kk supermart plans venture abroad

By RACHAEL KAM
HOMEGROWN 24-hour mini-supermarket chain KK Super Mart will venture abroad this year while on the domestic front, it is on track to open 15 new outlets by year-end.
Owned and operated by KK Supermart Holdings Sdn Bhd, the chain currently comprises 35 outlets, of which one is in Kuching and the rest in the Klang Valley and Selangor.
Recession or not, people are still buying their daily necessities, says founder and CEO Datuk Dr Douglas K.K. Chai, who also attributes it to the location of the outlets in housing areas as shoppers need not travel far to buy what they need on a daily basis.
He plans to expand the chain to potential markets like Myanmar, Bangladesh and India due to their huge population.
Meanwhile, the new local outlets will be located in the Klang Valley, Seremban, Malacca and Penang, he says, adding that each outlet involves an investment of RM300,000 to RM400,000.
Datuk Dr Douglas K.K. Chai says he foresees a bright future for his mini-supermarket business as the demand is there, not only in the country but also overseas.
“We currently offer over 9,000 products at our stores.
“Our intention is to provide a wider variety of competitively priced goods to meet the consumers’ needs,” he tells StarBizWeek at the company’s head office in Kuala Lumpur.
Chai founded KK Supermart in 2001 with an initial capital of RM60,000 to rent a shoplot in Kuchai Entrepreneurs’ Park and purchase computers and products.
“There is no free lunch in this world. We must work hard for rewards,” he says, adding that KK Super Mart has come a long way from when he and his wife had to work 20 hours a day.
“With the outlet expansion, we need to recruit 180 more employees,” he says, adding that the company has 500 employees currently.
Chai says the supermarket chain formed a new division selling fruits in January and plans to have a vegetable division next month at all its outlets.
“Since we have more divisions with wide range of products and competitive pricing that matches our customers’ needs, we are still able to maintain our revenue growth despite the downturn,” he says but declines to disclose a figure.
Going forward, Chai says KK Super Mart will continue to enhance its product range and strengthen its brand image by improving its staff’s service quality and better arrangement of goods in its outlets.
“We also started a hotline service last year for customers to call in for enquiries and give their feedback, thus helping us serve our customers better,” he adds.
In addition, the company will also continue to invest in advertising and promotional activities, and maintain its annual advertising expenditure (adex) of between 1% and 3% of its revenue.
“As our sales grow, the amount for adex will be bigger,” says Chai, who worked as an accountant for two years after his graduation.
Before he ventured into the mini-supermarket concept business, he was a remisier with a local securities firm for two years.
Chai also has other businesses under the brand name KK, the initials of his Chinese name. He formed KK Home Deco in 2007 and now it has seven outlets located in Nilai, KL and Shah Alam.
Home Deco provides home decorative items and wedding products or hantaran.
He also owns KK Motorsports, a motorcycle spare parts shop and KK Kopitiam restaurant.
“I foresee a bright future for our mini-supermarket business as the demand is there, not only in the country but also overseas, especially countries with a huge population,” he says.