Mydin opens its first hypermarket in Sabah
Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd (Mydin), a homegrown company and market leader in halal retail and wholesale services in Malaysia, has opened its first hypermarket in Sabah at Sejati Ujana, Mile 7 here.
It is Mydin’s 26th hypermarket in Malaysia and its 74th branch nationwide.
The hypermarket with a floor space of 197,000 square feet, which was officially opened yesterday, comprises a mall with 24 shop lots and 68 promotional lots.
According to Mydin managing director Datuk Wira Haji Ameer Ali Mydin, the opening of the hypermarket here has provided jobs for more than 400 locals.
He said the shops and promotional lots in Mydin also offered jobs to about 300 people, which added up to 700 jobs offered to the locals.
Ameer said he hoped the jobs provided to the locals would boost the economy in the area.
“When we open a hypermarket anywhere, we would want to make sure that it will benefit the local community.
“Besides making profit for ourselves, it is important to ensure that it would benefit the local community.
“Hypermarket has a strong customer pull, especially in Sejati Ujana which is surrounded by residential areas. It (Mydin) would help in the development in the area. We also provide jobs for the locals, which would boost the economy and the local community’s buying power,” he said.
Ameer said that Mydin was built on the family concept.
He hoped the hypermarket would provide a place for a family outing in this area.
“We do not want people to just come and purchase and leave. We want to provide a place for families who would come and bring their children, spend time shopping around the shops outside of the hypermarket, eat at the food court, and spend a wonderful family outing,” he said.
The new hypermarket offers a variety of products, including household items, kitchen supplies, clothes, and more with low prices. Mydin also offers special prices for wholesale purchases.
Mydin has also prepared a special section for local smallmedium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs to sell their products, in an effort to promote and market their products so that they could compete with international products and have a medium to grow their products.
“We hope to provide the local SME entrepreneurs the opportunity to grow their businesses, which would also help in the economy of the local community,” Ameer said.
Other than that, Mydin Hypermarket here provides a stage for events, and NonGovernment Organisations are welcomed to utilise the stage for free. There is also a VIP room named the Rafflesia Room.
Mydin offers another service that is not offered by any other hypermarket. For any customer who spends RM600 or more in one month, he will be insured for the following month; if the customer passes away the following month, his beneficiary will receive RM300 Mydin voucher every month for a year.
“We are awarded by the Bank Negara to do this. We are the only hypermarket that offers this type of insurance, and we hope that it would be able to help ease the financial burden of Malaysians,” Ameer said.
He also said that Mydin is different because it only sells halal food and that customers do not have to hesitate or check for the food halal status as Mydin has a team dedicated to ensuring that Mydin only sells products that are halal.
During the opening ceremony of Mydin Hypermarket here, the locals crowded the hypermarket to grab a chance to purchase products offered at a promotional price. There was also a long queue at the counter for registration of Mydin membership card which would allow customers to enjoy even lower prices.
The opening of Mydin Hypermarket was graced by Libaran assemblyman Jaffari Waliam who hit a gong three times as a symbolic gesture to the opening.
During a press conference held after the opening ceremony, Ameer, when asked why he chose Sandakan to open the first Mydin hypermarket in Sabah, said that he was offered by the developer to open Mydin in Sandakan and he found that the Sejati Ujana is a strategic place to open the hypermarket.
“We see a win-win situation out of the offer from the developer. We see the opportunity so we have decided to do it. The developer made a good offer, and Sandakan is a very nice place.
“We also think that Sejati Ujana is a strategic place for this hypermarket because it is located in the outskirts of town but has enough population around its area for the hypermarket to survive. (And) if we have enough attraction, people from all over Sandakan will come over, God’s willing.
“We find that people in a lot of places, like Sandakan, are starting to concentrate on places in the outskirts of town because they are closer to home and away from traffic jam,” he added.
Ameer also thanked the local authorities and local community for their support in the process of opening the hypermarket.
When asked if there was any plan for more Mydin to be opened in Malaysia, Ameer said that Mydin is taking things slow for now.
He said that Mydin currently had seven lands in Malaysia that were bought, and had received approval for construction.
“However, for now, considering the economic situation, we have to be very careful, cautious. So we are waiting.
Doesn’t mean that we will not open (more Mydin), but we will do it a bit more slowly,” he said.
The opening ceremony ended with Ameer and Jaffari visiting all shops and promotional lots around the hypermarket.