Malaysia’s home-grown burger party supplier, Ramly Food Processing Sdn Bhd, is building a RM1 billion production complex in Pulau Indah.
Ramly, which is a brand name plastered on almost every street burger stall in Malaysia, is building the plant at Selangor’s Pulau Indah halal hub, to cater to its growing clientele both domestic and foreign. Production is expected to begin in 2017.
Ramly Food MD Datuk Ramly Mokni said the manufacturing complex will have a production plant, storage depots, halal logistics, training centre as well as a research and development (R&D) centre.
He said the complex, covering 21 acres (8.5ha), will also host production plants of Ramly Food’s vendors. The construction work has already started. The modern and fully automated factory is expected to be completed by the end of 2017, he told reporters after the signing of a syndicated financing facility agreement between Kumpulan Ramly with Agrobank (Bank Pertanian Malaysia Bhd) and Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad worth RM274 million in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Ramly said the company, which registered RM86 million in profits in 2014, foresees a threefold increase in profit once the new manufacturing complex becomes operational.
Under the first phase, the company is planning to build a plant with six production lines with an investment of RM500 million on a 14-acre plot, which will have a production capacity of six times more than the present five tonnes per hour.
The company plans to develop a storage depot for frozen an dried products as well as halal logistics on six acres of land with an investment of RM100 million under the second phase.
As for the third phase, the project will consist of a training centre, an R&D centre as well as production plants for its vendors on two acres of land, with an investment between RM300 million and RM400 million.
At the moment, we have a few vendors involved in food production such as the production of bread, sauces and spices. The vendors have grown successfully together with us, he said, adding that it has 36 vendors now.
Ramly Food, founded in 1984 by Ramly and his wife Datin Shala Siah Abdul Manap, is exporting to six countries, namely Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Combodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Currently, we do not have the capacity to accommodate (rising) demand from the export market. Once the manufacturing complex is completed, and then we would have the capacity to export into newer markets, he said.
We want to ensure product quality to meet the demand of overseas and loval markets, especially Ramly Halal Mart, Ramly Halal kiosks and burger boys who are the backbone of the Ramly products, he added.
Ramly said the company does not have any plan for an initial public offering. Asked on the impact of the ringgit’s weakness on the company, he said the depreciation of the currency would generally have an impact on any company that is importing goods.
But, we usually plan ahead to reduce the impact of currency weakness. We import nearly 40% of raw material from China. So, we are using yuan for trading to reduce the impact of the high US dollar against the ringgit, he said.