Malaysia: AYS Plans To Penetrate Overseas Market With Food Products

PETALING JAYA, Jan 12 (Bernama) — AYS Sdn Bhd, which
produces the first microwaveable halal frozen ready-to-eat Malaysian
meals under the Sri Kulai brand, hopes to penetrate the overseas market
by middle of this year.

Chief executive officer Liow Ren Jan said the company was looking
at Dubai as its first overseas market due to the increasing demand
there not only for halal food products but also for Malaysian food.

“We need to study carefully before we enter any overseas market.
Besides Dubai, we are also looking at the Indonesian market,” he told
reporters after launching the Sri Kulai All-Time Favourite Recipes
Search Contest here Tuesday.

Under Sri Kulai, the company currently has 100 recipes and about
30 of them have been commercialised into products for the market.

The Sri Kulai products, which have 12-month shelf life, are
currently available on AirAsia flights as well as selected Jusco and
Tesco outlets.

Liow said supplying to the low-cost airline currently contributed
significantly to the business and the trend was likely to continue.

“We are looking at supplying to other airlines. Currently, we are
in talks with two airlines to supply them with the Sri Kulai products.
Hopefully, we can finalise this in the next two months,” he said.

The airline segment is expected to contribute about 50 per cent of the company’s sales in the next one to two years, he added.

AYS, which is entering its second year of operation, hopes to achieve RM20 million sales in the next five years.

The company recently launched a licensing system under the Sri
Kulai brand to encourage entrepreneurship among the public, Liow said.

“We hope that with the contest, this can garner interest among the
public to start their own businesses. This is a good platform as the
products offer wide opportunities for new business ventures,” he said.

The contest requires participants to submit recipes for desserts,
dim sum and dishes that use ingredients that are halal and microwavable.

The grand prize winners will receive, among others, five per cent
of the sales of their winning recipes, which will be created into
ready-to-eat products.

In addition, they will get a RM10,000 cash discount each when they
become licensees of the Sri Kulai licensing programme under the
lifestyle concept outlet.

Liow said under the concept, the company was targeting to have at least five outlets this year.

— BERNAMA