Lifestyle

A customer may struggle to describe the perfume they want, yet know precisely how they want it to feel. It might recall a place, suit a personality or capture an occasion. For Ipoh-based fragrance brand ÜMADE, helping customers make that connection is central to the business.  Director of ÜMADE – Saw Sim Ee. Founded by a chemical engineer, the botanical-inspired brand combines ready-made perfumes with personalised scent creation, workshops, corporate gifting, wedding door gifts and event activations. Its proposition extends beyond the bottle: customers participate in discovering what they like and translating that preference into a fragrance.  That experience gives ÜMADE a way to compete in a category where international brands command recognition and lower-priced sellers compete on accessibility. The company has identified space between the two for a locally developed offering built around guidance, personal meaning and customer involvement.  For ÜMADE, the commercial opportunity lies as much in the process as in the finished product.    Making Personalisation Repeatable  Personalisation begins with listening. Customers may describe a mood, a memory or an occasion rather than identify particular fragrance notes. Staff must interpret those responses and guide them towards a scent direction.  Behind that conversation are organised scent libraries, consultation methods, formulation notes and product storytelling. These help turn an unfamiliar subject into an approachable experience while giving the business a framework for delivering it consistently.  The challenge is preserving that quality as demand moves across different settings. A retail consultation, a wedding order and a corporate activation each require different preparation, quantities and delivery arrangements.  As ÜMADE has expanded across outlets, events and customised orders, relying on the founder to oversee individual decisions has become increasingly difficult. Knowledge that once sat with one person now needs to become usable across the team.  The company is strengthening formulation records, production checklists, inventory tracking, quotation processes and staff training. Customer consultation guides and event planning procedures are also part of the effort.  These are consequential investments for a business whose appeal rests on making each interaction feel personal. Clear processes give employees the knowledge and confidence to guide customers while maintaining product consistency.    Choosing Where to Grow  ÜMADE’s ambitions span corporate gifting, hospitality, tourism, weddings and digital sales. Each offers a different route to customers beyond conventional retail.  Corporate gifts can connect fragrance with a company’s identity. Wedding gifts can carry an association with a particular celebration. Workshops and tourism partnerships can make scent creation part of a visitor’s experience of a place.  Yet a wider range of opportunities also creates pressure on resources. ÜMADE assesses potential channels against brand fit, operational readiness, consistent execution and their ability to build lasting customer relationships.  Its definition of growth therefore includes stronger margins, customer trust, team capability and repeatable operations alongside revenue. Outlet numbers alone are an incomplete measure.  The company is deliberately avoiding heavy discounting and rapid expansion before its systems can support them. Protecting the quality of the experience is part of protecting the business model.    Discipline Behind the Bottle  The same thinking informs ÜMADE’s approach to materials and packaging.  Adding more scents, bottle designs and packaging options can create variety, but it also increases purchasing complexity and the risk of unused stock. The company has moved towards more standardised packaging formats, controlled batch preparation and closer material planning.  The aim is to reduce waste and improve inventory efficiency while maintaining quality. Bottle return, reuse and refill initiatives remain possibilities under exploration, subject to hygiene, safety and operational feasibility.  Its next ambition is to become a recognised Malaysian fragrance experience brand, supported by stronger business, hospitality, tourism and digital channels, with regional markets a longer-term prospect.  Reaching that stage will require better costing, customer data management, product documentation, marketing analysis and compliance readiness.  For ÜMADE, the next test is whether a business built on individual memories can deliver the same care across a larger operation. Its growth depends on making that personal connection something the whole organisation knows how to create.   

In Malaysia’s crowded wellness market, Be One Excel has built a business around digital consumers. Now it wants to take control of what happens long before a product reaches the shopping cart.  A few seconds on TikTok can turn an unfamiliar product into a bestseller. A convincing demonstration, a stream of customer reviews or a well-timed livestream can send shoppers straight to checkout.  Founder of Be One Excel Sdn. Bhd. – Mohd Redzwan Bin Shujauddin. But in Malaysia’s increasingly competitive health and personal care market, attracting attention is only half the battle. Keeping customers coming back is where the real business begins.    Be One Excel Sdn Bhd understands that distinction.  The Malaysian company has built its business around health, wellness and personal care products, with approximately 90% of its revenue coming from e-commerce platforms including TikTok Shop, Shopee and social media channels.  Its portfolio spans pain relief solutions, health supplements and personal care products, targeting consumers with specific everyday concerns. These include adults aged 40 to 60 seeking wellness and pain relief products, alongside hijab-wearing women aged 30 to 50 looking for hair and personal care solutions.  Rather than relying on traditional retail distribution, Be One Excel has used digital platforms to build its brands, engage directly with consumers and understand what influences purchasing decisions.  Several of its products have become top performers in their respective online marketplace categories, according to the company.  Yet the next chapter of its business may look very different from the one that brought it this far.    The Real Currency Is Trust  Social commerce has transformed how consumers discover products, but it has also created an environment where competing brands are only a swipe away.  For wellness businesses, that presents a particular challenge.  Consumers are increasingly exposed to promotional claims, product demonstrations, influencer recommendations and customer testimonials. With so many options available, distinguishing between marketing promises and dependable products becomes more difficult.  Be One Excel believes its competitive position depends on more than online visibility.  Product quality, regulatory compliance, customer feedback and responsive after-sales engagement are central to its strategy. The company uses consumer insights and sales data to refine existing products and identify opportunities for further development.  Its approach reflects a wider commercial reality: online popularity can generate immediate sales, but repeat purchases require confidence in the brand.  And in categories involving personal wellbeing, that confidence can be especially difficult to rebuild once lost.    Not Every Trend Deserves a Product  Digital marketplaces reward speed. Trends emerge quickly, competitors respond almost immediately and aggressive promotions can deliver sudden increases in sales.  Be One Excel is choosing to be more selective.  The company says it does not introduce products simply because a category is trending. Nor does it intend to chase sales through excessive discounting that could weaken profitability or brand positioning.  