Malaysian Chicken Supplier Plans Global Expansion

MALAYSIA - Malaysian chicken supplier, Ayamas Corp Bhd, is planning to supply to retail markets in Malaysia, West Asia and the rest of the world.
calendar icon 23 December 2003
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Malaysian Chicken Supplier Plans Global Expansion - MALAYSIA - Malaysian chicken supplier, Ayamas Corp Bhd, is planning to supply to retail markets in Malaysia, West Asia and the rest of the world.

Originally started to ensure a consistent supply of chickens for KFC Holdings (M) Bhd, Ayamas is emerging as an independent local brand with a number of favourites among its food products.

Strongly entrenched in the poultry business where products are churned out by its integrated processing plant in Klang, the group has been successful in promoting its brand among the household of most urban Malaysians.

Ayamas managing director Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said the potential for the brand to grow further was enormous and the company had singled out retail business as the next area of focus.

"We do not want to be known only as a supplier to KFC and Pizza Hut. They are our valued customers. But out there, we have 23 million people to sell to, as well as supermarkets, mini markets and hypermarkets to distribute to. We want to capitalise on the industry's potential," he said.

His rationale for going into retailing was simple. The growth of Ayamas had been closely tied to that of KFC's, so when KFC began to reach its optimum level, Ayamas found itself stagnating.

Thus, its quest was to create a household name and be present in every major town to provide convenience shopping for busy urban consumers. This was in a way replicating KFC's business model.

After slightly more than a year of implementation, the results have been quite visible. Under the Ayamas banner, the group manages 43 Ayamas convenience stores, 14 Ayamas kiosks and 30 Rasa Gourmet dining restaurants. The Rasa Gourmet restaurants offering rice items with chicken have been a hit with locals for whom rice is a staple.

According to Johari, the group will be opening another 10 outlets next year with a mixed number of stores, kiosks and restaurants.

Ayamas started business in 1985, operating a processing plant to deliver chickens to KFC and Pizza Hut. It was required to strictly deliver poultry weighing between 1.75 kg and 1.80 kg to comply with the "finger licking good" cooking procedures.

To achieve consistency in quality of supply, the group developed its own upstream activities from production of feed meal to setting up of its own breeder farms, hatchery units and supplying of day-old chickens to contract farmers.

Because of the stringent requirement, Ayamas could only supply 65% of its output to KFC while the remainder of the chickens had to be sold in the open market. Ayamas' fresh chickens are also supplied to hypermarkets and other fast food outlets.

This led to the setting up of outlets where excess supply could be sold directly to consumers, apart from being channelled to hypermarkets and other fast food outlets.

Johari said Ayamas stressed on brand quality, freshness, hygiene and halal factors to compete with other suppliers of fresh chicken in the market.

As for further processed products, Ayamas will continue to churn out variants to its already established lines producing nuggets, chicken meatballs, burgers and drummets.

"We would like to launch two to three products a year, mainly variants to the chicken-based main products," he said.

Sales of further processed chicken products by Ayamas garner about RM100 million or 50% of the market share. And the figure looks set for further growth, given the hectic lifestyles of the urban adult population who have little time to prepare elaborate meals.

Among the more popular products are nuggets (crispy and gold), fritters, sausages, chicken meatballs, burgers and drummets.

Other than the breaded freezer-to-fryer products, the popular range includes chilled whole chicken, chicken parts and deboned meat products, frozen chicken products and heat-treated products such as cocktails, sauces and condiments.

On its overseas business, Ayamas has plans to expand the export market for its further and heat-treated processed products.

Ayamas also plans to increase production to cater to rising demand from West Asi.

Source: eFeedLink - 22nd December 2003

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