SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGNResearch Unit for Modern Architecture Studies in Southeast AsiaFoundation of Natural Build Environments (FNBE)

COMPARISON REPORT OF

PASTRY SHOPS IN

PENANG & SEREMBAN

Assignment 2 : Research Report

Module : English II [ELG30605]

Lecturer: GopiGhantan Mylvaganam

Group Members : 1. Theresa Thia Ai Min 0323170 (Leader)

2. Teoh Zi Wei 0323372

3. Tan Yan Jie 0323906

4. Ng Chuan Kai 0323738

5. Ng Ji Yann 0323713

6. Lettitia Lois Hiew 0323908

7. Tang Fu Hong 0323092

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

No. Title Page

1. Key Summary

2. Description of the History of the Business

3. Brief Description of the Business

4. Comparative Analysis

5. Recommendation

6. References

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KEY SUMMARY

This report is based on the comparison of two businesses, in which we chose to do Traditional Pastry Shops. The shops that we chose were located in Seremban and Penang, called Asian Siew Pau and Ming Xiang Tai respectively. We travelled to Penang for a personal interview with the owner of Ming Xiang Tai while the owner of Asian Siew Pau came down to Subang Jaya for the interview. From the interview we got to understand the brief description of both businesses and we were able to make a comparative analysis of both businesses’ competitive traits. Not only that, we were also able to think of recommendations for the business to improve.

HISTORY OF TRADE

Malaysian traditional bakeries were introduced and inspired by Westerners when they colonized Malaysia in the 19th and 20th centuries and conducted trade with the Chinese in these port cities, and imported their cultures and European culinary traditions with them. Westerners, mainly Portuguese and British have introduced Egg Tarts , a wide variety of sweet and savory buns, pastries, turnovers, some cakes and cookies. These baked introductions by the Portuguese and British to Malaysia would give rise and popularity to the concept of Traditional Malaysian bakeries, which are a fusion of Western, Chinese and Malay pastries. For example, some Chinese bakeries would also incorporate original Chinese items, and Chinese adaptations baked char siu bao red bean or lotus seed paste sweet buns as well as sweet vanilla egg custard buns.

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DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

The first business of our choice is owned by Mr Alvin Loke and is very famous in Negeri Sembilan, even in the whole Malaysia. It is the first Siew Bao Bakery shop in Seremban. This shop was founded by the owner’s wife, Ms Teh Yolie King with no particularly specific intention, only with the reason that baking was something that she was passionate about. It is founded since year 1998 with a capital of RM 5000. The business has been running with a steady customer flow for 17 years. Surprisingly, even after such positive customer feedbacks for the duration of time they have opened, they did have any other branches open as one branch is simpler to manage in their opinion. The location of the shop did alter from its original position which was just down the same street as they are currently running for business. The reason why this relocation was made is because the owner needed a larger space to fit in all the kitchen equipment that they have. As the business only has 1 branch, the total number of employees is quite minimal, with the amount currently being around 10 to 12 employees. The management structure is fairly simple as the only type of job positions available in the business are general managers, clerks, general workers and bakers. For the condition of the current business, it has an estimated amount of 200 customers on weekdays and more than 300 for weekends. On peak days, the numbers can rise higher than that, with the queue extending down the street for the whole day as quoted by Mr Alvin. Sometimes they will accept requests from travel companies that allow tourists to experience the process of making their signature pastries.

The shop is famous due to the main highlight which is the “siew bao” and egg tarts. “Siew Bao”, also known as roasted buns, actually originated from Seremban, so it has it’s own traditional baking technic to make it taste good. For them, they did not change the traditional baking recipe since they founded this shop. They even had the achievements of top in trip adviser webpage and introduced on TV in Singapore and Malaysia Astro TV program between these years.

Next, Ming Xiang Tai which is owned by Mr Au Meng Kit is famous in Pulau Penang. It is founded by the owner Mr Au Meng Kit himself in the year 2008. Before the business started, the owner’s grandmother was selling traditional handmade Cantonese pastries and biscuits with on her tricycle. To honor his grandparents, he started this business and has 4 branches all around the Penang Island. They have total around 30 to 40 employees and each branch has an amount of 8 to 11 employees. In each branch, there will be a supervisor, assistant supervisor, cashier, sales person, trainee, junior chef and senior chef. For the current condition of his business, it has an amount of 1000 customers on weekdays and up to 4000 of customers on weekend and public holidays. They can reach these massive amounts of customers due to the use of their traditional recipe, the amount of branches and that strategic location of the shops that are located in urban and tourist areas.