Instead, investment decisions are assessed against customer demand, expected returns, operational capabilities and long-term commercial value.  That discipline extends beyond marketing.  As the business expands, it must navigate product regulations, Halal certification requirements, taxation, e-invoicing, employment legislation and changing e-commerce platform policies.  For a company generating most of its revenue online, dependence on digital platforms also makes adaptability important.  Building a sustainable business means developing capabilities that extend beyond any individual marketplace or sales campaign.    The Factory Changes Everything  Be One Excel’s most significant ambition is to establish its own manufacturing facility.  It represents a substantial shift for a business whose growth has largely been driven by digital distribution and brand development.  Owning production capabilities would give the company greater control over product development, quality, manufacturing capacity and costs. It could also improve its ability to respond to consumer demand without relying entirely on external production arrangements.  The ambition does not end there.  Be One Excel plans to strengthen its presence in physical retail through pharmacies, wholesalers, distributors and other strategic partners. Business-to-business distribution and selected regional export markets are also part of its expansion plans.  The strategy points towards a more integrated business model, connecting product development and manufacturing with digital commerce, conventional retail and international distribution.  Getting there will require investment in leadership, technical capabilities, operational systems and talent development.  It will also demand careful financial management as the company balances expansion against the need to maintain profitability and product standards.  For Be One Excel, the objective is no longer simply to sell more products through more online channels.  It is to build a Malaysian health and personal care business with greater control over its products, stronger distribution capabilities and the infrastructure to compete beyond its home market.  TikTok may have helped build the customer base. The factory could determine how far the business goes.   

Consumers are notoriously difficult to predict.  Yesterday’s niche ingredient can become tomorrow’s supermarket staple. A traditional dessert can suddenly find a new audience with an unexpected flavour. Sugar gets reconsidered, convenience gets reinvented and products once confined to specialist stores find their way into everyday shopping baskets.  Director of Venus Biotech Sdn Bhd – Imran Khan. Often, consumers do not know what they want next until somebody puts it in front of them.  That is an interesting place to build a business — and it is increasingly where Venus Biotech Sdn Bhd sees its opportunity.  The Malaysian company sits at the intersection of biotechnology, food innovation, manufacturing and commercialisation. Its business ranges from food ingredients and product development to Halal compliance, consultancy, training and manufacturing.  On paper, these can look like very different businesses. In practice, they revolve around one question: How do you turn an idea into something the market can actually buy?    Tomorrow’s Products Start Somewhere  Consider what is happening to the modern pantry.  Consumers are paying closer attention to sugar. Alternative sweeteners such as stevia, erythritol and allulose are becoming increasingly relevant to product formulation. Convenience continues to reshape food consumption, while traditional flavours are being repackaged and reinterpreted for contemporary lifestyles.  Venus Biotech operates within these shifts.  Its ingredient portfolio includes natural and artificial sweeteners, food acids, antioxidants, herbs, spices and flavour enhancers. But rather than stopping at supplying ingredients, the company also works in formulation, R&D and commercial production.  Its own product development illustrates the possibilities.  Traditional Kuih Tepung Pelita, for example, has been given a contemporary pistachio interpretation under the Rembun brand. Elsewhere, Venus Biotech works with retort technology for products such as rendang, dendeng and sambal, alongside cooking pastes, beverage syrups, biscuits, snacks and premix flours.  The objective is not innovation simply for novelty.  A product still has to taste right, remain safe, comply with requirements, survive production and ultimately make commercial sense.  And that is where the business becomes more complicated.    The Shelf Is the Final Test  There is a considerable distance between having a clever product idea and seeing it successfully sold at scale.  Ingredients need to work together. Production needs to be consistent. Shelf life matters. Food safety matters. Halal integrity matters. Packaging matters. Certification can determine whether a product is ready for the channels it hopes to enter.  For smaller food businesses in particular, navigating all of this can mean dealing with multiple suppliers, manufacturers, technical specialists and consultants.  Venus Biotech identified an opportunity to bring more of those pieces together.  Alongside manufacturing and R&D, it provides guidance on Halal and MeSTI certification, product formulation and new product development. It also conducts food-handler, Halal competency and food-technology training, including areas such as retort processing and preservation.  This integrated structure has become one of the company’s key differentiators.  It means Venus Biotech can participate much earlier in a product’s journey — potentially from the first formulation — and remain involved as it moves towards commercial production and market readiness.    Science Meets the Supermarket  Now Venus Biotech wants to push further into the consumer market itself.  Its next phase places greater emphasis on FMCG commercialisation, wider distribution and product placement across channels including hypermarkets and pharmacies, while continuing to grow its consultancy and training businesses.  That ambition changes what happens internally too.  Running manufacturing, R&D, consultancy and compliance operations simultaneously becomes increasingly complex as volumes and projects increase. Venus Biotech is therefore strengthening workflows, coordination, production capacity and operating systems as it prepares for larger-scale growth.  There are boundaries to that expansion.  The company maintains that growth cannot come at the expense of Halal integrity, food safety or consistency. Sustainability follows a similarly practical philosophy, with attention placed on production efficiency, resource management, supply-chain improvements and reducing unnecessary waste.  In other words, innovation still needs discipline.    Creating Demand, Not Just Following It  The consumer market rarely stands still long enough for businesses to become comfortable.  Tastes change. New ingredients emerge. Health considerations influence purchasing decisions. Traditional products find modern interpretations, and technology makes previously difficult products easier to manufacture and distribute.  The opportunity for Venus Biotech is to operate where those changes meet science and commercial reality.  Its future may not be defined by one breakthrough ingredient or a single blockbuster product. The bigger proposition is building an ecosystem capable of repeatedly taking ideas through formulation, compliance, manufacturing and eventually onto shelves.  Because the most interesting consumer businesses do not only ask what people are buying today.  They ask what people might be buying tomorrow — before consumers have even thought to ask for it.

