FOUNDATION IN NATURAL AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT (FNBE)

ENGLISH 2 [ENGL 0205]

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF 2 BUSINESSES OF SIMILAR INDUSTRY IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS

NAME: ID:LIM JERN JACK 0317139KELVIN FONG JIA ZHENG 0317166LAI JIA YI 0315957NG YUHENG 0315476CHONG YEE CHING 0316102

LECTURER: MS CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 5 JUNE 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTIONS PAGE NO.Acknowledgement 3Key Summary 4Description of the History of the Trade/Business 5Brief Description of the Businesses 6-8Comparative Analysis of the Businesses’ Competitive Traits 9-10Recommendation 11Bibliography 12Appendices-Interview Question with Answer-Interview Question (Chinese Version)-Minutes of the Meeting-Contact Detail

13-1718

19-2021

Appendix 2: Suggested List of Interview Questions 22-23Reference 24

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This English 2 Research Assignment Report is not possible to be prepared without the assistance and encouragement of other people. This one is certainly no exception.

On the very outset of this report, we as a group of five would like to extend our sincere and heartfelt obligation towards all the personages who had helped us in this endeavour. Without their active guidance, help, cooperation and encouragement, we would not have made headway in this assignment.

We are ineffably indebted to Ms Cassandra for conscientious guidance and encouragement to accomplish this assignment.

We are extremely thankful and pay our gratitude to Mr Leong How Keng from Leong Chee Kee Biscuits and Mr Melvin Y.S. Chan from Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd. for their valuable guidance and support on completion of this assignment in its presently.

We extend our gratitude to the School of Architecture, Building and Design (SABD), Taylor’s University for giving us this opportunity.

We also acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence, our gratitude towards our parents and family members, who have always supported us morally as well as economically.

Last but not least, gratitude goes to all of our group members and friends who directly or indirectly helped us to complete this research assignment report.

Any omission in this brief acknowledgement does not mean lack of gratitude.

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KEY SUMMARY

(A) Meetings

First of all, we did some research and discussions on this assignment. Thinking that we were having a field trip to Penang Island, so we decided to choose Chinese traditional biscuits bakeries as our main idea because Penang and Klang Valley, both of these cities have all the bakeries that could be easily found. Then, we listed down a few possible choices of traditional biscuits bakeries in Penang Island together with their locations in order to know which was more convenient to us. After that, we tried to contact with the owners to make a confirmation, and started to plan the suitable time to leave for the interview in Klang Valley. After that, we affirmed our interview questions that were vital to do a proper report. Before leaving to Penang, we also sought comments from Ms Cassandra on the interview questions. After collecting the information from our interviewees, we understood it first before organising it.

(B) Interviews with traditional biscuits bakeries

We had chosen Leong Chee Kee Biscuits in Penang Island and Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd. in Klang Valley as our interviewees. Before the interviews took place, we introduced ourselves as students from Taylor’s University and tried to get the approval from them by explaining our purpose of doing this assignment. We asked the designated questions and recorded their answers, whilst taking photos of their bakeries but Fung Wong Biscuits was renovating so the owner offered us with their old photos.

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DESCRIPTION OF THE HISTORY OF THE TRADE/ BUSINESS

Trace back to the era of Three Kingdoms (AD 220-280) in the history of Chinese civilisations, LiuBei (Shu Country) longed to take over Jing Province from SunQuan (Wu Country) got advices from ZhuGeLiang to trick SunQuan that he wanted to marry SunQuan’s sister. Thus, ZhuGeLiang immediately commanded his subordinates to bake wedding biscuits, and then delivered to Wu’s nation to announce the people of Wu that they were going to have a big day between the two nations. In a few days time, all the people in Wu believed in the marriage. To bestow a reward to the baker, LiuBei ordered some workers to build him a bakery in his hometown and named it as “The Phoenix Biscuits”. Hence, the tradition of giving away wedding biscuits to relatives and friends has passed from generation to generation until now and beyond.