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Their main products are Salted Egg Tart and Trishaw Egg Tart. Trishaw Egg Tart was started by Madam Yin Yu Qun in 1960s as a home based business. It was until 1970’s that Madam Yin’s son Au Chee Teck and his wife Madam Chong Mooi used a trishaw cart to carry these egg tarts and sold in their local towns. The egg tarts are then named as the Trishaw Egg Tarts because it has 48 layers. Their achievements between these few years were their shop had been advertised by many different kind of multimedia such as TV program and webpages. The largest achievement is that Ming Xiang Tai had succeeded in honoring Mr Au Meng Kit’s grandparents and become a well known tourist stop for pastries in Penang.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSISASIAN SIEW BAO (SEREMBAN)

Seremban is famous for their food and drinks. We went to Asian Siew Bao for interview and we have their secret to be so successful in this industry and their famous product is Siew Bao one of the Cantonese pastries.

1. Number of Competitors in Their Respective Geographical Market. As Siew Bao is one of the signature products in Seremban, Asian Siew Bao has quite a lot of competitors in the Seremban area. They have 2 main competitors around the area. Siew Bao Empire is one of their biggest competitors as it is one of the pioneers to start the traditional pastry business. Kee Mei Siew Bao is another competitor to Asian Siew Bao, which located near few residential areas. It gains a lot of customers by offering the cheapest price among all its competitors. Interestingly, all these competitors are actually opened by brothers, all related to the owner of Asian Siew Bao by blood.

Competitor 1 Siew Bao Empire is located at Pasar Besar Negeri Sembilan (LG1-57 Tingkat Bawah Tanah). Seremban has big advantages for its location as it is located just beside the main Highway (Plus highway) of Seremban. It has become the tourist spot in Seremban as a place to buy souvenir and have lunch. Apart from Siew Bao, Siew Bao Empire also sells a lot of others products such as Egg Tart, Mixed Bread, Butter Cake and Tortoise Jelly. To gain more profit, they also opened up a Chinese restaurant that serves a lot of sea food dishes.

Competitor 2 Kee Mei Siew Bao is a small shop lot which located Jalan Tok Ungku,70100 Seremban. Owner of Kee Mei Siew Bao is the sister to Mr Alvin, the owner of Asian Siew Bao. As it is the family business of Alvin’s family, Mr Alvin does not really see it as a competitor. Kee Mei Siew Bao is located near a school, Bukit Mewah. It gained a lot of support from the students and staff of this secondary school. Kee Mei Siew Bao serves a lot of products such as Siew Bao, Mixed Bread, Cheese cake, Durian puff and cheese puff. It constantly comes out with new products to attract more customers.

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Kee Mei Siew Bao is an international business as it has many branches at Singapore and China. Kee Mei Siew Bao serves the international market and it has a big demand. They earn more profit as compared to other traditional pastry shops in Seremban.

3. Strategies Used To Face Competitors Owner of the Asian Siew Bao, Mr Alvin does not come up with a lot of strategies to tackle their competitors.

He believes that products are just a small part of the business but instead the most important aspect is customer welfare. He truly cares and treats the customers with respect to make them feel appreciated.

When there is a long queue in front of the shop, He will offer some seats to the senior citizens and children. When it is raining, he will offer his umbrellas and raincoats to his customers for them to cover up from the rain.

Mr Alvin really contributes a lot to the society. He donated a lot of funds for school activities as well as charities that need cash support. As what he believes, customers will only return when they feel warm and touched for their caring behavior and services.

He also reduces the price of the products for as much as 5% within the period of the Chinese festival such as Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival. Asian Siew Bao gained a lot of recognization through introductions made in the TV shows from Singapore as well as Hua Hi channel from Astro on their shop. Local radio channels such as Morning Kaki also came to Mr Alvin’s shop for an questionnaire section.

4. Obstacle Faced By Potential New Businesses From Mr Alvin’s opinion, it is very difficult for a new business to enter to the market today as there are already a lot in the current market.

The obstacles potentially faced by new business owners is the difficulty to get loan as the economy of our nation is getting worse. They will need to work hard and save some money or borrow money from friends as a capital to start of a business.

Due to the inflation, a lot of equipment, as well as the renovation of the shop have increase in its pricing. Most of the new business cannot stand for these expenses and quite within 5 years.

After a business has been set up it takes time for it to stabilize its foundation. Within this period it may lose money or even carry huge amount of liabilities in order for the business to keep running.

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5. Nature of Market The market of Asian Siew Bao is oligopoly, which is a market that contains a few of sellers. This traditional pastry shop has only a few competitors, but they all have difference in pricing of products. Asian Siew Bao serves local market and only have one shop. It is a big difference when compared to Kee Mei Siew Bao which serve an international market.

