Making peanut butter cool again
Jobbie aiming to spread its wings overseas
FOR Joseph Goh Liang Hao, and his wife Debbie Ching Zhee Cheng, the story of the peanut butter Jobbie started out of love, both for food and each other.
As the young couple, then in their early 20s, with no fancy formal education credentials decided to start a life together, looking for a means to sustain themselves became a priority.
With savings of around RM20,000 from several odd jobs later, they browsed through online for tips on how to make peanut butter.
Recalling the earlier days when they started out with a brand new product, Goh said they had to learn through trail and errors on how to run and market a product including changing the brand to a more palatable Jobbie from its initially catchy but unfitting name of Walao-eh.
“At the beginning, we did everything on our own, from sourcing and roasting peanuts to bottling and handling delivery to customers. We learnt from mistakes and gathering feedback from the public have been the key in improving the product quality and taste in meeting customers’ expectations,” said Goh.
Victor Chin came on board officially as a shareholder in 2019 and now will be in charge in charting the growth story for Jobbie as the CEO. Formerly a marketing software entrepreneur, Chin’s connection with Jobbie begun by providing counsel and advise to the young Jobbie team on how to increase its brand exposure and run proper marketing campaigns.
“Our first contacts were for the marketing software that I was trying to promote to local businesses. While Goh was honest in saying that he couldn’t afford the software, he showed keen interest in learning how to build a business.
The team at Jobbie caught my attention, as they didn’t just take my advice but actually implemented them, with visible results. When an opportunity came it paved the way for me to be involved in helping to chart the future growth of the company”, said Chin.
Chin brought with him the marketing whiz and the task includes taking the peanut butter brand beyond Malaysia. Today, Jobbie Sdn Bhd’s namesake peanut butter brand is starting to make headways among local fans of the popular snack spread,
The zeal to test new grounds includes coming out with what is perhaps the world’s first cryptocurrencies-inspired mooncake, which comes with real non-fungible tokens in collaboration with well-known local French crepe brand Vanilla Crepe.
Since its inception around eight years ago, Jobbie has been relying heavily on digital marketing and online customer engagement, with the brand now having amassed a respectable following through its digital platforms.
But a new challenge has cropped up with the increase in scrutiny and tightening of the policies concerning personal online data privacy, and this has led to a huge jump in the cost for digital advertising, said Chin.
“Going forward, we will have more physical store direct marketing approaches as it has shown to be more effective in promoting the brand, as consumer behaviours have been shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic. Most people now want to have a physical look and feel experiences which were largely not available during the lockdowns,” said Chin.
A top three player
On the plans going forward, Chin said Jobbie is eyeing around Rm1.6mil in the company’s maiden fund raise, which will be sufficient for its initial market expansion. It will also consider merger and acquisition approaches from strategic partners when the company achieves a sizeable export market and establishes a brand name, said Chin.
The company is currently expanding its product range beyond the traditional peanut butter spread. Some of the new product range it is looking to expand in includes green pea and berry peanut butter spread.
However, it will stick to its all-natural ingredients healthy food business model including using only fresh or nitrogen-frozen fruits for its new range of spreads under development, said Goh.
According to Chin, the domestic market size for peanut butter is relatively small, at around Rm40mil to Rm45mil, but the wider market for spread including fruit jams and other breakfast condiments is worth around 10 times more at between Rm400mil and Rm420mil.
Jobbie is currently among the top three players in Malaysia’s peanut butter market, with market share of close to 8%. In the foreseeable future, the growth will come from further local retail penetration including expanding sales through local grocery chains. Jobbie is currently sold in more than 100 retail outlets in Malaysia.
But to reach the size of Rm100mil in revenue, Jobbie needs a market size of above Rm1bil, and is eyeing exports markets in Asia, said Chin. It has started a foothold in the Singapore market and has eyes on China and Middle East by this year.
Jobbie competes with better known international imported brands such as United States-based Trader Joe’s and Jif and Goober by J.M Smucker and Lady’s Choice by Unilever Philippines in the retail market within Asia, said Chin.
In term of export potentials, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan are some of the largest importers of peanut butter in the region, said Chin, mainly due to the legacy of the western influence on the local diets. While the price point caters to the higher end and niche market, Jobbie will be able to compete for market share among imported brands, Chin said.
Jobbie has set the ultimate goals of gaining access to the ultra competitive but potentially lucrative US and China markets. But the focus for now remains on the regional markets within Asia, and also the Middle East by leveraging Malaysia’s ‘gold standard’ halal certification.
The history of peanut butter can be traced back to an era of food scarcity and war, but Chin and his team are convinced that mission of remaking the image with Jobbie as a ‘cool’ new healthy treat that will be accepted especially among the growing young population in this region.