Business

Saturday November 14, 2009

Apollo Food to beef up exports to China, India

By ZAZALI MUSA


JOHOR BARU: Apollo Food Holdings Bhd sees China and India as its next big export destinations in view of their huge population.

Executive chairman and managing director Liang Chiang Heng said the two countries offered good opportunities for its products which were categorised as fast moving goods (FMG).

“One criterion of the FMG categorisation is volume and we cannot ignore China and India’s huge domestic markets,” he told StarBizWeek after the company AGM recently.

Liang Chiang Heng with some of the company’s products.

Liang said the company had earmarked the next two to three years to further strengthen and expand its market presence in the two countries.

He said although Apollo was already exporting to China and India, it had not fully exploited the markets there; hence there was good prospect for the company.

Liang said there was not much difference in terms of taste and preference between the Chinese and Indian consumers when it came to chocolate-coated confectionery items and cakes.

He said the company would also be looking to increase its export to Australia and New Zealand as their people were known to be chocolate lovers.

“We have to look at increasing our export volumes from time to time as growth in the domestic market is almost stagnant,” said Liang.

Presently, the domestic market accounts for 55% of its revenue. Apollo exports to almost 50 countries, of which Asean countries are its main market, followed by the Middle East.

Liang said it wanted to rely less on lower-range products over time while developing the high-range segment “where the money comes from”.

Premium products had good growth potential and could generate better revenue in the long run, he said, adding that the products were aimed at consumers in Europe and the United States.

He said Apollo would continue producing new products; on average it churned out 10 to 15 new products yearly.

Liang said the company had recently acquired 1.61ha beside its existing plant in the Larkin industrial area in Johor which would be used for future expansion.

For the financial year ended April 30 (FY09), Apollo recorded a net profit of RM20.91mil and revenue of RM175.33mil compared with net profit of RM20.97mil on RM181.14mil revenue in FY08.

For the first quarter ended July 31, its net profit grew to RM7.27mil from RM6.08mil a year ago while revenue fell 20% to RM39.15mil from RM48.94mil previously.

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