snapshot 2026, he noted that Malaysia’s capital market remained strong, with 36 companies listed in the first half of 2026, raising US$1.34 billion. However, he said investors are also placing greater emphasis on the quality of companies’ ESG disclosures, particularly as Malaysia’s National Sustainability Reporting Framework (NSRF) has expanded to cover all Main Market issuers this year. “Newly listed companies will feel a short-term compliance adjustment, but the greater risk to momentum would be weak disclosure, which global funds would simply price as a discount. Incomplete disclosure is treated as unpriced risk, and investors price it,” he told Bernama. Acabo said companies that fail to provide sufficient ESG information could face higher financing costs, lower valuations and more scrutiny from investors before they decide to invest. Reporting requirements are set to become more demanding in 2027, when companies will be required to disclose more information on Scope 3 emissions, which refers to carbon emissions generated across a company’s supply chain. “For example, a manufacturer may know how much electricity and fuel it uses, but it may not have information on the emissions generated by its suppliers. These emissions form part of Scope 3,” he explained. He said Scope 3 emissions could account for between 70% and 90% of a company’s total carbon footprint, making suppliers a critical part of the reporting process. However, he cited a report from Eco-Business research showing that only 11% of Malaysian public-listed companies disclosed Scope 3 emissions in the 2023 reporting cycle, compared with 39% across the Asia-Pacific region. “This means the pressure will not only be on large listed companies. Their suppliers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), will also increasingly need to provide reliable information on their carbon emissions,” he said. Acabo added that many companies still collect ESG information manually, with data scattered across different spreadsheets, websites and subsidiaries, making it difficult to verify its accuracy. “The real shift required is towards continuous, digitalised carbon accounting rather than an annual reporting exercise,” he said. He urged companies and SMEs to begin collecting relevant data now, so the information can be properly checked and verified before the new requirements take effect.