Nowadays, Chinese all around the world are still practising this tradition. Therefore, the market of this business still has rooms to grow. Countries or regions like China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia are places that have high population of Chinese, and they are the main customers. The wedding biscuits represent auspicious and luck to the newly weds, and normally people will give away the biscuits in the multiple number of six. The purposes of giving away wedding biscuits are to spread the joy of their marriage and to announce people of their marriage. In some regions of Taiwan and China, the wedding biscuits will usually have a standardised weight but some bakeries will have different sizes of wedding biscuits depending on customers’ request. However in Hong Kong and Macau, there are more than 100 bakeries that are selling traditional biscuits.

With the changing of times, flavours and the packaging of the wedding biscuits have been varied to attract more customers and to cope with the modern era. In Malaysia, varieties of traditional biscuits other than wedding biscuits like heong peah, kong-so biscuit, crispy chicky biscuit, shah-kek-ma, wife biscuit and others are also popular among the nation. Besides, to cater for the local market, local bakeries have started to expand their businesses by getting the JAKIM department to award halal to their food production in order to widen their range of customers. Last but not least, setting up online purchase service has also been another strategy for local bakeries to sell their products to other states or even countries.

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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE BUSINESSES

(A) Leong Chee Kee BiscuitsThis section provides background information about the businesses such as:

Name: Mr Leong How Keng

Current Location: 8-C People’s Court Of Campbell Street, 10100 Penang.

Number of Branches: None.

Number of Employees: 2 workers. First is the owner, Leong How Keng, the youngest son of Leong Chee Kee and the second is Leong How Keng’s wife.

Main Products Sold: Traditional Biscuits such as Walnut Biscuit, Yellow Bridal Biscuits, Red Bridal Biscuits, Egg Tart and Coconut Tart.

Estimate Current Number of Customers: ≥200, because only 300 pieces of biscuits are made per day.

When was the business started: Since 1960. It has more than 60 years of bakery history.

Founder of the business: His father, who came from China, Zhong Shan. He died 20 years ago.

The motive of starting the business: His father learnt this craftsmanship from Sumatra when he was working; he came to Malaysia to start his own business after leaving Sumatra.

Recent Development: Do not have any development plan. He plans to retire after 4 years. There are two buyers who are interested to buy his franchise. He would consider selling his company.

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(B) Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd. This section provides background information about the businesses such as:

Company name: Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd.

Name: Mr Melvin Chan

Current Locations: No.28, Jalan Hang Lekir, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Number of Branches and Employees: Manned by 20 workers and one branch

New branch (located at Malaysia Food Street, Resorts World Sentosa, 8 Sentosa Gateway 098269) (http://followmywanders.wordpress.com/2013/12/27/malaysian-food-street-resorts-world-sentosa/)

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Main products sold: Wedding cake, Black Sesame Snack, Beh-the-so Biscuits, Shah-kek-ma, ‘Mo Mo So” Puff, Wife Biscuit, Husband Biscuit

Estimated current number of customers: N/A

When were the businesses started: In 1946, as a roadside stall at Jalan Hang Lekir. In 1970s, the Chan family had saved enough to buy over the shop, where the company headquarters now stand.

Founder of the business:

The motive of starting the business: To produce traditional Chinese pastries and cookies with generation-old recipes from his motherland, the Canton province of China.

Recent development: In 2006, the family made a joint decision to automate production. A new line of boxed products for traditional favourites like coconut, almond and peanut biscuits. After that, the entire company headquarters had to be knocked down, replaced with steel and concrete, leaving only the façade. A new outlet is opened in Malaysia Food Street, Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore.

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Chan Weng 1st GenerationChan Seng 2nd GenerationChan Kwok Chin 3rd GenerationChan Yue Soon 4th Generation

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE BUSINESSES’ COMPETITIVE TRAITS

(A) Leong Chee Kee

Number of Competitors: A few.