Asian Siew Bao sells a lot of interesting new products such as durian puff and cheese puff. This make gives Asian Siew Bao its characteristic of oligopoly as it has a great pricing power and serves a niche market.

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSISMING XIANG TAI ( PENANG)

1. Number of Competitors in Their Respective Geographical Market.

As Ming Xiang Tai is established in Georgetown, a popular tourist destination, it encounters severe competition with other baking shops. This is due to the fact that many businesses realized the opportunity to earn profit in this area due to high demand for baking. Ming Xiang Tai has about 10 competitors around them and some of them are pretty much famous than Ming Xiang Tai. To compete with other shops, each of them will offer any promotion as they can.

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Competitor 1

Ghee Hiang is their top competitor because it has a heritage history of over 155 years and has earned alot of customer loyalty. The other reason is most people say that Ghee Hiang is the best and most famous Chinese biscuit maker on the Penang Island. This shop is located in a bungalow building and it is pretty easy to find because it is located around tourism hotel. The famous product over there is tau Sar Pheah. Tau Sar Pheah is made out of green beans. Many tourist that went to Georgetown will go and search for the best Tau Sar Pheah because there is no other places to get a good and tasty Tau Sar Pheah.

Competitor 2

Another strong competitor for Ming Xiang Tai because they are the top competitor for Ghee Hiang. This naturally led other competitors, specifically Him Heang, to fill the gap in demand. Credits given to Him Heang because they innovated by introducing the Tambun biscuit (or dragonball biscuit) which is half the size of the Ghee Hiang Tau Sar Pheah. Him Heang also earn lots of customer loyalty because it has been there almost as long as Ghee Hiang. The famous Cantonese Pastries over there is Tambun biscuit.

Competitor 3

Leong Chee Kee is another competitor for Ming Xiang Tai because they have been there for about 60 years. On the other hand, they also have quite a number of customer loyalty. Leong Chee Kee has sold a lot of other Cantonese pastries like egg tart, siew bao and more. The most famous Cantonese pastries over there is Siew Bao because they would finish selling those Siew Bao before closing time.

3. Strategies Used To Face CompetitionGeorgetown is a place that is famous for homemade things like homemade cendol, homemade cookies and many more. One of the famous homemade food is traditional Cantonese pastries. There many traditional Cantonese pastry shops around Georgetown but only a few of them are famous and one of it is Ming Xiang Tai. They have shared with us their secret of success. They have gone through many obstacles and thought of many strategies and now they have finally succeeded. One of the strategies used by them is advertising through advertisement boards and through electrical devices. They let customers see how they make their product and they would also come up with some events like letting a certain number of customers go into their kitchen and try making the Cantonese pastries. Now, they have become a successful and famous traditional pastry shop business in Georgetown. Some people go to Georgetown just to buy their traditional

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Cantonese pastries. They are more focus on baked goods and their most famous product is the salted egg tart. Their salted egg tart will finish selling before evening.

4. What are the obstacles faced by new business who wish to enter their market today?It is hard to become famous in this industry because a lot of obstacles need to be faced. They have struggled without profit for 9 months to get known by customers and they have a few employees because not much people know how to make pastries the traditional way. The other obstacle is the need to be very hard working. Traditional Cantonese pastries are made by using handmade methods and not using much electronic machines. The tastes of handmade pastries are much better compared to the ones made by machines. Many businesses nowadays want to produce more so that they can earn more money and they have forgotten about the importance of product taste and quality. Some of them even cut down the cost of the ingredients to make the product to produce more and earn more money. This is the reason why some of the famous shops lose their reputation.

5. Nature of MarketThe nature of their markets is oligopoly. This is because they only have 3 to 10 competitors within Penang area. Ming Xiang Tai has 4 branches around Penang area and they have 8 to 11 employees per branch. The total amounts of employees are around 30 to 40 people. They started their business in 1979 and open their first branch in 2012. Ming Xiang Tai sells a lot of interesting new products such as Gui Ling Gou and Leong Sui, which gives Ming Xiang Tai its other characteristic of oligopoly as it has a great pricing power and serves a niche market.

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS SUMMARY TABLE

Competitive Traits Ming Xiang Tai

( Penang-Based )

Asian Siew Bao

( Seremban-Based )

1. Number of Competitors

3 to 10 3 to 5

2. Barrier to Entry Strong, because need a lot of capital and there are many cantonese pastries shop in the area. In the beginning, they have no regular customer.

Weak, because Asian Siew Bao is quite famous in Seremban town area. The expenses for renting and equipment is low in this small area

3. Differentiated or Standardized Products

Differentiated Products

-Leong sui

-Gui Ling Gou

Differentiated Products

-Durian Puff

4. Pricing Power Price maker

-They have a normal price of their products, because according to law of demand, quantity demanded will decrease when the price of a product increase. Therefore, they will not simply increase their price of products.

