Great bytes for lunch | New Straits Times

Adding a social media component to food delivery, two entrepreneurs seem to have found their
recipe for success, writes Siti Syameen Md Khalili
WHEN it comes to food delivery service, few can say they know the ingredients for success.
Yet the main people behind Makansini.my believe that they have come close to developing the right
formula for the local market.
Ahmad Badri Jaafar, 41, director of Ezfas Foods and IT entrepreneur Muhammad Fadhli Abdul Aziz,
30, have an ace up their sleeves to make Makansini.my a popular service among KLites in less than
six months.
"Makan mana hari ni bang? Makansini lah." (Where will you dine today, bro? How about Makansini?)
This is what Makansini.my riders say when they hand out flyers to curious onlookers who they come
across when delivering packed food to a customer.
The riders are not hard to spot as each wears a black corporate T-shirt, black jeans and a matching
cap.
Most significantly, they will be riding a motorbike with a food delivery box attached to the back.
The box is decorated with the black, red and white Makansini.my logo and web address.
THE RIGHT BLEND
Loosely translated, makan sini means "eat here", and Ahmad Badri says the brand name may sound
simple but it has been thoroughly researched for years by his business partner, Fadhli.
"Ezfas has been in the food industry traditionally over the years, but we believe in adopting new
cultures to grow.
We have seen how important the Internet is to any business and we have taken advantage of
practices like search engine optimisation to promote our products," he says, adding that Ezfas' best
seller, satay, is easily found via any search engine, including Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
"The time is ripe for Klang Valley folk to accept food deliver y ser v ice s," says Ahmad Badri.
"I think Malaysians are ready to accept t he food delivery service and online ordering platform such
as ours.
These days, many people are busy working and traffic jams can really eat up what precious time they
have left for meals.
Cost is another important consideration.
What we offer is gourmet Malay dishes prepared by experienced chefs, packed and delivered before
your lunch hour at only RM5.50 per day.
"If you go out for lunch, you have to walk and probably be stuck with the same foods within walking
distance.
If you drive, you have to consider the cost of fuel and parking as well as braving the jam." On the
other hand the brick-andmortar restaurant business is also suffering.
Ahmad Badri says: "In the last few years, about 40 per cent of restaurant businesses failed, and that
is not surprising because competition is stiff, rental is skyrocketing and so is the cost of raw
materials.
This is why the food delivery business module has a bigger potential to succeed." Makansini.my is c
o n c e p t u a l i s e d for t he n iche workforce market, available Mond ay s to Fr idays a nd only for
lunch.
Customers go to the Facebook or website and place their orders for f ive days of lunch delivery (not
necessarily for consecutive days).
They can check out the dishes that the chef has planned for the month on the website's Menu tab
and select a minimum of five days.
Payment is via online banking or through cash deposit machines at Maybank.
Ahmad Badri a food technologist who has developed multiple food products during his years working
for Adabi, Besta and Ramli Burger, says he especially enjoyed developing the formulation for
products such as Sup Bunjut Adabi, but found a greater need to flex his entrepreneurial muscles.
He gained valuable insight into the food delivery business when he was attached to a community
project for single mothers called Mangkuktingkat.com.
"Through my involvement in this project, I learnt that the food delivery business relies largely on
reliable distribution and reliable transpor tation, no t j u s t fo o d quality and careful costing.
When I left to start my own business with several partners, I had learnt lessons regarding this
particular branch of business, as well as a rough formula -- call it a secret ingredient if you like -- in
the form of SOPs (standard operating practices)," he recalls, recalling fond memories of all the
companies that he previously worked in.
SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECT
He went into partnership with Fadhli earlier this year.
While he is tech savvy and a fan of modern technology, Ahmad Badri is well aware that the local
digital landscape is changing rapidly.
"When we were working on Mangkuktingkat.com, social media had yet to become mainstream.
Today, many people buy smartphones and tablets because they want to be part of the social media
movement.
For businesses like ours, this presents a great opportunity and cost savings in terms of creating
brand awareness," he says.
Getting Fadhli onboard was important since the company wanted to pave the way for local talents,
young and old, to shine and inspire others, says Ahmad Badri.
"Given that social media is so influential today, we're comfortable with focusing our digital presence
through Facebook first, as suggested by Fadhli, instead of a food ordering website.
