From cottage to global – the story of Noraini’s Cookies

By Mohd Azhar Ibrahim, BERNAMA

Twenty six years ago Noraini Ahmad was an insurance firm employee by day and ran her home-based bakery business, Noraini Enterprise, at night.

She enlisted housewives from the neighbourhood to help her produce a variety of traditional Malay cakes and confectionary which she later supplied to office cafeterias and the school canteens. The side-business brought in an average monthly income of RM4,000.

Noraini Ahmad and her range of delicious Halal cookies.

Her culinary skill impressed a hotel chef who duly requested for a regular supply for the hotel’s kitchen. Soon after, other major hotels, restaurants and supermarkets followed suit. Noraini’s products were also served at the annual Umno conventions in PWTC. The business was turning in close to RM20,000 a month.

When she received frequent requests to supply traditional Malay cookies and biscuits for the Hari Raya celebration, Noraini decided to quit her job to devout her attention to business.

Migrating to Festive Cookies
In 1994 Noraini invested RM25,000 to incorporate Noraini Enterprise Sdn Bhd, which produced festive cookies and biscuits specifically for the festive season in a shop lot near the Paya Jaras night market in Sungai Buloh.

Its products were then supplied to practically all the sidewalk vendors that lined up Chow Kit Road and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman every Ramadan. The company made RM70,000 from its first festive season.

Business grew by leaps and bound and in 1997 the company relocated to a factory lot in Kampong Sungai Pelong in the Petaling district. Hardly a year later events took a turn for the worse when the country was hit by a recession. Progress was derailed as sales dramatically dwindled. Noraini had to struggle to keep the company afloat. The recession eventually caused a hiatus in the company’s operations.

However opportunities often present themselves in the darkest hour. To make ends meet, Noraini set up a kiosk at Plaza Angsana in Johor Baharu to sell her freshly baked cakes and confectionery. Her effort was rewarded with such a tremendous response that she was soon tallying up RM1,000 in daily sales.

Over the next four years her kiosk business blossomed and she even ventured into a full fledge restaurant that specialises in a variety of laksa and traditional Malay dishes. By then, the cookie factory in Selangor had resumed production. Both businesses shifted into over drive – the factory made RM150,000 per season while the Johor Baharu venture expanded to include 17 kiosks spread throughout the Klang Valley and Ipoh as well.

Going Global
Monthly takings began to stagnate due to the saturation of the local market. Noraini then set her sight on venturing abroad. In 2004 she established Noraini Cookies Worldwide Sdn Bhd and initiated a branding exercise by introducing better packaging and an official company logo.

The management enrolled in various training programmes, and participated in local and international business promotion campaigns organised by government agencies like Mara, MeCD, Fama and Konsortium Usahawan Makanan dan Industri Asas Tani Sdn Bhd (Komita).

By participating in international expositions like MAHA, MIHAS and those organised by the Malaysia Trading House in the United Kingdom, her products penetrated the markets in Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Mauritius, Africa, Nigeria, Morocco and Dubai.

Lady Luck was with her when, at the MIHAS 2006 business matching session, a delegate from Kazakhstan expressed interest in forming a business partnership. This led to the incorporation of Atamekent Noraini, which has investments in food manufacturing, dairy and wheat farms, and a hotel and restaurant business in Kazakhstan. Its Astana Nura Restaurant offers a variety of Malaysian laksa to the Kazakhs.

Meanwhile at the home front seasonal sales touched RM1.5 million in 2007 and subsequently shot up to RM2 million the following season. The deluge of new shipment coupled with repeat orders called for a round-the-clock production, which required a bigger business premise and better machinery and equipment. Thus in 2008, Noraini’s Worldwide Cookies acquired a two-storey factory lot and a fully automated baking oven.

“Although our oven can bake three tonnes of cookies per day, we are currently operating at half the capacity as we are desperately short of manpower at the production floor,” said Managing Director and Group CEO Dr Helmee Effendee who is also Noraini’s eldest son.

Noraini’s Worldwide Cookies was one of nine Malaysian food entrepreneurs invited by Matrade to showcase products at the 2010 New York Fancy Food Show (NYFFS) in June.

The three-day event served as the perfect springboard to the American market. The company received numerous enquiries from traders in New York’s Chinatown district, including those from the Middle East, Canada, Panama and Jordan, who were sourcing for halal food products for their respective home markets.

Noraini is currently drawing up the blueprint to transform these enquiries into firm orders.

Textbook Example for Bumiputera Entrepreneurs
Noraini is a textbook example of how by dint of hard work; buttressed by unyielding commitment and dedication; and complemented with continuous foresight, innovation and adaptation; the resilient entrepreneur can transform passion into vision and bring it to fruition.

For her sterling achievement, the Malay Chamber of Commerce awarded Noraini with the ‘Anugerah Usahawan Warisan 2006′ (2006 Heritage Entrepreneur Award).

She also won the ‘MIHAS 2007 Most Promising Entrepreneur Award’ as well as the Malaysia International Chamber Of Commerce and Industry (MICCI) 2007 Bronze Medal under the ‘Malaysian Entrepreneur Branding for Export Market’ category.

The rough and tumble of her journey from cottage industry to global player is documented for posterity by the Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC) in its publication titled ‘Case Book on Transformation, Innovation and Partnership’. The book serves as reference material for budding Bumiputra entrepreneurs

The Noraini Group of Companies
Other than the partnership in Kazakhstan, Noraini’s stable of companies now include Noraini’s Enterprise Sdn Bhd (which has the Noraini’s Fresh Baked, Noraini’s Laksa Paradise and Noraini’s Noodles sub-units under its wing); Noraini’s Cookies Worldwide Sdn Bhd (with partnership operations in Batam Island and Ho Chi Minh City); Noraini’s Marketing Sdn Bhd; Noraini’s Farm House Sdn Bhd; Noraini’s Frozen Food Sdn Bhd; Noraini’s Food and Beverage Sdn Bhd; and Magnificent Solution, which is the outsourcing arm for the Group.

In ensuring its products are of the highest quality Noraini’s Worldwide Cookies uphold its founder’s motto of having the following attribute: No additives; Organic; Recognised Internationally; Advance manufacturing process; Islamic products; Nourishing; Improved recipe; and Safety guaranteed.

Source: BERNAMA