Our Soaps in Masjid Negeri Shah Alam, Selangor

If you are in the Shah Alam area and you'd like to get hold of our goat milk soap, you can now get it at a shop located inside Masjid Negeri Shah Alam or Masjid Negeri Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, Selangor.

Ustaz Abu Bakar Sairi who hails from Pulau Indah, is one of the main guys at the state mosque. He is one of our goat milk soap distributors with his own brand name. We assisted him in the preparation of his soap design/brand, packaging/wrapping & brochures according to his preference(s). 

Ustaz Abu Bakar has been our customer for the last 2 years and he has bought a few cartons of the goat milk soap to be sold/marketed at the Masjid Negeri. Although he is selling the soap at a very relaxed pace (Ustaz Abu Bakar is professionally attached to the Masjid Negeri), he sees potential in this business as he receives more and more repeat sales lately. The demand is there. So we encouraged him to have his own brand name with his phone number on the label of the soaps for him to have more access to his own set of customers. Previously, it was either he was using our label when selling the soaps or they were sold without any proper packaging.     

But now, he already has his name & number stamped on the soaps. We wish and pray the best for Ustaz Abu Bakar. He also stated his intent to market these soaps to Klang; and also his next plan to market Qamalia (hand-made) soap at the mosque.  

Congratulations Ustaz. Wishing him all the best! Amin.

                                                  Masjid Negeri Shah Alam, Selangor.    

Our Goat Milk Soap to Turkey?

The other day, we got a call from Mr. Emre Yasar from Turkey who told us that his wife was very interested to market our goat milk soap as she loves it so much. 

On the 12th January 2012, we met up with Mr. Emre who happens to be a very, very nice chap. He is attached to MATUACA (Malaysia-Turkey Cultural Association/Persatuan Kebudayaan Malaysia-Turki) based in Kuala Lumpur.

He was saying that sometime ago, his wife received this goat milk soap as a gift from somebody. Until recently, when Mr. Emre saw and bought our goat milk soap somewhere in one of our partner's outlets, she was searching for the soap as she loved the feeling bathing with it very much.

So, Mr. Emre intends to sell these soaps under his own label & brand name, where he asked for our advice and consultation. He immediately bought 1 carton of the soaps. After a while, he asked us to wrap and create a brand for his soap label called 'SILK STORY'. He also expressed his interest to try and market this goat milk soap to the Turkish community here in Malaysia and if that goes well, he wants to take it a bold step further by exporting it all the way to Turkey. InshaAllah.

We wish Mr. Emre and his wife all the best in their new business venture. And if you are reading this page Mr. Emre, rest assured that we will always be here to assist you on anything pertaining to this soap business. Best of luck, sir!

P/S : Thanks a lot for the 2 religious & motivational books you gave us the other day. We really appreciate your kind gesture. Wassalam. 




   

Ups & Downs of a Soap Biznes

It gives you a great feeling each time you are able to sell your soaps/products at new outlets particularly in uncharted territories. Especially when you can foresee that sales will be great by the number of people going in and out of that outlet. On the other hand, it really sucks when potential partners refuse to let us put our soaps in their shops - let alone the place where we want them (products) to be placed ie. at the cash register counter. But, that is sales. You win some, you lose some. It is how you bounce back and persevere that really matters at the end of the day.  

We used to have our soaps sold at more than 20 Petronas petrol station's Mesra c-stores in Klang Valley since 2009. However, since Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB) had tightened its rules and regulations in the 3rd quarter of last year (2011) against products which are not registered with PDB to be sold at their c-stores, we have suffered a massive blow in the decline of sales. Petrol station outlets contributed approximately a high 35% of our sales revenue. The number of soaps sold per month surpass any sales garnered by other outlets (eg. convenience stores, restaurants, pharmacies, laundry outlets) eventhough the number of petrol stations selling our soaps are very low in our total list of outlets.

(NOTE : To be a registered PDB vendor, one is required to go through strict & tideous procedures and pay monthly royalties based on their sales/product deliveries to the Mesra c-stores nationwide. Those who are normally not registered with PDB as vendors are small business owners (for example nasi lemak suppliers, traditional cake suppliers and (us included) locally-made soap distributors who could not afford to be burdened by royalty payments as their profit margin is tiny and sustaining power is low. Why we selected Petronas' Mesra c-stores as a place to market our product(s) is because they are our national oil company and we naturally feel that they could at least support local but small-time businesses but not anymore. At least the petrol station operators are supportive of our cause and are sympathetic when it's time for us to go. No offence to PDB but to be fair, they have done their best to look away (in allowing these small time business owners to sell their products) on numerous occasions from repeated complaints by registered vendors who feel that it is unjust to allow non-registered vendors to be sold at the c-stores at their expense).  

But life goes on. We are aggressively acquiring more outlets than ever now. More outlets we secure, the more soaps we sell and the more people have our company/products in their minds.

It's equally disheartening when a particular outlet is doing well but when the time comes, they refuse to pay what is due to us and in turn, treats us like beggars - sending us away, refusing to talk to us - over a paltry RM50 to RM100 collection. With the consignment business we offer, we face the high risk of not getting paid when the soaps have already been sold by untrustworthy shop owners.

Selling these soaps are not easy but by offering shop owners our products on a consignment basis, it is highly risky but the only way for us to get our products out there in the market. Until then, the battle has to go on.


          

Delivery of Qamalia Stock

9th & 10th January 2012 : We received deliveries of the Qamalia stock - and coincidently, also the delivery of the goat milk soap stock.

Qamalia will be sold at selected outlets in Kuala Lumpur.

Freshly packed Qamalia soaps

In the store room

Qamalia : A Testimony from an Old Friend

Frankly, I don't do testimonies but in this business, belief in your product will hold more water when your customers or product users rave about them - without paying them to do so :-).

On the 29th of December 2011, my old, old friend Kris sent me this SMS :

"Hi..Kris here..just to share..do u remember u gave me the soaps last year? i still have one..and my daughter is now down with chicken pox. i tried on her when the spots are dying out..Alhamdulillah..dia dah tak gatal2 lepas guna sabun tu (she no longer feels itchy after using the soap)".

Kris added that the spots (from the chicken pox) dries out fast and the flaky scars fell off.

Thanks a lot for the useful information, Kris. We are really glad that Qamalia has helped your daughter recover from the pox. Don't stop using it.

Kris & her adorable daughter, Amirah

In 2012, we are planning to focus more on the premium Qamalia in our marketing plan. As you have read earlier, Qamalia is a hand-made soap which is a combination of goat's milk & calendula. Ever since we introduced this product more than a year ago, it already has a fanatical following despite its high price.

Penny, one of our customers in Wangsa Walk is crazy about the product. Having a fair but sensitive & oily skin is not easy for a lady especially when she would always experience breakouts (acne). After using Qamalia, her many pimples & red spots have subsided tremendously and today, she is one of this soap's staunchest supporters - also distributing the soaps for us.

Ina who works in Seksyen 5, Shah Alam is also a fan who buys Qamalia in bulk for her whole family.

Ramzi from Sarawak orders from us to sell Qamalia over there (in Sarawak).

Read more about Qamalia in our earlier post.