Bottling in process. — LIM WING HOOI/TheStar
So what if you don’t have the knowledge or expertise? Ho Yew Pun, the founder of Bodibasixs Manufacturing, knew nothing about making personal care products, and yet he managed to build a company that exports to over 20 countries and makes over RM50mil in revenue every year. LIM WING HOOI reports.
JUST because you don’t have the expertise in a particular field doesn’t mean you have no chance of making a successful go of it. They say where there’s a will there’s a way, and sometimes it really is true.
Take Ho Yew Pun, for example.
The founder and managing director of Bodibasixs, which makes 12 types of personal care products and exports to over 20 countries, had no background in personal care products at all.
Before he started the company in 1995, Ho spent umpteen years as the branch manager of a finance company. Then, one day, he decided he wanted a career change, to move away from being a salaryman.
The question is: What business to get into?
This was a question that he was to dwell on for five long years. When Ho threw in his letter, he joined the family business and spent a few years helping his father to expand the hardware shop in Malacca into a wholesale business.
His familiarity with the hardware business naturally prompted him to consider going into the manufacture of hardware goods like nuts and bolts. But after spending five years doing research into the manufacturing processes as he worked for his father, Ho decided that it would be much better to make personal care products instead.
The manufacturing process for such products would be more systematic and cleaner, not to mention quieter.
“In early 90s, there weren’t many such players, while brand owners of personal care products were more keen to focus on marketing,” Ho recalls.
The next big question he had to grapple with was how to go about it since he had zero expertise in this segment.
Products that have been bottled are inspected before being sent for labeling.
Ho had a big hurdle to surmount, “but I had the people to help me make it happen,” he says. A key person who helped him was Goh Ser Heng, 62, who is today the company’s non-executive director.
It was Goh, then a factory manager at a pharmaceutical company in Malacca, who suggested that Ho go into contract manufacturing for personal care products. He was also the person who helped Ho set up his manufacturing line.
Being pretty much a finance guy, Ho knew he didn’t have the expertise to manage the new business. But, well, if you can’t do it yourself, you could always hire somebody who can do it, right?
And that’s exactly what he did.
Ho’s first hire was Lee Pang, then a logistics manager at one of the largest food and personal care contract manufacturing companies based in Shah Alam, Selangor. Ho came to know of her through his brother-in-law and decided she would be the best person to run his new factory.
He offered Lee the position of general manager, throwing in some shares as sweetener, to encourage her to join him as “Employee No 1”.
Lee, 60, remembers that the conditions then were good. The economy was booming and she had climbed a long way up the corporate ladder at her company, where she joined as a clerk and, over 16 years, rose to become the manager overseeing purchasing, planning and warehousing.
A worker ensuring that the labels for the products are correct.
But she also wondered how much further she could climb.
Lee says she was impressed with Ho’s sincerity in wanting to get her on his team and decided to embark on a new chapter as part-manager and part-entrepreneur.
“I wanted to do something different, and Ho offered me that avenue.
“I was also aware that both Ho and Goh had invested over RM1mil in the company. I felt the pressure to deliver results,” says Lee.
Bodibasixs was formed in 1995 and operated out of a one-acre factory in Shah Alam with a staff of eight. Having to sign cheques on behalf of the company for payments to staff and contractors in her new job was something that Lee was not used to.
After all, she had been an employee with a stable salary all her life.
It was stressful, she admits.
“I saw the funds rapidly decreasing,” says Lee. But the pressure she felt also motivated her to work hard.
Lee (left) and Ho at the company HQ in Klang.
The company began with just one manufacturing line for talcum powder. To try and secure their first orders, they brought over 10 potential clients, multinational companies (MNCs) included, to tour the factory.
“MNCs require references. But being a new company, we had none, so we switched to looking at local brand owners,” Lee relates.
While it was generally easier to get orders from local brand owners. this type of clients didn’t have their own formulas for their products — unlike MNCS.
It meant Lee’s team would have to develop the formulations for their potential clients.
The problem with this was that they didn’t have a R&D team.
“We didn’t even have a chemist. We needed a laboratory, and we had to justify to the owners as to why this investment was vital,” Lee recalls.
Understanding the need, Ho got the funds required and made it happen.
“We then continued to invest in the necessary equipment. We understood that we had to get over this barrier,” says Ho.
The laboratory where they test and formulate products for clients.
Four months later, with everything in place, they did a trial run and managed to secure their very first local client.
That maiden contract was only for RM7,000, but as Lee humbly says: “We have to start somewhere.”
Bodibasixc has since grown from strength to strength. In the financial year ending June 30, 2016, the company achieved a revenue of RM58mil, compared to RM50mil previously.
Today, Bodibasixs has over 60 brand owners as clients, including hypermarkets, pharmacy chain stores, MNCs and local brand owners. They manufacture over 12 types of products and export over 40% of their products to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, the Middle East and South-East Asia.
In 2007, the company moved to a new six-acre factory in Klang. These days, they don’t just help brand owners with formulations but also offer one-stop solution — labeling and packaging included.
“We also share with brand owners information about product viability and market trends. Our philosophy is that we hope to grow with these brand owners,” says Ho.
Out into the wide world you go.
He reveals that many of their early clients had grown sizeable enough to begin manufacturing on their own. Meanwhile, Bodibasixs continues to stick to their humble roots of accepting orders as small as RM3,000 even as they handle RM1mil orders.
Moving forward, Lee says they are looking at automating more of the processes at the factory, while maintaining the room for customisation for their diverse clientele.
“We are also going into manufacturing higher value products such as skincare and perfumes,” she confides.
Mr. Ho Yew Pun graduated from Malacca High in 1973 in Form 5.
Mr. Ho Yew Pun graduated from Malacca High in 1973 in Form 5.
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