The promise of a good spice mix is deceptively simple: open a packet, shorten the preparation and still produce a meal that tastes familiar. Delivering that promise repeatedly, across thousands of packs and different kitchens, is a more demanding manufacturing task.  For one Malaysian curry powder manufacturer, the business rests on translating three generations of family recipes into products suited to contemporary routines. Its range covers retail spice packs, bulk blends for commercial kitchens and food manufacturers, and custom formulations for individual brands.  Managing Director of AKS Nivaas Sdn Bhd – Datuk Muralidaran Ragunathan. The customer base stretches from home cooks to restaurants, caterers, hotels and industrial food producers. Each buys convenience, but their expectations extend to flavour, ingredient transparency and confidence that the next batch will perform like the last.  The company’s proposition is rooted in traditional cooking. Alongside curry powders, it produces mixes for familiar foods such as thosai, vadai, idli and briyani, seeking to make inherited recipes accessible to younger generations.  Convenience, in this context, serves a cultural purpose. Reducing preparation makes it easier for households to continue cooking dishes that might otherwise feel too time-consuming for an ordinary weekday.    Consistency Is the Hard Part  The company initially identified demand for authentic flavours without the work of pounding and measuring multiple spices. It now sees ingredient traceability, clear labelling and quality control becoming increasingly important to customer trust.  Those expectations become harder to meet as output rises. The manufacturer describes the difference between producing 500 packs a week and 10,000: incoming chilli, turmeric and coriander vary, while customers expect the finished blend to remain familiar.  Its response includes strict raw-material grading, checks on incoming ingredient lots and standardised blending procedures. Much of that work remains invisible to the consumer, whose judgement begins when the packet is opened.  Maintaining those standards also has a financial dimension. The company reports ingredient and packaging cost increases of between 20% and 30%, placing pressure on production economics.  Its investment decisions therefore begin with profitability per pack. Opportunities must draw on established strengths in recipes, consistency and customer confidence while contributing to the business’s longer-term position.  That means declining some sales. Management does not intend to compete on the lowest price or accept wholesale volume indiscriminately. Larger orders can require substantial raw-material purchases while retailer payment terms delay cash collection. More revenue does not necessarily translate into stronger finances.    Keeping Growth Manageable  Expansion has also exposed the limits of founder-led decision-making. Production, marketing and sales cannot all depend on one person’s approval without slowing the organisation.  Building a team capable of taking responsibility is therefore part of the scaling challenge, alongside maintaining product quality and managing working capital.  On the factory floor, practical improvements connect employee welfare with resource management. A dust collector installed in the bean-processing section helps control airborne husks, while workers receive protective equipment and process training.  Bean husks also have a second use. The company grinds them into powder and sells the material to farmers as livestock feed, diverting a production by-product into another productive activity.  Its wider approach includes encouraging responsible electricity and water use as production grows.    From Shelf Presence to Customer Relationships  The next ambition is to build a more direct relationship with Malaysian households, supported by online sales, social media and live commerce. Supermarket distribution remains part of the business, but direct channels offer opportunities to understand customers and encourage repeat purchases.  Product development could include a move from powders into pastes, while social platforms are also expected to support international expansion.  These plans bring new demands on margins, fulfilment and customer service. The company recognises that online volume alone is insufficient.  Its strongest asset remains the original promise: familiar food made easier. Turning that promise into a larger business will depend on protecting the recipes while strengthening everything around them, from purchasing and production to the relationship with the cook. 