Bios of Top Three Competitors (with Products): i. Ghee Hiang Biscuits: Sesame Oil, Cookies, Mooncakeii. Ban Heang Biscuits: Heong Pheah, Beh The Saw, Phong Pheahiii. Cheong Kim Chuan Biscuits: Tau Sar Pneah, Brown Sugar Biscuit, Sha Qi Ma

The Obstacles Faced by New businesses: The most important is the quality of the products that needs to be delicious because nowadays people have high requirement towards food.

Nature of the Market: Monopolistic competition, because there are a few competitors that share the market in Penang Island.

(B) Fung Wong

Number of Competitors: None

Bios of Top Three Competitors: -

Strategies used on competing with their competitors: -

The obstacles faced by new businesses that wish to enter their market : There is no exact answer because since long ago this business has already existed thus not having any difficulties. Even though a new business still needs time to maintain stable. Most of the things can be bought by money but the only thing that can’t be bought by money is time. This business has gone through years of hardships and difficulty, which can’t be bought by money itself.

Nature of the Market: Monopoly, because there is no other bakeries in Kuala Lumpur area.

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SimilaritiesFung Wong Leong Chee Kee

Traditional bridal biscuits Types of biscuit sold Traditional bridal biscuitsFounders came from

mainland ChinaFounder’s origin Founders came from

mainland ChinaBeing led by one CEO Leaders Being led by one CEO

Differences1909 When was it founded 1960

Two founders, Chan Weng and Chan Seng.

Number of founders One founder,Lee Chee Kee

Descendants of old customers and local

customers

Customers whereabouts Mainly tourists, around 80% customers are out of

Penang. Many KL costumers came here to

buy pastries on weekends.2 branches,

KLIA & SingaporeNumber of

branches/outlets-

Constantly experimenting new products

New products for sale -

Based on the analysis, which business is more commercially successful? And why?

Based on our analysis, Fung Wong Biscuits is considered to be more commercially successful and recognised because of the number of outlets they own and the online delivery service they are running, which enables customers to enquire all types of products. Besides, it has also made full use of the modern technology by having a website solely based on their business. Customers who are not locals do not have to go all the way to their outlets to purchase their products because they can have it delivered to them, therefore boosting their popularity and fame.

Compared to Leong Chee Kee Biscuits which has various types of media buzzing around about how delicious and oriental their traditional biscuits are, but being compared to Fung Wong Biscuits, they do not provide a more expedient way to their customers that make purchasing easier than coming all the way to Penang. Leong Chee Kee Biscuits certainly has the medias to advertise their products but it does not beat the convenience and commercial of Fung Wong.

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RECOMMENDATION

Based on the comparative analysis we had done on both bakeries, we would like to suggest two ways for each bakery to improve their competitiveness.

Firstly, Leong Chee Kee Biscuits should hire more workers to increase the speed of production. This is very pivotal because the profit made will certainly depend on the sale of biscuits everyday. Mr Leong How Keng who insists to handmade biscuits to ensure the quality of biscuits, however can only make a total amount of 300 biscuits everyday. By increasing the number of worker, can reduce his burden at the same time too. Secondly, the bakery is located at a back alley where is surrounded by old apartments in Georgetown. The location is not strategic and could barely make people to get there. Based on the interview with Mr Leong, he said that 80% of his costumers are tourists from other states and countries. But due to its location, people might miss it out or cannot find the place. Therefore, we think that they might move out and find a spot that can be easily found.

However, Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd. that owns a branch in Singapore, could start expanding their circle of customers in the international market. They could try exploring new markets in high-populated ASEAN cities like Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila. Thus, an all-embracing plan is needed before investing. Besides, the 4 th

generation founder of Fung Wong chose to automate the production to shorten the time of making biscuit, so they can have a huge line production to get more sales. In this case, chefs with experience in central kitchens will be invaluable to traditional Chinese bakeries with big plans. If they are looking at big-time production using machinery with a capacity of 20,000 pieces in two hours, then they must have someone who can manage staff schedules, purchasing, storage and quality control, not forgetting people to look into distribution and technical aspects of the production machinery.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrew, D., W., B. P., & W., L. J. (2010). International business enterprises -- Asia. International business : an Asia Pacific perspective (2 ed., pp. 38-41). Singapore: Prentice Hall.

Asih, S. (2007). Family business : a case study of Nyonya Meneer, one of Indonesia's most successful traditional medicine companies . Jakarta; Kuala Lumpur: Equinox Publishing.

Goudarz, A. (2014). Journal of Food Products Marketing. Uppsala: Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural

Sciences.

Torsten, S. (2013). Social identity theory and the family business: A contribution to understanding family business dynamics. Small Enterprise Research (pp. 76-86). Auckland: Business School, Faculty of Business & Economics, University of Auckland.

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APPENDICES

Interview Questions w ith Answers (A)Shop Name: Leong Chee Kee

Date: 16th of May 2014 Time: 2.30P.M – 3.30P.M

1) When was the business founded?-Founded in 1960.

2) Who are the key founders?- My father, Leong Chee Kee who came from Zhong Shan, China. He passed away 20 years ago.

3) What prompted the founders to start this business?- My father learnt this craftsmanship from Sumatra when he was working; he came to Malaysia to start his own business after leaving Sumatra.

4) What are your main products?- Coconut cake, Egg sponge cake, and Chinese traditional wedding cake.

5) Who are your customers?- Mainly tourists, 80% of them are from out of Penang. Many KL costumers came here to buy my biscuits on weekends.

6) What is the business’ annual revenue figure?- Confidential.

7) How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

- N/A

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8) Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments? - My father started the business. I helped my father and continued the business in 1993, but I helped him to make the biscuits since I was 10 years old. I would go to the shop after coming back from school. I plan to retire after 4 years. Now, there are two serious buyers who are interested to buy the franchise, so I will consider the offer.

9) Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?- Every bakery has their own uniqueness, in term of techniques and the range of their products. The most important thing is to do your biscuits full heartedly. I have the confidence in my own biscuits, therefore I do not feel any threats from competitors like those branded franchised bakeries.- I don’t know how much the capital because it was my father who first started the business. We made the biscuits at home and only sold them on trishaw 60 years ago.

10) How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialized field of knowledge do you need to run this business?The most important knowledge for this business is the craftsmanship in baking, which is fast reaction, and flexible hand movement because the most important thing of hand made pastry is time. The slower you make a cake, the lesser profit you earn.

11) Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?- It’s not easy or hard to enter this market, as long as the quality of the biscuits you made are controlled and good, customers will come back automatically despite the price because people nowadays set high standards for food, if the food is not good, customers won’t buy even though they are sold at a cheap price.

12) How do you compete with your competitors i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert customers away from your competitors?- N/A

13) How often do you release a new product (this assumes the business sells differentiated products)?- I won’t be releasing any new products because I don’t have any apprentice to help me out. Since I wanted to maintain the quality of the pastries, I will also cut down producing some of the biscuits and cakes, which are not so popular. I might further discover some new products after the other company bought the franchise.

14) Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors?- N/A

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(B) Shop Name: Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd. Date: 25th May 2014 Time: 9.00A.M

1) When was Fung Wong established?- 1909 in Canton, China.

2) Who founded Fung Wong?-It was my grandfather named Chan Weng, and Chang Seng my great grandfather.

3) What was the reason he founded Fung Wong?-What I heard from my grandfather was back in the days, their only business was selling mosquito repellent which has a stick and plate under it to spray. I don’t know whether you guys have seen it before, but I did when I was very young. He liked to make eateries especially biscuits, so he continued making them and gave to his neighbours and friends. The feedback he got wasn’t that bad, even though he only made them occasionally, it’s impossible that you’ll only make a piece and eat it yourself right? Then for the wedding biscuit, which comes in red and yellow. Red contains bean paste and yellow contains lotus seed. During weddings or any other special occasions, neighbours will order some from my great grandfather.

