Question & Answer with Mydin Managing Director Dato' Ameer Ali Mydin

Thursday, 3 July 2008

Question & Answer with Mydin Managing Director Dato' Ameer Ali Mydin

The cost of living in the country has shot up especially with the rise in the price of petrol, which has sent rippling consequences to consumers. What is your perspective as an entrepreneur and businessman?

This situation will recur after certain cycles and instigate panic buying. Consumers must learn to adapt to the situation and be smart. Change your style of living – buy at places that gives you savings. Mydin is the middle party to balance between suppliers and consumers. Our objective is to stabilise our prices and offer low prices at all times. However, if suppliers increase their cost price, we will have no choice but to follow suit. Please understand that we are not only providing products for the consumers, we also provide services and comfort.

How should the consumer react to the increase in the cost of goods? How can they quickly trim their expenses to fit their available budgets?

Do not panic. Plan your budget instead. Start comparing prices and discover which hypermarket is selling cheap and really helps consumers to save. Buy wholesale as the more you buy, the more you save. This is very workable for people with families. For singles, they can share with their friends. Take for example, if you normally buy 1 pack of toothpaste, buy 3 packs of toothpaste.

How is Mydin reacting to this? How are you able to help consumers reduce their cost of groceries especially?

Mydin is always known for low prices. In this situation, consumers will tend to start comparing prices and go for hypermarkets that can offer them value for money. It is advisable for consumers to start shifting towards local products which are equally good in quality and cheaper.Who else to help Malaysians if not Malaysians themselves?

You have many outlets all over the country with another seven (7) hypermarkets coming up by 2010. Tell us what you are committed to doing for the man on the street who decides to shop at Mydin.

We already have 40 outlets in operation which consists of different business channels. We have emporiums that carry 80-90% of non-food items; MyMart which is a 24-hours convenience store that carries 70% of groceries products; and MyMydin which is a mini market selling a mix of fresh products, groceries and non-food tems. These are located in residential areas. Our hypermarket is the larger version of a min market which carries a bigger range of products in terms of fresh products, groceries, soft lines and hard lines. Our consumers or the man on the street therefore, can choose which outlet of business entity they prefer to go to and shop as all of them still maintain low prices compared to their competitors within the similar grouping.

Mydin has captured quite a fair size of the market for consumer products in the country. What has been the secret of your success? Is it because of the variety of products you have or is it your pricing?

Pricing, products varieities, customer services, wholesale services and being Malaysian has helped us in capturing a fair size of the market. We are also serious in helping and nurturing SME entrepreneurs. We work very hard and hold honesty and sincerity in our hearts.

What is your opinion of locally made products and those which are "imported" brands? Is there a difference in taste, packaging and price?

Locally made products have now shown great improvements in terms of pricing, packaging, taste presentations and promotions. There is no doubt that there will be differences as being different is necessary to have a unique selling point. However, locally made products are undoubtedly cheaper compared to imported brands.

Mydin recently had a campaign to promote local products produced by local food and beverage industries. Why did you embark on this campaign?

The campaign is a joint effort exercise between the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and Mydin. It is part of the Ministry's effort in giving a platform for the SME entrepreneurs to promote their products and expose them in doing selling to the consumer. As far as Mydin is concerned, we are always coming up with promotional activities to help promote SME products from time to time. We need to always create awareness and remind consumers that there are more SME products in the market that are equally good and this can only be reached via campaigns and news.

Are these (local products) just as good in taste (or better) and more economical compared to the better known brands around us?

You may be surprised to know that we have many local products that are equally good and even better than better known products. Our consumer must change their perception that local products have no quality and also the perception that cheap means no quality.

Many consumers have this preconceived idea that local products are unhygienic, unsafe and not tasty. Is this true? What does Mydin do when sourcing for locally made products?

We are very careful when we sourcing our products either locally or from overseas. We shall ensure it meets certain criteria. For food items, additional criterias have to be met. Consumers have a preconceived idea that local products are unhygienic, unsafe and not tasty because they see how some products are being made and apply the same for all the products. One bad product does not represent the whole group. Perception can lead to persuasion. If one customer perceives a product as bad or of low quality, he will share this with a friend who probably had plans to buy it. But because of the strong persuasion, he decides not to buy it.

How much can a consumer save if he/she were to switch from "imported" brands to local brands?

There will definitely be savings. How much is very subjective to say as it all depends on the price range and cost factor.

Mydin has a wholesale division which allows for bulk purchases at better prices. How does this help the consumer ?

The wholesale department offers products that are in multi-packages ie 3 packs, 6 packs, 1 dozen, and 1 carton. Prices of these packed items are cheaper compared to pieces. Therefore, consumers who purchase in bulk will definitely save more. In addition to these, the bulk products are sold at wholesale prices.

Having your corporate office in USJ, Subang Jaya is a testimony of your confidence in the community here. How does this translate to how you view the consumers from Subang Jaya and USJ?

It is always interesting to penetrate into new markets and to also understand the different behaviours of your customers. With Mydin Wholesale Emporium, our customers are mostly from low to middle income earners. When we decided to build a hypermarket, we chose USJ Subang Jaya to learn and understand better the purchasing behaviour of higher income customers.