For a restaurant built around getting your hands messy, Ombak Kitchen is remarkably disciplined about the details.  The Malaysian seafood brand has made its name through Pakai Tangan Jer — its hands-on approach to Cajun seafood dining, where crabs, prawns, lobsters and other seafood arrive at the table drenched in proprietary sauces and are meant to be shared without much ceremony.  But behind the informality is a business that has deliberately resisted one of the restaurant industry’s most familiar temptations: expanding faster than its operations can support.  Co-Founder and Group CEO of Ombak Kitchen – Sharita Loo. Operated by Arena International Services Sdn Bhd, Ombak Kitchen opened its first restaurant in Bukit Jelutong in June 2018. It now has four outlets across Bukit Jelutong, Bangsar, IOI City Mall Putrajaya and Setapak, serving premium halal seafood ranging from Alaskan King Crab and lobster to oysters, accompanied by sauces developed in-house using Louisiana-inspired spices and the company’s own blends.  The proposition was relatively straightforward when it entered the market.  At the time, premium seafood dining in Malaysia tended to sit at opposite ends of the spectrum. Consumers could pay fine-dining prices at hotels and upscale restaurants, or travel to traditional seafood restaurants, often outside central urban locations.  Ombak Kitchen saw room between the two.  It wanted to give urban families access to fresh, premium seafood in convenient locations without turning every meal into a major financial occasion. Its blue crab identity became a recognisable marker of that proposition.  Eight years later, however, access is no longer the principal competitive battleground.  The proliferation of dining concepts and seafood operators means consumers have considerably more choice. For Ombak Kitchen, the challenge has consequently shifted from filling a market gap to maintaining something harder to replicate: consistency.  “The genuine search is for a place diners can return to and rely on: same freshness, same flavour, same warmth of service, every single time,” the company says.  That emphasis helps explain its measured expansion.  Ombak Kitchen argues that restaurant growth cannot simply be read through outlet numbers, revenue or customer volumes. Its preferred indicator is whether customers return, celebrate important occasions at its restaurants, recommend the brand and voluntarily become part of its community.  The commercial results, it believes, follow.  This philosophy is connected to the company’s broader purpose of “enriching life and living”, influenced by the principles of Friends to Mankind and its belief that commercial success should ultimately contribute to a wider human good.  There is also a practical business case behind the philosophy.  Ombak Kitchen’s hands-on dining model leaves unusually little room for operational shortcuts. A plated dish can sometimes disguise inconsistencies through presentation. Seafood eaten directly by hand is far less forgiving.  The resistance of a lobster, tenderness of squid, freshness of a tiger prawn and temperature of the food are immediately apparent. So too are inconsistencies in sauces or preparation.  “Every flaw shows. Every compromise is felt, before it is tasted,” the company says.  As a result, much of Ombak Kitchen’s competitive advantage sits out of customers’ sight.  Daily sourcing, kitchen protocols, sauce standardisation across four locations and staff training form the infrastructure behind what is intended to feel like an effortless meal. The company says it sources fresh rather than frozen seafood and, where possible, absorbs cost pressures instead of quietly compromising the experience or its pricing promise.  Service is treated with similar precision. Employees are trained and retrained not simply in serving food but in creating an atmosphere in which diners feel comfortable lingering over a messy meal. Small gestures — including helping crack a crab claw — form part of a service culture that the business considers difficult to reproduce consistently.  That operating discipline will now face a larger test.  Ombak Kitchen plans to open three additional outlets by 2027, including two in the Klang Valley and one in Johor Bahru. But the more consequential change may be taking place behind the scenes.  Its founders are preparing, figuratively and operationally, to “exit the kitchen”.  The next phase involves converting years of founder knowledge and instinct into repeatable systems, workflows and standards, while developing a new generation of leaders capable of running the organisation without constant founder intervention.  It is a familiar transition for founder-led businesses. What works across a handful of locations because the founders remain close to daily operations can become increasingly fragile as the organisation grows. Scaling therefore requires more than replicating outlets; it requires institutionalising the judgement that made the original business successful.  For Ombak Kitchen, that means codifying not only how seafood is sourced and prepared, but also what the brand should feel like.  Its underlying proposition has, after all, become broader than Cajun seafood.  The company believes it is competing for something increasingly scarce among urban Malaysians: uninterrupted time together. In an era of hurried meals and screens at the table, Pakai Tangan Jer is intended to encourage participation. Eating becomes slower, communal and difficult to do absent-mindedly.  A regular weeknight dinner can become a small celebration; birthdays, office milestones and marriage proposals become experiences built around a shared table. In that sense, Ombak Kitchen is selling more than seafood. It is creating a reason for people to reconnect.  That may ultimately be its more defensible proposition.  The next three outlets will increase Ombak Kitchen’s footprint. The harder task will be ensuring that customers do not notice the business has become bigger at all.  For a brand that believes trust is built one consistent meal at a time, preserving the recipe that earned that trust may be the most important ingredient in its next stage of growth.   

