BERJAYA GROUP BERHAD - Berjaya Corporation Berhad

44
CEO’s Review Of Operations
RANGE OF
PRODUCTS
FROM SINGER
MALAYSIA.
year, two new brands - CHAGALE, a
comprehensive range of colour cosmetics and
COUNTERAGE, an anti-wrinkle skin care
range were launched in the market. The launch
of CHAGALE and COUNTERAGE marked
the group’s entry into colour cosmetics and
premium skin-care products.
Entrepreneur Development in providing
opportunities to about 30,000 Malaysian students
from local and foreign universities to become
entrepreneurs and choose business as a
rewarding alternative career, the company signed
a Memorandum of Understanding with the
Ministry to participate in a programme whereby
selected graduates will be attached with Singer
Malaysia for at least six months to acquire “hands
on experience” in business operations.
In the light of the economic downturn, we
expect the coming year to be very challenging
as the company embarked on austerity
measures to reduce operational expenditure
and at the same time improve efficiency and
productivity to maintain our competitiveness.
Unza Group of Companies - During the year,
the group achieved a turnover of RM220.6
million, an increase of 19% over the previous
year’s turnover of RM185.1 million. Profit
before tax increased by 66% to RM27.9 million
compared to RM16.8 million achieved in the
previous year.
Additional products were also introduced in the
Malaysian market for the ROMANO,
ENCHANTEUR, SHUREI and SHINYO
brands. These included a new fragrance variant,
deodorant stick and roll-on for ROMANO,
deodorant stick for ENCHANTEUR, Lite
Shampoo and shampoo for permed/treated hair
for SHUREI and new air freshener variants for
SHINYO. A range of skin-care products with
tea tree oil under the brand name
AUSTRALIAN BODYCARE was also
introduced.
Our international business, under the Berjaya
Unza Holdings Group, had a good year with
sales increasing by 37% to RM105.8 million.
Whilst this growth was partly due to the
exchange rate movements, the underlying
performance was very encouraging. Singapore
made good progress with its four key brands -
EVERSOFT, ENCHANTEUR, DASHING
and SHUREI. Vietnam was our other star
market and we were able to grow our business
three-fold due to the strong growth of our
ENCHANTEUR brand.
Despite the economic downturn and difficult
market conditions in Malaysia, our performance
was quite good. Turnover increased by 8% to
RM130.7 million and profit before tax
increased by 2% to RM13.3 million. Within our
portfolio of brands, MAXKLEEN our star
brand, recorded a 31.8% growth, and both
ROMANO and EVERSOFT also performed
well during the year. At the beginning of the
A NEWLY
INSTALLED
AUTOLABELLER
TO IMPROVE
PRODUCTION
EFFICIENCY.