Award winning satay business goes into high gear

MERSING: The winner of the ECER Mersing Glorious Entrepreneurship Empowerment Award 2019 aims to further enhance Mursina Enterprise’s frozen satay business, as well as expand its market beyond Johor.

Mursina Zainuddin, who hails from Felda Tenggaroh Timur 1 here, also plans to get her frozen satay on the shelves of several supermarkets in Johor besides distributing the product through agents to other states.

“At the same time, we can open up opportunities for others, especially housewives, who are interested in doing part-time sales,” she told Bernama here recently.

Mursina Enterprise, which has been running the frozen satay business for over 10 years, produces more than 4,000 sticks of satay a day with the aid of five part-time workers who prepare satay skewers twice a week.

Mursina, who inherited the special satay recipe from her late father, Zainuddin Simos, had benefitted from an empowerment programme organised by the East Coast Economic Region Development Council (ECERDC) Mersing.

“The frozen chicken and beef satay is marketed in a complete set of 20 satay skewers with peanut sauce at a price of RM13, while special satay such as rabbit satay and lamb satay will only be prepared upon customers’ orders.

“Upon delivery, customers only need grill the satay for 10 to 15 minutes and heat the peanut sauce before it is ready to be eaten,” she said.

Mursina said the programme taught her the intricacy of the entrepreneurial world and how to run a successful business, which she runs jointly with her husband, Mohd Fadzli Hussin.

“The financial management and marketing strategies learned through the ECERDC’s programme helped drives sales,” said the mother of four.

Mursina Enterprise, which is also actively promoting its business through social media such as Facebook, is also offering delivery services for Mersing residents via cash on delivery payment method.

For customers living outside the Mersing district, Mursina Enterprise only accepts orders for at least 20 packets for each delivery, she said, adding that, “So far, our farthest delivery location was Kulai apart from selling satay at the night market.”

On the Covid-19 pandemic, the entrepreneur admitted that her monthly sales had declined slightly, coupled with unstable raw material prices and workers not being able to turn up for work recently.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, she said Mursina Enterprise’s monthly sales of frozen satay fetched up to RM20,000.

hope that the relevant agencies can channel financial assistance and equipment to enable me to further expand the business, as well as help me obtain the halal certification and Safe Food Industry Responsibility (MeSTI) Certification Scheme from the Ministry of Health,” she said.

Meanwhile, ECERDC Mersing empower project manager Mohd Nazron Ismail said the council was planning to hold a digital entrepreneurship skills training soon and would raise the Mersing community’s awareness about the new session under its empowerment programme.

“It is still at the discussion stage. And at the same time were are conducting a census through ‘Google Form’ since June (to gauge the interest of Mersing residents about the programme),” he said.