What if ageing isn’t something we simply have to accept—but a self-care discipline we can understand, influence and experience differently? That was the conversation at the latest Creators Circle, “Can We Hack Ageing? What Men & Women Need To Know About Living Better, Longer,” held on 23 September at 21 Rooftop Bar, Hyatt Centric Kuala Lumpur. Moderated by Dr Aiesha Asmadi, Sports & Exercise Medicine Doctor (also Co-Founder, ThrivePlay), the intimate conversation brought together Dr Iman Thalia, Medical Doctor and Co-Founder of The Longevity Lounge, and Kit Mah, Founder of Healthspan and NFM Practitioner, for a candid exploration of longevity, healthspan, peak performance and the lifestyle choices that can shape how we age. Rather than approaching ageing purely as a medical conversation, the evening looked at the bigger picture — how we move, sleep, recover, eat, manage our metabolic health and ultimately maintain the energy and capability to keep doing the things we love. “The conversation around ageing needs to change. It’s not simply about adding years to our lives; it’s about making those years healthier, more active and more meaningful,” shared Dr Aiesha Asmadi. “Longevity medicine is an incredibly exciting and rapidly evolving space, and we should remain open-minded about innovation. At the same time, the evidence behind different interventions varies considerably. Peptides are a good example — there is promising science, but it is also a highly unregulated space, and some of the claims being made have moved ahead of robust human evidence. Promising does not necessarily mean proven. We can embrace innovation without abandoning evidence-based medicine,” she elaborated. For Dr Iman Thalia, longevity doesn’t have to become another complicated wellness obsession. It starts with understanding the body and making better, sustainable choices. She brought critical clarity to female longevity, emphasising that effective health optimization starts with precision data. “While wearable tech is everywhere, few women know how to translate those metrics into meaningful action. As women navigate perimenopause, shifting hormones profoundly impact sleep, body composition, muscle retention, cognitive function, libido, and metabolic health. Unlocking peak vitality through this transition isn’t about generic wellness trends—it requires a tailored, data-first approach rooted in baseline bloodwork and everyday lifestyle metrics,” she added. FROM HEALTHSPAN TO PEAKSPAN But one of the most interesting ideas to emerge from the conversation was the shift from simply asking how long we live to asking how long we can maintain our peak. For Kit Mah, the next evolution of the longevity conversation is Peakspan — maintaining peak health and performance for as long as possible. “For me, longevity is not simply about extending lifespan — it is about maintaining your peak for as long as possible. I call that ‘Peakspan,’” shared Kit Mah, Founder of Healthspan & NFM Practitioner. “To achieve Peakspan, we first have to master the basics of health before we start talking about peak performance. Sleep, nutrition, metabolic health, movement and recovery are the foundations. Once those basics are mastered, we can begin to customise them to an elite level — much like an athlete would. The exciting part is that much of this can be achieved naturally, by understanding your own body and building a health and performance strategy around it,” he advocated. The idea of Peakspan added another dimension to the evening’s conversation: that healthy ageing isn’t necessarily about trying to turn back the clock, but about maintaining strength, energy, mobility, recovery and performance for as long as possible. And importantly, it begins with mastering the basics. Sleep. Nutrition. Metabolic health. Movement. Recovery. Then comes optimisation. That thinking sits comfortably within the wider philosophy behind ThrivePlay (and ThriveFest to be held in 2027) — that wellness should not feel like punishment, restriction or an endless pursuit of perfection. It should be about building the physical and mental capacity to live, move, play, work, travel and experience life better. Together, the speakers reflected a more nuanced evolution of longevity: men and women may experience ageing differently; living longer is only part of the goal; and the emerging ambition may be to extend not only lifespan and healthspan, but our “peakspan” — while remaining scientifically rigorous about the interventions we use along the way. Creators Circle continues to create space for conversations that sit at the intersection of health, lifestyle, culture, business and the future — bringing together people from different disciplines to question how we want to live, work and age. And perhaps that is what made the conversation particularly relevant. Because ageing is not a niche wellness conversation. It is everyone’s conversation. The evening was supported by Ice Power and The Exchange Asia, and hosted at Hyatt Centric Kuala Lumpur, bringing together a curated community of creators, founders, entrepreneurs and cultural leaders for an intimate conversation around one of life’s most universal experiences.

For Muiz Hot Chicken, the answer has less to do with opening as many outlets as possible and more to do with building the systems, people and infrastructure that allow a brand to grow without losing what made customers choose it in the first place. Everyone has an opinion about fried chicken. How crispy should it be? How spicy? How much should it cost? Is it worth travelling for, or does convenience win? In Malaysia, where consumers have no shortage of local and international choices, getting someone to try a new food brand may be relatively easy. Getting them to come back is considerably harder. Founder of Muiz Food Industries Sdn. Bhd – Muhamad Muizzuddin bin Remle. That is the environment in which Muiz Hot Chicken is trying to build its next chapter. Established in 2013 under Muiz Food Industries Sdn. Bhd., the homegrown halal food brand has developed around a relatively straightforward proposition: quality fried chicken at an accessible price. But building the next big food brand requires considerably more than a good recipe. Behind the restaurants and kiosks is a growing business spanning franchise operations, food manufacturing, raw-material supply, training, quality assurance and operational support. It is this less visible side of Muiz that may ultimately determine how far the brand can go.   Getting the Everyday Meal Right Food is one of the most personal consumer businesses. People may be willing to experiment, but they also develop habits quickly. A favourite meal becomes a regular order. A convenient restaurant becomes the default choice. And when consumers know exactly what something should taste like, inconsistency becomes immediately noticeable. For Muiz, that makes accessibility important — but consistency equally so. Its customer base stretches across families, students and working professionals, placing the brand firmly within the everyday dining market. These are consumers who are looking not only for taste, but also value, convenience and reliability. Those expectations have expanded considerably in recent years. Consumers now interact with food brands through delivery platforms, social media, digital promotions and physical stores. Food safety, service, convenience and brand reputation increasingly sit alongside price and taste when deciding where to eat. Muiz has consequently had to think about the customer experience as something much larger than what happens at the counter.   The Restaurant Is Only the Front End What customers see is fried chicken. What they do not see is the infrastructure required to make that chicken taste the same across a growing network of outlets. Muiz manufactures and supplies food products and raw materials to its franchisees and business partners. This gives the company greater involvement in the supply chain supporting the brand and, importantly, greater ability to protect consistency as it expands. That matters because scale has a habit of exposing weaknesses. A handful of outlets can often be managed through close supervision. Add more locations, franchisees, employees and suppliers, and informal ways of working become increasingly difficult to sustain. Standard operating procedures become essential. Training has to be repeatable. Quality needs to be monitored. Communication must travel quickly through the organisation. For Muiz, growth has therefore required its leadership to become increasingly systems-driven. It is a transition familiar to many entrepreneurial businesses: the company can no longer depend solely on individuals knowing what to do. The knowledge has to become part of the organisation itself.   