Pondok Abang, a local F&B import and manufacturing company has been serving authentic Malay food since 1990. Renowned for its home-style cooking, Pondok Abang specialises in assisting clients and consumers in reducing labor, cost and time for food preparation and cooking by providing ready-to-eat food.
Mr Hasan Abdul Rahman, owner of Pondok Abang wanted to automate and digitalise the business in order to scale globally. In March 2018, Mr Hasan approached the SME centre @SMCCI to seek the assistance of a Business Advisor, where he was then introduced to Mr Qamarul Solihien.
After conducting a business needs analysis, Mr Qamarul assisted to identify potential areas of improvement to streamline the production process. Mr Qamarul also proposed for Mr Hasan to tap on the Capability Development Grant (CDG) under the category of Process Redesign, Enhancing Business Processes for Productivity. The CDG grant supports up to 70% of qualitative project costs in areas such as training, certification, productivity and market access. As of 25th October 2018, the CDG grant has merged with Global Company Partnership (GCP) grant to form Enterprise Development Grant (EDG)*.
Through this grant, Mr Hasan was able to defray costs to purchase new equipments such as automated cookers and packing machines that assisted significantly in reducing lead time and man hour costs.
“It is vital for growing SMEs to enhance its existing infrastructure to meet with a growing demand for goods. With the right support in place, SMEs can ensure long-term sustainability by minimising input and maximising output. This is when automation and digitalization of processes come into play,” explained Mr Qamarul.
*To find out more about the newly launched EDG, reach out to one of our Business Advisors today via: http://bit.ly/bookadvisory