DATE: 20TH SEP 2016, VENUE: E & O HOTEL
DATE: 16TH NOV 2017, VENUE: BARKATH CORO MANUFACTURING SDN BHD
First of all, I want to thank all of you for accepting our invitation, especially those who come from far away and have travelled many hours to be present at our inauguration of our new innovation product, Sunquick Ready to Drink products. We are grateful to the Ambassador of Denmark to join us today in our another remarkable milestone of Barkath Co-Ro Manufacturing Sdn Bhd. Let me just start my speech with a brief history of Barkath CoRo Manufacturing Sdn Bhd.
Barkath CoRo Manufacturing Sdn Bhd is a joint venture between CoRo Foods Denmark and Kumpulan Barkath Sdn Bhd. Kumpulan Barkath Sdn Bhd is one of the oldest family owned company in Penang which was started by my late father Haji Abu Backer Hussien in the 1940’s and today the company has grown into prominent manufacturing with large distribution network in East and West Malaysia and operations throughout Asean countries.
We started Sunquick since early 60’s during my late father’s time as a distributor in Penang during the month of Ramadan. At that time Sunquick is still new and unknown product in Malaysia.
Malaysia had gradually accepted Sunquick as a household drink in the 70’s. Sunquick brand has generated substantial goodwill in the local market throughout the years. Due to huge demand in the local market, we have decided to build Barkath Foods factory Penang to manufacture the drinks locally.
Subsequently in the 90’s, our old factory ran out of capacity. For that reason, we approached CoRo Denmark, the brand owner of Sunquick, to ether into a joint venture with us to build a factory to manufacture the drinks in Malaysia. This new joint venture build a state of art factory in 1993 which is our existing factory and the opening was officiated by then our Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir.
My deepest gratitude to the founder of CoRo Foods Denmark, the late Mr. Jep Petersen whom was very close to my late father. Both of them had a long term vision of developing Sunquick into a successful brand in Malaysia. They have mutual confidence and trust in each other and knew that one day Sunquick be a leading and popular brand in Malaysia.
Today I am proud to say that we did not let them down, we built and materialize their vision, making it a great accomplishment as can be witnessed by all of us today. I am sure that if this atmosphere of trust and cooperation which has been created, maintained through continuous support and understanding, we can make Sunquick the number one household brand in Asian region for many generations to come.
Today mark a remarkable milestone for the company of the inauguration the launching of Sunquick ready to drink product by the Ambassador of Denmark, His Excellency Mr. Nicolai Ruge. It also marked a successful joint venture of a Malaysian and Danish company of which we have together overcome diversities and challenges in the last 40 years and I believe many more decades to come.
Barkath CoRo’s manufacturing empire comprises 12 lines with diversified flavors production with our flagship flavour SQ orange, which is produced by us in Malaysia under license from CoRo Foods Denmark and today we are a prominent market leader with 70% of the market share in Malaysia for concentrate drink.
During the last 26 years the factory received numerous awards. Let me mention some of the most prestigious ones as follows:
– The National Productivity Award in 1993 as the factory with the highest productivity growth in Malaysia.
– The Enterprise 50 Award in 2006 as the 27th best managed factory in Malaysia.
– The Europe Trade Award in 2007 for highest excellence in Malaysia.
– The FMM Excellence Award in 2013 as the manufacturer of the year.
Apart from that the factory is ISO 9001 2008 certified, HACCP certified and of course HALAL certified. We had elevated our approach and innovate from Sunquick fruit juice to food applications and Read to Drink with dispenser segment through our latest Barkath food service venture. This will create opportunity for consumptions out of home as well.
We had also been hosting Variarasa program over the past 4 years with celebrity Chefs as Chef Wan, Chef Zam and other celebrities to present the cooked recipes for different types of food, desserts and cocktails using Sunquick products. We had received more than few million online participations during the programme, which had created history for Sunquick products, acceptance the food application and drinks segments simultaneously which is the first in the world.
We will continue to innovate and stay ahead as the market leader whilst fully optimize the technical know how with our Danish partners while sales, marketing and distributions by Barkath.
This will be in line with our Chief Minister’s ideology to transform Penang to a IT-BPO hub to seek a convergence of not only the manufacturing sector but also both services and government sector. We are doing our part for Penang’s future and prosperity in bringing together a first class convergence manufacturing and services both efficiency driven and innovation driven.
We are also exploring actively export markets and we have been able to capture these markets not only because of our low production cost but also because of the good production environment and excellence logistic hub in Penang. Being the sole distributor of Sunquick, Barkath Group in proud to say that we are able to stay in the competitive business by performing our distribution services in the most efficient manner. Kumpulan Barkath will be celebrating its 76 years anniversary this year. Our winning formula is the ‘team spirit’ created within the company and our external partners namely our vendors, dealers and customers who show with every action, the pleasure and pride they feel being part of our group and not forget to our loyal customers.
We are here today to inaugurate of Sunquick new product, ready to drink. We owe it our customers who have confirmed their trust and confidence in us to continue their support to purchase and value our products.
With this I will end my speech by conveying special thanks to the Ambassador of Denmark, Mr. Nicolai Ruge and wife, partners from Denmark and all our distinguished guests for taking time in joining us in the launching of our new product. Thank you.