The Franchisee Has to Win Too There is another customer in Muiz’s business model: the entrepreneur operating under its name. Franchising has allowed countless food businesses to expand, but selling a franchise and building a successful franchise network are two very different propositions. Muiz sees its role as extending beyond providing a name, menu and outlet format. Its franchise ecosystem includes operational training, supply-chain management, quality assurance, marketing support and continuous business coaching. That distinction is important. Every franchise outlet carries the reputation of the entire brand. A poorly managed location does not only affect its owner; it can influence how consumers perceive every other outlet carrying the same name. The success of the franchisee and the reputation of the brand are therefore closely connected. For Muiz, creating opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs has become part of the broader purpose of the business. Its growth generates employment, supports suppliers and creates potential entry points for people who want to operate businesses of their own. The challenge is making sure opportunity is accompanied by enough structure to make it sustainable.   Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better There is an obvious way to demonstrate growth in the restaurant industry: open more stores. Muiz is becoming more cautious about treating outlet numbers as the ultimate measure of success. For the company today, growth means strengthening its restaurant network while simultaneously developing manufacturing capabilities, improving its supply chain, investing in people and increasing operational efficiency. It also means knowing when not to grow. Rapid expansion can produce impressive numbers, but it can also place enormous pressure on supply chains, employees, franchisees and quality control. If the infrastructure behind the brand cannot keep pace with the storefronts carrying its name, growth can quickly become a liability. Muiz says it is deliberately avoiding expansion that could compromise product quality, franchisee performance or customer trust. That philosophy is shaping where capital goes next. Investments are being assessed according to whether they improve customer experience, increase scalability and create longer-term value rather than simply producing faster expansion.   Building for What Comes Next The same thinking is beginning to influence Muiz’s approach to sustainability and governance. Over the past year, the company has started incorporating environmental, social and governance principles into its strategy through governance improvements, stakeholder engagement and operational assessments. For a growing food company, these considerations eventually touch almost every part of the organisation — from sourcing and manufacturing to employment, waste, supply-chain practices and relationships with franchise partners. Some initiatives inevitably require additional investment without producing an immediate financial return. Muiz sees them instead as part of preparing the organisation for a larger and more resilient future. And

The supermarket aisle has become a place of calculation. Consumers are looking at prices more carefully, comparing what they get for what they pay and deciding which brands still deserve a place in the trolley. But being more careful with money does not necessarily mean wanting less. If anything, expectations have become tougher: make it affordable, but don’t make it feel cheap. Managing Director of Ritelac (M) Sdn Bhd – Sri Rishikheshen Murugan. That is the space Ritelac (M) Sdn Bhd wants to own. The Malaysian FMCG company specialises in dairy-based and chocolate products, including milk powders and chocolate beverages, distributed through supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesalers and independent retailers. Yet its bigger proposition is not simply what it sells. It is the balance it is trying to strike between quality, accessibility and price. For Ritelac, that middle ground has become increasingly relevant. The company saw a market largely divided between premium-priced products and cheaper alternatives. Its answer was not to join a race to the lowest possible price, but to build products for consumers who wanted affordability without feeling they were surrendering quality, taste or nutritional value. Today, that proposition carries even greater weight. As household costs rise, value has taken on a different meaning. Consumers are not simply hunting for the cheapest option. They are scrutinising what their money actually buys. And that changes the game for brands.   Affordable Is No Longer Enough There was once a fairly straightforward formula for competing on value: lower the price and attract the buyer. Ritelac believes that formula is becoming less reliable. Modern consumers expect consistency. They want products that taste good, meet appropriate standards and remain reasonably priced. For everyday categories such as milk powder and chocolate beverages, earning a regular place in the household also depends on something less tangible: trust. Ritelac has therefore positioned its business around making quality nutrition more accessible while maintaining regulatory compliance, product consistency and supply reliability. Behind the consumer-facing products is another equally important audience — retailers, wholesalers and distributors. A product can only become part of everyday life if people can actually find it. That makes distribution a critical part of the company’s strategy. Ritelac has been expanding its retail footprint and strengthening partnerships that allow its products to reach consumers across Malaysia. But expansion creates its own pressure. More customers, more outlets and greater volumes mean more complicated inventory planning, supply chain management, compliance requirements and expectations. What can be controlled through direct oversight in a smaller operation becomes considerably harder as a business scales. Ritelac has responded by putting greater emphasis on systems, defined processes, data-driven decisions and accountability across the organisation. The shift is significant. Growth becomes less about how much a company can sell and more about whether the organisation behind those sales can keep up.   The Discipline to Say No Perhaps one of the more interesting elements of Ritelac’s strategy is what it chooses not to pursue. The company says it will not chase growth at the expense of quality or compete purely on price in a race to the bottom. Instead, opportunities are evaluated through a longer-term lens, from product development and pricing to partnerships and market expansion. That discipline may not be visible on a supermarket shelf, but Ritelac considers it one of its competitive strengths. The same thinking influenced a notable decision over the past 12 to 18 months: investing ahead of demand. Rather than waiting for expansion to stretch its operations before reacting, Ritelac allocated resources towards supply chain readiness, quality control and operational capabilities in parallel with growth. It meant accepting higher costs upfront before all the commercial returns had materialised. The logic was simple: growth should not move faster than the business supporting it. That philosophy is shaping what comes next. Ritelac wants to evolve from a growing Malaysian business into a recognised regional dairy and beverage brand. Doing so will require wider market reach, but internally it will also demand stronger leadership capabilities, more scalable systems, greater use of data and an organisation able to manage increasingly complex operations. It is an ambition built less around getting big quickly than getting the foundations right. Because in an increasingly crowded FMCG market, being affordable can get a product noticed. Being consistently good is what might get consumers to buy it again. And for Ritelac, that second purchase could matter far more than the first.

