Vital for entrepreneurs to know logistics — Manufacturer
MIRI: Logistics management covers the physical movement of products such as raw materials from their point of origin to receipt by end users as a fi nished product.
Entrepreneurs need to understand the logistics component of entrepreneurship because production processes and delivery activities - encompassing all transportation modes and storage and distribution systems - are used more and more frequently to get a product to a customer, said Sixteen Twentynine Sdn Bhd managing director Kartini Sarkawi.
Sixteen Twentynine Sdn Bhd is a Sarawak company registered as a manufacturer of food and frozen local pastries and paste under the brand name Rania.
Nevertheless, logistics still remain a challenge for entrepreneurs in Sarawak, especially for frozen food industries, she said.
“There is still no strong distributor in Sarawak especially for frozen products. The difficulty for us, frozen food entrepreneurs, to get a good and genuine distributor hampers business activities especially in terms of logistics and proper storage for our products,” Kartini told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Taking into consideration this business obstacle, Kartini revealed that Sixteen Twentynine has recently entered into a partnership with Mahkota Fresh Mart MFM Resources Sdn Bhd.
“We are excited by our partnership with MFM Resources Sdn Bhd, as both management teams have the experience and believe that Rania has the potential to fulfi l the high demand in frozen food and paste in Sarawak,” said Kartini.
Kartini emphasised that the partnership, effective Nov 1, is one of Sixteen Twentynine’s big projects.
“Mahkota Fresh Mart MFM Resources Sdn Bhd, a big company in Miri supplying many frozen products, would be responsible to distribute our products to the whole of Sarawak. If Sixteen Twentynine wants to distribute our products statewide alone, it would be quite an impossible task.
“This partnership will strengthen market synergy for Rania as it will create a solid foundation to further penetrate the frozen and paste product market in Sarawak.
“Through this partnership and with the strength and expertise that MFM has, we also hope to be able to show that there are other methods of doing marketing, not just through direct selling, for as long as the distributor is genuine and highly dependable and credible,” she said.
Also present was Mahkota Fresh Mart MFM Resources Sdn Bhd managing director Gabriel Ling Seng Howe.
“This is our first partnership with a local company providing frozen food products. Prior to this, we only distributed products from elsewhere especially Peninsular Malaysia. We are excited with this appointment,” said Ling.
The range of Rania products by Sixteen Twentynine includes local traditional pastries such as chicken and beef curry puffs and prawn paste.
“This is a new challenge for us as we never dealt with local manufacturers and we believe that things would work out perfectly with good and continuous collaboration among us.
“We strive to further develop the frozen food industry here and to enhance the strength of Sarawakian products,” he added.
Rania products include Kelupis Pulut, seafood spring roll, chicken, beef and sardine curry puffs and prawn paste.
The product range is also available in Brunei by their appointed importer TGT Sdn Bhd Brunei since July this year.