In Malaysia, bread has suddenly become a much sought after food during the stay-at-home period. The out-of-stock situation has become so serious that required retailers to impose a limit on the number of bread one can purchase.
Gardenia, the country’s largest bread maker, has increased production by 5% compared to before the movement control order (MCO) was enforced, raising the total production to 2.2 million loaves a day. However, this is not enough to meet the surge in demand.
Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn Bhd General manager Desmond Tan said “we wish to inform that at this time the bread production at Gardenia factories has reached the maximum level. Therefore, we are not able to add on the supplies of our products in the market.”
The inability of the country’s two largest bread companies Gardenia and The Italian Baker (Massimo) to fulfill additional consumer demand has opened up opportunities for convenience store to promote their own-branded bread.
KK Super Mart said it has made available KK White Sandwich Loaf (Freshly) Bread at RM 3.90 per loaf at selected stores. Click here for the list of participating outlets.
myNEWS.com, meanwhile, has launched a 1KG sandwich loaf white bread at RM 6.90. Click here for the list of participating outlets. The myNEWS.com sandwich loaf bread is made by Sunderland Bakery Sdn Bhd.
The COVID-19 situation has opened up a window of opportunity to convenience store own-branded bread. Whether consumers will switch to retailer-own branded bread post COVID-19 remains to be seen but at least consumers now have more options beyond the branded ones.