4) Are most of the biscuits experimented by the founder himself?-Yes, all of them. The reason why he first started making them is all because of his interest but not money.

5) What are products that are mostly produced now?-Wedding biscuits, because most of the time when there are weddings, people will usually look for Fung Wong.

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6) How did the signboard of Fung Wong was formed? -Fung Wong is like the Kings of all kings according to Chinese mythology. It means that it’s more deluxe, which displays our product quality as well. In 1947, my grandfather came to Malaysia, he stood at the place that you are standing right now. Before everything started, this place was called Beng Heong. Fung Wong rented a place from Beng Heong to sell their biscuit, my grandfather and father worked here and my father got married with the daughter of the founder of Beng Heong. After they got married the shop was to let, his father bought it during 1970 and finally they moved the stall into a whole shop lot. That’s the time that biscuits genre started to increase, for example: Siu Bao, Egg Tart, Walnut cookies, Gong Sou Biscuits, Steamed Yellow Cake, Egg Roll, etc. So now, I took charge of the company, I’m still producing wedding biscuits, people can even buy their biscuits online, and I’ve extended my business to Singapore. At Resort World Sentosa, you guys can find my shop selling all the traditional biscuits. The reason why we have used the Internet for our business is because it is more convenient for our customers and many of our customers have requested so. Nowadays our packaging is to make our business procedures to be more convenient for tourists to bring back to their respected countries as a gift.

7) What are the average ages of your customers?-There are actually many age groups that visited our business because our business has been running over a century and some of our customers had already passed away. But for those who are still here, they will always tell their younger generations that this is the stall that they’ve been eating since then and the taste of the biscuits is really traditional but for now some of our biscuits have been categorised into two types, which are reduced oil and reduced sugar but the quality and taste haven’t changed at all.

8) So for now Fung Wong is more focused towards the health aspect of the biscuits?-Yes, because customers nowadays prefer biscuits to have less oil or sugar, the best is that customers don’t want any sugar or oil in their biscuits but we couldn’t make them that way. Compared to the old days, many have been reduced and changed because we have to look at the aspect of health.

9) How many outlets do Fung Wong has?-For now this one (at Petaling Street) that is currently under renovation but we still have two outlets, in Singapore and another is in KLIA. This stall is considered to be old but in 2 months time our renovation would be done and we will reopen our business.

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10) Who are the competitors in this type of business?-If you are talking about competitors from the wedding biscuits business where it is only edible during weddings, western cakes are one of our competitors. Back in the days, when western cakes are not popular, but you can’t really say that they are not popular, it’s just that they are not really available that time. Customers will really compare between traditional Chinese wedding biscuits and the western style cake. Why? You might ask, firstly it would because of the time zone that we’re in. Secondly, there are many youngsters who graduated from overseas and they are the ones who might consider using western cakes during their wedding but ultimately most of them will choose to have traditional Chinese wedding biscuits, because no matter what, we are still Chinese and this one in a life time event, unless you are married to a Caucasian then I have nothing to say. Next it is because most of their parents would want their child’s wedding to follow their tradition since the blood flowing in you is still the Chinese blood, and tradition wise most of them will follow how their elders did it last time, which was giving away wedding biscuits but it is impossible that during your generation you are giving our western cake, this is just absurd. From what I’ve heard from my customers, before marriage you will have to meet your to-be-parents-in-law anyway by going out for dinner while discussing the wedding plans and they will anyhow mention Fung Wong wedding biscuits because since last time till now Fung Wong wedding biscuits has been remembered because of our quality control.

