I am Andy Low, 42, and I’ve been working in society since I was 16. My first job was as a technician for a lorry tire company, and my second job was as a salesman for a palm oil company where I worked until I started my business at the age of 24.

A friend and I opened a cafe, and I was in charge of food while my friend was in the order of beverages. My friend went on to do other things, so I took over the entire cafe by myself. At that time, I lacked funds, but fortunately, my friend allowed me to pay back by monthly instalments.

When my wife Esther Lim and I started dating, married and had children, we managed marriage, family and worked hard at the business together. The most unforgettable thing about starting a business was when we ran the cafe. At that time, to make more money, she took care of the cafe, and I went to Pasar Malam to set up a stall selling fried chicken cutlets. After closing the booth, I returned to the cafe, which remained open until two AM before we went back home.

When my wife was pregnant, she hardly had any time off right up to when she gave birth and immediately went back to work when the child was barely a month old. We rarely got any sleep throughout that year at that time. We relied on our strong determination to fight to the end and for our future.

GOD heard our prayers, and our business is getting better and better, and the problem of our workforce shortage has been solved. My wife is detailed and meticulous who in charge of the company’s accounts and human resources. I am a visionary man who oversees the overall company’s strategy, marketing, and business negotiations.

We transformed from a small cafe owner and Pasar Malam hawker to a food wholesaler and made a stand in the food processing industry. Entrepreneurs must dare to think, dare to make changes, and dare to compete. Continuous innovation and creation and surpassing ourselves are needed to realize our dreams!

It’s been almost 20 years since I started the business. Today, Golden Bons is a holding company in Malaysia. Our head office is also our food processing plant. It is located in Banting, Selangor. There are three wholesale stores, one in Klang Bandar Botanic, Melaka Batu Berendam, and Johor Batu Pahat, mainly servicing the business operator.

Golden Bons is a food processing factory that focuses on low-fat, healthy food. Our top seller among our product categories is low-fat chicken breast fillets, with monthly sales exceeding three million pieces. The company’s annual turnover comes to a total of about 30 million ringgits. When the MCO began in March 2020, many industries business was affected. Although our company cash flow is tight at a time, the total revenue for 2020 still achieved 90 per cent of the full-year performance of 2019!

I had to take responsibility and lead my employees out of our current predicament. At that time, I saw products being sold online on the internet. I thought that this could be a silver lining for us. So I tried to overcome obstacles and went to the live broadcasting in person, selling chicken breasts and chicken chops online and durian and seafood wholesale from others. I’ve immediately paid my hundred employees because I know that everyone has his or her own family to support.

In addition to showing that I was sharing hardships with the employees, and as the founder personally took part in a live broadcast to promote our products, helping the company’s brand to have the most significant possible exposure. I never thought was that live streaming would indirectly help the company open up a new sales channel. We used to provide products to the retail business owner. In contrast, retail customers provided a stable backup for the company’s performance during the pandemic, which we noticed consumers’ demand for semi-prepared food.

It is understood that what concerns consumers the most is food safety and convenient purchases; these are also the two primary directions for companies in the industry need to take to build their brands. Golden Bons’ next plan is to effectively allocate resources to the production lines of semi-finished products or convenience foods. We will continue to enrich our product lines. In addition, to integrate and consolidate the business owner’s advantages, we will also accelerate a new service model for the retail customer.

With the increase in the power of purchase, urbanization, and universalization of education, most customers swiftly focus on healthy foods. Thus we are a very optimistic outlook for low-fat foods. I can summarize two significant factors. First, consumers’ health awareness has gradually increased to maintain physical and mental health; second, the types of low-fat processed foods are becoming increasingly diversified and flavorful, thus providing consumers with more choices.

I think facing the retail customer market is both a challenge and an opportunity! Golden Bons sees market opportunities in the emergence of health-consciousness among consumers. In addition to developing more low-fat chicken breasts with different flavours, Golden Bons also plans to launch retail customer products such as frozen meats, prepared semi-finished products, cooked foods, and vegetarian foods. Our products are suitable for those who are cooking enthusiasts look for high requirements about the ingredients used, professionals looking for convenience in cooking, bodybuilders who are sensitive to protein & fat intake, and vegetarians.

Food or catering enterprises are promising, and they have gradually said goodbye to the era of opening stores based on primitive accumulation. Rapid and large-scale development will inevitably require a shocking amount of capital. Since I started my business a long time ago, I have always used the most traditional financial methods: deposits and bank loans. In the past, I used the head office’s profit to expand my business, which would inevitably affect and restrict many of my business opportunities.

I started to learn about capital operations in 2019 and understood the importance of capital operations, so I began to plan to use the power of financing and partners to continue to expand the scale of the company. Golden Bons development blueprint for the next 5 years, in addition to investing heavily in food research, will also open 64 Golden Mart branches in the next five years, with branches in various cities across Malaysia, mainly to help the company serve C-end customer groups faster and more conveniently. In terms of consolidating the B-end market, we plan to use the franchise business model in 2022 to issue 16 franchise rights, so as to help young people who are interested in starting a business to effectively carry out their businesses. We are currently arranging to apply for the relevant permits.

To develop the company in the future, now is the time to reorganize and optimize the company. I also chose to introduce the Golden Bons financing plan by launching MyStartr, a crowdfunding platform that has a legal operating permit in Malaysia. I hope to raise RM3 million through the MyStartr crowdfunding platform. Once the financing is successful, 75 per cent of the funds will be mainly used to expand and open retail stores, and 25 percent of the funds will be used to promote business models and expand our markets.

The entrepreneurial environment now is very different from before. In the past, one person could do almost everything, such as opening a store, looking after a store, production, marketing, delivery, and so on. Starting a business by one person is done by one person. Today’s entrepreneurship emphasizes speed and high efficiency. Fighting alone is no longer appropriate as the competitiveness of coordinated operations is stronger. I hope that Golden Bons can eventually be integrated into a food production ecological chain, which can be expanded from two aspects, one is the business expansion and the other is regional expansion, to put the Malaysian market on a solid foundation and then to gradually expand overseas. With such ecological competitiveness, we will become stronger and stronger!

The pandemic of 2020 caused many industries to suffer heavy losses. My original goal was to “survive”, instead, with my brave attempts and breakthroughs, I was able to get a new lease on life. I can carry the company, and I can carry the livelihood of a family with hundreds of employees. On the road to entrepreneurship, I will continue to strive forward and never give up.