Children have never had more entertainment available to them. It is instant, personalised and almost permanently within reach. Yet as screens occupy a growing share of everyday life, another market is developing around something considerably less technological: getting people out of the house. Sambill Park is betting on it. Managing Director of Sambill Park (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd – Wei Chi Wong. The Malaysian sports, entertainment and family lifestyle company creates physical experiences ranging from youth sports academies and competitions to family attractions, recreational facilities and community events. It is also the company behind Funtopia, recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records as Malaysia’s Largest Inflatable Theme Park. But management increasingly sees the business as something larger than organising events or operating attractions. Sambill Park wants to build intellectual property around real-world experiences — and eventually take those concepts across Southeast Asia.   Competing With the Screen The underlying consumer problem is difficult to ignore. Children spend significant amounts of their leisure time digitally entertained, while parents are increasingly looking for activities that provide recreation, learning and meaningful family time. Sambill Park sees an opportunity between conventional sports training and traditional family entertainment. Rather than offering a single activity, it develops concepts combining physical participation, youth development, entertainment and community engagement. That distinction has become more important as consumer expectations have evolved. Families are no longer necessarily paying simply for access to an activity. They expect convenience, value and an experience memorable enough to justify their time. The competition is therefore not always another theme park, sporting programme or event. Sometimes it is simply staying home.   Turning Experiences Into Intellectual Property For Sambill Park, that creates an interesting business challenge. Events are temporary by nature. A successful event may attract thousands of people, but when it ends, so does that particular revenue opportunity. Intellectual property changes the equation. The company is increasingly focused on developing proprietary concepts and operating models that can be repeated across different locations rather than continuously building one-off projects from scratch. When considering new opportunities, Sambill Park asks whether they strengthen its existing ecosystem, whether they can be scaled efficiently and whether they can create sustainable value for customers, partners and shareholders. That has meant being willing to turn down some shorter-term commercial opportunities. Instead, resources have been directed towards proprietary brands, recurring community programmes, strategic partnerships and concepts capable of travelling beyond a single venue. The objective is not simply to organise more events. It is to own more of what makes those events valuable.   The Difficult Part of Getting Bigger That strategy also changes the organisation required to deliver it. In a founder-led company, speed can be an advantage. Decisions are made quickly, communication is direct and the person with the vision is often closely involved in execution. Scale makes that considerably harder. As Sambill Park has grown, maintaining consistency, accountability and culture across more activities has become a bigger management challenge. The company’s leadership is consequently moving away from direct involvement in day-to-day operations towards strategy, governance and talent development. Teams need authority to make decisions. Management processes have to replace informal communication. Future leaders must understand the organisation well enough to operate without constant founder involvement. Sambill Park describes its next transition as moving from a founder-driven organisation to a systems-driven one. For many SMEs, that is one of the most difficult stages of growth. A founder can build a successful business. Building an institution capable of growing independently of that founder is a different achievement.   Why Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better Sambill Park is also becoming more selective about what growth means. Revenue, locations and headcount are obvious measures, but the company increasingly looks at brand equity, customer loyalty, intellectual property and whether its business models can be replicated. It does not want growth that weakens culture or financial discipline simply to increase scale. That philosophy has influenced its approach to sustainability as well. Rather than defining sustainability only through environmental measures, Sambill Park includes the durability of the business and its impact on communities. Over the past 12 to 18 months, it has prioritised longer-term investment in youth development, family activities and proprietary platforms even where shorter-term projects could have produced faster revenue. The trade-off is deliberate: slower immediate returns in exchange for assets and programmes that can continue creating value.   Taking the Model Across Southeast Asia The next test is regional. Sambill Park wants to evolve from a Malaysian operator into a Southeast Asian platform for sports, entertainment and family experiences. Rather than merely opening more venues, the ambition is to build a portfolio of concepts, brands and operating systems that can be replicated through strategic partnerships in different markets. That will require stronger technology, governance, processes and a deeper management bench. But there is a broader consumer bet underpinning the expansion. Digital entertainment is unlikely to retreat. Artificial intelligence, gaming, streaming and increasingly immersive technology will continue competing for attention. Sambill Park is betting that this will not eliminate demand for physical experiences. It may make good ones more valuable. People still want places to meet. Parents still want their children to move, learn and interact. Communities still need reasons to come together. The business opportunity lies in turning those needs into experiences people are willing to leave their screens for. Because the more of life that happens online, the greater the premium may become on experiences that can only happen in the real world.  

