Green House adapting to the pandemic as the safest bet for growth

During the COVID-19 pandemic, and social distancing measures imposed in the country over a period of 1 and 1/2 years, Green House has benefited from the rapid growth in consumption of bakery products.

Recently, Green House has launched its latest variant, Ruby Chocolate Emulco, which has garnered positive response from its clients in both Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Green House projected strong growth for this new variant in the 3rd quarter 2021, as it has wide applications in cake/pastry filling, topping and decorations.

The company’s plan now is to continue innovating and growing its sweet with savory Flavoe range of emulco series into the market. According to Michael Yap, Founder and CEO of Green House, the company is looking into the application of Tom Yum, Garlic, Onion and other spicy flavors into the sweet flavoe range.

Michael said the company is also developing ‘Natural Series’ as consumers are getting increasingly health-conscious with ‘naturalness’ being the prevalent health trend.

To support this steady growth in demand for its emulco product, Green House is currently upgrading and renovating its existing facility and will shift to the new plant by January 2022. The new plant will double its previous size and capacity. Utilising grants and support from MIDA and SME Corp, Green House is transforming itself into a sophisticated ingredients supplier as it adopts Industry 4.0 technology and practices.

Green House is also expanding its customer reach via digital marketing. One example is the expanded use of Facebook to increase brand awareness in both B2B, and B2C for its consumer packaging. It is giving away free samples of its products to new customers via simple online registration. As baking is also one of the favourite pastime during the pandemic, Green House has created new video recipes in collaboration with other suppliers to reach out to many of its consumers who bake from home.

Looking at the future, Green House is utilising online platform like BARESCA2U to expand its marketing strategy into O2O (offline to online) . Small and medium sized enterprises in Malaysia like Green House are slowly adapting to the digitalisation of their businesses.

In 2022, Green House will be participating in FHA – Food & Beverage and HoReCa in Singapore, and Food Ingredients Asia in Bangkok to showcase its latest emulco products as well as to update customers on its latest development in the bakery ingredients category.

Baking Industry a foolproof sector during the pandemic

Michael explained that demand for bakery products remain stable, especially for bread and related products as these are considered as essentials consumed as part of the daily consumer diet in this region.

COVID-19 pandemic and the successive lockdowns of schools and workplaces further strengthen demand for bakery products by consumers who spent more time at home. Nevertheless, despite the rising household demand, the food services sector, for example the bakery and cafe joints, suffered from continuous closures which impact on their business. In contrast, home-based bakery businesses experience unprecedented boom.

Michael reported that Green House sales has grown by 25% in 2020 compared to 2019. Despite the optimistic outlook, there are numerous challenges faced by the company and these include ensuring sustainable supply of raw materials due to the frequent disruptions during the lockdown, apart from rising shipping cost. It is also a challenge to maintain a safe work environment while optimising production capacity.

Green House is optimistic of a bright future for bakery businesses as well as the food services sectors once the pandemic recedes to endemic in 2022 and beyond. Green House forecast a 30% growth in its sales in 2021 as it relies more on online marketing to reach out to its customers, while it continues to develop more WOW flavoe range of emulcos, and offering customers low MOQ (minimum order quantity) and fast delivery as part of its niche marketing strategy. It is also looking to grow its new SKU in the DIY segment.

As the BARESCA segment is expected to resume back on its growth trajectory in 2022, Green House seeks to expand by aligning with fast growing F&B establishments, which have enjoyed rapid expansion not only in the home country but also overseas. Green House is currently looking for strategic partnership with such establishments.