11) How much model and money did the founder of Fung Wong spent to start this business?-I think you have to ask my grandfather regarding this question because I can’t really answer you. (Laughs) But most probably he didn’t really need that much of money because he’d been doing this at home all the while. But if you are talking about buying the stall during 1970 it would cost RM250,000.

12) Do you think it is easy to enter this market? Why? -I can’t really answer that because since long time ago this business had already existed, thus not having any difficulties. Even though if a business is new it still needs time to stabilise. Most of the things can be bought but the only thing that can’t be bought is time. This business has gone through years of hardships, which can’t be bought by money itself.

13) How often do you release a new product?-We’ve been experimenting and testing out different types of biscuits, if we think that it is “Okay” we will still have to further our testing towards the biscuits. Because anyhow there will always be rooms for improvement because just “good” itself isn’t enough to prolong our business. For new products to be set out for selling, the soonest a new product can be set out to sell is around six months, and the latest would be a year and a half. Besides we still have to continue researching once our products are already out for sale because we have to know how long will it last until it is spoilt and know what are the consequences after it is spoilt.

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Interview Question (Chinese version)

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MINUTES OF THE MEETINGFirst meeting session

Details of first meeting sessionDATE: 1st MAY 2014TIME: 9.00A.M

VENUE: E3.08

Roles assignedNAMES OF GROUP MEMBERS TUTORIAL GROUP ROLELim Jern Jack Mon 1100-1300 LeaderChong Yee Ching Mon 1100-1300 SecretaryNg Yuheng Mon 1100-1300 TransporterLai Jia Yi Mon 1100-1300 Time KeeperKelvin Fong Jia Zheng Mon 1100-1300 Person to contact

Second meeting sessionDetails of second meeting session

DATE: 10th MAY 2014TIME: 11.00A.M

VENUE: E3.08

ActivitiesDiscussion -Questionnaires and the second business to interview

-Had some trouble looking for the second business to interview because most of the old businesses had either gone bankrupt or not available for our interview

Conclusion We contacted Fung Wong and they agreed to be interviewed after our Penang trip but there might be some inconveniences because they are going under some major renovation. And we have made a decision to drive to Petaling Street where Fung Wong headquarters is located. Ng Yuheng was assigned to be the transporter but the date has not been concluded yet.

Third meeting session

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ActivitiesDiscussion -Roles of each group member and which business to do research

-The time and date for our actual interview-Potential interviewees (locations, contact methods)

Conclusion We decided to interview Leong Chee Kee while we’re in Penang Island during our field trip and we’ve also contacted the person in charge of Leong Chee Kee to make sure that he is available on the day itself. Besides, we’ve also located the store and operating hours so that we could document their process of making the biscuits.

Details of third meeting sessionDATE: 15th MAY 2014TIME: 6.00P.M

VENUE: Library Level 5

ActivitiesDiscussion -Finalise the questionnaires.

-List down the equipment needed for the interview: cameras, tripods, and audio recorder.-Contacted the person in charge of Leong Chee Kee once more before the day we headed to Penang to make sure that he is available.

Conclusion Questions for the interview were finalised, final confirmation that the person in charge of Leong Chee Kee had been.

Fourth meeting sessionDetails of fourth meeting session

DATE: 24th MAY 2014TIME: 1.00P.M

VENUE: Oldtown White Coffee

ActivitiesDiscussion -Contacted with Fung Wong Biscuits to confirm that we can

interview them the next day-Decided to bring a laptop to record the audio.-Departed early in the morning to avoid congestion that would delay our plan.

Conclusion Made a confirmation with the person in charge and he agreed to be interviewed. The interview was timed at 9.00A.M. Made a confirmation with Ng Yuheng that he could drive us to the designated location and had a rough idea where the store is located. Last but not least, we finalized our questionnaires that had to be asked during the interview.

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CONTACT DETAILS

(A) Leong Chee Kee Biscuits

Contact Name: Leong How KengJob Position: person in chargePhone Number: 016-401 9211/ 016-465 8166Working Hour: 9.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.