The reason was simple: The savvy crowd was already there," he says.
Fad h li, t he young entrepreneur is excited to see Ma k a n sin i.my achieving digital traction.
"I'd been wanting to kickstart an online food ordering and delivery service for years but could not
find a food provider who was able to share my vision until I met the people at Ezfas.
They were highly motivated, aware of the opportunities and were willing to invest in my idea of an
online-food ordering platform and the Makansini.my branding that I had developed," he says,
recalling the early days in July when he shared the logo drawings, website layout and rationale
behind the name Makansini.
"We both agreed that the brand name must be simple and easy for customers to understand.
Makansini.my is explanatory.
When people ask you where you are going for a meal, wouldn't it be easy if you could just eat
wherever you were at that current time? We coined the two words so that the term became unique
enough for any search engine to recognise, and our pages, be it on Facebook or ordering website,
will emerge as first page results.
Instead of a dot com, we opted to go for the dot my prefix so that people will know we're based
here," says the enthusiastic 30-year-old who started his own Internet business, PedagangIT in 2009.
Fully responsible for building and managing Makansini.my's website, Facebook and other social
media accounts, Fadhli adds that online realm has enabled Makansini.my to swiftly update
promotions and exposure strategies.
He says: "The Internet is fastchanging, and just because the food business is considered traditional,
it does not mean we need to conform to tested methods.
For example, it is easy to promote new dishes through Facebook and Instagram instead of relying on
print flyers alone.
That said, print media is still effective in the sense that we still believe in creating offline presence
for potential customers." It also has online presence on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube as well as food
forums.
To date, Makansini has gained over 8,300 Likes on Facebook.
"Facebook keeps 'telling' us to push our brand by buying ads but we want real people to support our
Page.
In three months, we'd registered 8,000 genuine Likes and we were more surprised when they shared
their own videos on YouTube enjoying our food and gifts, photos on Instagram and comments on
Twitter.
We highlighted these posts and they became part of our collection om customer feedback," he says.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sales are currently about 500 packs a day and Ahmad Badri says he hopes to expand Makansini.my
coverage areas by recruiting more riders to hit 700 -- 1,000 packs a day by the end of this year.
"To date, Ezfas has spent over RM200,000 on Makansini.my operations.
The demand is steadily increasing but because we are only catering to the lunch crowd, we need
more riders before we can deliver to other areas.
We'd rather keep our operations small and tight rather than end up with angry customers."
Currently, Makansini.my serves Shah Alam, Bangi, Ampang, Subang, Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya and
Damansara.
Ahmad Badri says this can be a great start for young Malaysians who are keen to generate high
income.
"We pay the riders commission for every successful delivery and this motivates them to stay
productive and become spokespersons of our products.
Those we have recruited so far have proven to be active, hardworking and reliable.
We hope more will join us," he says.
The food is prepared by chef Borha nudin A hmad, 45, a nd Makansini.my customers can enjoy
dishes like nasi putih ayam Palembang, nasi jagung ayam kicap berempah and nasi tomato ayam
masak merah along with complimentary vegetable dishes.
Borhanudin who is from Mersing, also shares his personal recipes such as nasi biryani Sri Mersing
with foodies.
"What I love about cooking with the Makansini.my team is that the ingredients we get are all fresh
and halal.
This is important in making sure customers get delicious meals each day," he says.
"My last attachment was with the Shah Alam Convention Centre, which had a bigger kitchen team.
Though the outfit is smaller here, I enjoy getting the weekends off.
It gives me ork-life balance." Ahmad Badri says that highlighting local gourmet talent is also part of
the reason why Makansini.my is such an important platform for developing new icons in the food
scene.
"Through Makansini.my, we also create another sub-branding which is Chef Bro, where local chefs
will be highlighted.
In future, we hope to find a partner within the events and TV production field who can partner with
us to create something impactful to highlight Makansini.my, our chefs and our business model.
"I also hope more food suppliers will reach out to us.
To date, our supply of chicken comes straight from a nearby factory, vegetables directly from
farmers and fish from fishermen in Kuala Selangor.
We save costs by cutting out the middle men.
We also get to help the producers of the raw materials and mostly, we love passing on the cost
savings to our customers."
http://www.nst.com.my/node/48784