A diner ordering sashimi in Kuala Lumpur is unlikely to think about exchange rates, customs clearance, cold-room capacity or the logistics of moving fresh seafood thousands of kilometres from Japan. That is precisely the point. Behind Malaysia’s growing appetite for Japanese cuisine sits a supply chain where timing, temperature and availability can determine what a restaurant is able to put on its menu. Freshness cannot wait for a delayed shipment. A chef cannot serve an ingredient that did not arrive. And customers accustomed to consistency rarely care about the logistical explanation when something is unavailable. Senri (M) Sdn Bhd operates in that largely invisible space. Established in 2018, the Kuala Lumpur-based importer and wholesaler specialises in Japanese food products, including premium sea urchin and air-flown fish sourced from Japan’s Toyosu Fish Market, alongside frozen seafood and dried ingredients. Its customers span Malaysia’s HORECA sector — restaurants, hotels, cafés and other food-service operators — where Senri’s job extends considerably beyond selling seafood. It is about making distance disappear.   The Business Behind the Menu Malaysia’s expanding Japanese dining market has created opportunities for restaurants and suppliers alike. It has also exposed the vulnerabilities involved in sourcing authentic ingredients internationally. Availability can fluctuate. Import lead times change. Exchange rates move. Shipping disruptions happen. Regulations evolve. Fresh seafood adds another complication: time. For a restaurant, these supply-chain problems quickly become operational ones. An unavailable ingredient can disrupt a menu, while inconsistent quality risks disappointing customers who increasingly expect authenticity and consistency. Senri has therefore built its proposition around reducing uncertainty. Through relationships with Japanese producers and exporters, it coordinates sourcing, import documentation, customs clearance, quality inspection, warehousing and distribution before products reach customers. The company has also expanded beyond fresh seafood into frozen and dried products, giving food-service operators a broader one-stop sourcing platform. As competition increases, however, Senri believes supplying products alone is no longer sufficient. It increasingly works with chefs, restaurant owners and purchasing teams on seasonal offerings, product recommendations and specialty ingredients that can support menu development. In effect, the wholesaler is becoming part of the restaurant’s decision-making ecosystem.   Freshness Has an Infrastructure Problem Growth has made that role more complicated. More customers and a broader product portfolio mean more inventory to predict, store and move. Too little stock risks shortages. Too much creates its own financial and operational consequences. Senri is consequently directing capital towards areas diners will probably never see: cold rooms, warehouse capacity, inventory management and digital systems. The company has implemented a Warehouse Management System and strengthened demand forecasting and standard operating procedures as transaction volumes increase. These investments are intended to improve supply visibility, reduce errors and allow the company to react faster to changing customer requirements. Senri also monitors exchange-rate movements and global supply-chain conditions — factors capable of rapidly altering the economics of imported food. The lesson is straightforward: the promise of fresh Japanese seafood begins long before the fish reaches the chef.   Growing Up as a Business Scaling has also forced Senri to change how it is managed. What began with a more founder-led operational structure has evolved into defined responsibilities across purchasing, logistics, warehouse operations, sales, finance and administration. For management, that transition is necessary because complexity increases with scale. Decisions that could once be handled personally need to be delegated. Departments must communicate effectively. Managers need enough authority to respond quickly when circumstances change. Leadership has therefore shifted towards developing capable teams and future leaders, leaving senior management more room to concentrate on supplier relationships, business development, market expansion and long-term investment. It is a familiar challenge for growing SMEs: the systems that get a company started are rarely the systems capable of taking it much further.   What Customers Don’t See Senri considers one of its biggest competitive advantages to be something customers may barely notice when everything is working properly. Reliability. A delivery arriving on time is not dramatic. Neither is accurate inventory, correctly completed import documentation or a cold chain functioning exactly as intended. But repeat those things consistently and they become commercially valuable. Senri’s relationships with producers and exporters in Japan provide sourcing access, while procurement planning and inventory management are designed to translate that access into dependable supply in Malaysia. The company combines this with responsiveness when customers require something unusual or plans suddenly change. Trust, in this business, is accumulated through hundreds of transactions where nothing goes wrong. And that may become increasingly important as Malaysia’s Japanese food market matures. Consumers have more choices, restaurants face greater competition and expectations surrounding quality and authenticity continue to rise. The businesses serving them therefore need supply partners capable of delivering not just premium ingredients, but predictability. For Senri, the opportunity lies in becoming increasingly difficult to remove from that equation. The glamour of Japanese dining will remain at the front of the restaurant: the precision of the chef, the presentation of the plate and the quality of the ingredients. Senri’s work happens much earlier and mostly out of sight. Because behind Malaysia’s Japanese food boom is a much less visible business — the discipline of making sure the right ingredients arrive at the right place, in the right condition, at exactly the right time.