(B) Fung Wong Biscuits Sdn. Bhd.

Contact Name: Chan Yue SoonJob Position: Chief Operating OfficerPhone Number: 012-654 3211/ 03 2078 8357/ 03 2072 5168Email address: melvin@fungwong.myOfficial Website: www.fungwong.myFacebook Website: https://www.facebook.com/FungWongBiscuits

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APPENDIX 2: Suggested List of Interview Questions

Companies Summary

CompanyQuestions

Fung Wong Leong Chee Kee

When was the business founded?

1909 1960

Who are the key founders?

Chan Weng and Chang Seng Leong Chee Kee

What prompted the founders to start this business?

Making biscuits and gave away them to his neighbours and friends. The feedback was good.

Started business after leaving Sumatra.

What are your main products?

Wedding biscuits Coconut cake, Egg sponge cake, and Chinese traditional wedding biscuits

Who are your customers?

Couples who are planning wedding.

Mainly tourists.

What is the business’ annual revenue figure?

Confidential Confidential

How many branch offices/stores do you have (if applicable)?

3 N/A

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Can you provide us a brief history of your business and its most recent developments?

In 1947, his grandfather came to Malaysia. Fung Wong rented a place from Beng Heong to sell their biscuit, and his father got married with the daughter of the founder of Beng Heong. His father bought the shop in 1970 and finally they moved the stall into the whole shop lot. Start online business, and extend the business to Singapore.

His father started the business. He helped his father to make cakes since he was 10 years old.Retire after 4 years. Consider selling the franchise.

Do you have many competitors? Who are they? Who are your top 3 competitors?

Western style of cakes. N/A

How much capital is required to start this business? What, if any, specialized field of knowledge do you need to run this business?

RM250,000 to buy the stall. He doesn’t know how much capital is required.The most important knowledge for this business is the craftsmanship in baking (fast reaction and flexible hand movement). The slower you make a cake, the lesser profit you earn.

Generally, do you feel it is easy or hard to enter this market? Why?

He can’t really answer that because since long ago this business has already exists thus not having any difficulties.

It’s not easy or hard to enter this market, as long as the quality of the pastries is controlled and good.

How do you compete with your competitors i.e. what strategies do you employ to divert customers away from your competitors?

High quality control and wise packaging.

N/A

How often do you release a new product (this assumes the business sells differentiated products)?

They’ve been experimenting and testing out different types of biscuits.

N/A

Are your pricing decisions strongly affected by your competitors?

N/A N/A

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REFERENCES

1. “About” 2004. http://www.fungwong.my/about/

2. Chen, Grace. “Extra bite to Chinese pastries Biscuit and pastry makers turning to modern technology to increase production” The Star, October 26, 2012.

3. Lam, C.K. “Old Favourite Chinese Snacks @ Leong Chee Kee off Cintra Road ” July 12, 2009. http://www.what2seeonline.com/2009/07/lck/#more-5999

4. Tan, L.K. “Now and Then” Going Places, August, 2012.

5. Wong, P.L. “Leong Chee Kee Biscuits Review” February 19, 2013. http://www.bestpenangfood.com/2013/02/19/leong-chee-kee-biscuits-review/

6. Li, G. B. (2008, March 8). The Old Time of Petaling Street. Guang Ming Daily, p. 15.

7. Man, L. Z. (2008, September 6). The Hundred Year Time-honored Brand - Fung Wong Biscuits. Sin Chew Daily, p. 22.

8. Ling, B. J. (2010, July 11). Finding the Story of Traditional Biscuits (1). Guang Ming Daily, p. 39-42.

9. Zhu, Z. L. (2009, May 3). A Good Taste of Tradition - Leong Chee Kee Biscuits. Guang Ming Daily, p. 26.

10. Ping, L. W. (2009, September 24). Old Delicacies of Petaling Street. Nanyang Siang Pau, p. 17.

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