Price maker

-.Their price is normal because it is not too expensive and the price suit the taste of the product.

5. Other Characteristics They advertising through radio and their famous product is egg tart. Most people went there just for their egg tart.

They are famous in Seremban because of their Siew Bao. They also use so television to advertise their product.

6. Verdict Oligopoly Oligopoly

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RECOMMENDATION FOR ASIAN SIEW BAO (SEREMBAN)

Extend the size of shop

Asian Siew Bao has become a landmark of Seremban Town and reached the achievement of being the best place to visit in Seremban in the TripAdvisor Appfor 3 consecutive years. As it is very well known, it is always crowded with customers and sometimes the queue can last for hours. We strongly recommend Asian Siew Bao to extend its shop size or even open up a few new branches.

New Products

Mr Alvin, the owner of the shop has been running this business for over 10 years, and there has been no interesting new products that have been created. Unlike Ming Xiang Tai, the Bakery shop at Penang, which frequently comes out with different new products such as Mocha Dorayaki.

Asian Siew Bao should focus on the development of the products and always think outside the box and not limit their menu on just traditional products.

Equip New Air-Conditioning and

Seating

The atmosphere of Asian Siew Bao is stuffy due to faulty of air-conditioners. The owner should equip the whole shop with new air conditioners. Seatings should be provided to those customers that are waiting to pay.

Pricing of Products

The Siew Bao and others products such as Butter buns and Shredded Cake are sold at a rather high price. It may be a disadvantage to Asian Siew Bao as customers will shift on to others shops with a lower price. Promotion such as buy one free one,20% discount for a days or discount 50% after 6pm, should be done frequently to increase the number of buyers

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RECOMMENDATION FOR MING XIANG TAI (PENANG)

Pricing of Products

Most of Ming Xiang Tai’s products are made by hand, hence the price of the products are higher than others.

It made Ming Xiang Tai lose a lot of customers. Ming Xiang Tai should lower down the price of the products by using more machine work rather than traditional hand-made products.

By using more machines, Ming Xiang Tai can lower down the number of workers and cut down the salary expenses.

Variety of Products

In Chinese culture, there are four ways to cook which is fry, steam, grill and bake. From the interview with the owner, we knew that, Ming Xiang Tai only focuses on baked products instead of others 3 ways to cook.

Ming Xiang Tai should add in more products such stream buns, dumplings and fired wonton that are cooked in other ways for more variety.

Make Products Halal

Ming Xiang Tai is a non-halal shop, so most of the customers are Chinese. This made Ming Xiang Tai lost a lot of support from people of other races.

The owner of Ming Xiang Tai has a total of 4 shops. We recommend Ming Xiang Tai to have one to two of them to transform into a Halal shop that will allow others ethnic groups to purchase their products.

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APPENDICE

Minutes of Group MeetingDate: 28th December

Minute: 2 hours

Content: Interviewed Asian Siew Bao boss in Sunway

Date: 3rd January

Duration: 2 hours

Content: Interviewed Ming Xiang Tai boss in Penang

Date: 12th January

Duration: 1 hour

Content: Do report together

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PICTURES

Our group outside the Ming Xiang Tai Shop with the Branch Manager

Our group experiencing the making process of the pastries in Ming Xiang Tai

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Draft of Interview QuestionsName:

Job Position:

Office Phone Number:

Email Address:

Brief Description Of Business

1) Name of Business:

2) Current Location:

3) Original Location:

4) Number of Branches:

5) Total Amount of Employees:

6) Employees Per Branch:

7) Types of Employees and Job Scopes:

8) Main Products Sold:

9) Best Selling Product and Its Specialty:

10) Estimated Amount of Customers:

a. Per Day:

b. Per Month:

c. Per Year:

d. On Special Days:

11) Starting Year of Business

12) Founders:

13) Starting Process

14) Difficulty of Market Entry

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15) Startup Capital:

16) Startup Motive:

17) Achievements for Past 3-5 Years:

18) Changes for Past 3-5 Years:

Competition and Business Strategies

1) Number of Competitors:

2) Names of Competition:

a. ..

b. ..

c. ..

3) Competitors Specialty Product:

a. …

b. ..

c. ..

4) Strategy Used to Face Competitors

a. Pricing

b. Advertising

c. Product:

d. Quality:

5) Potential Obstacles:

6) Ways To Overcome It:

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REFERENCE

CQUEK. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://www.cquek.com/2015/06/ming-xiang-tai-pastry-shop-penang.html

Kedai Siew Pau Asia (Seremban). (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://my.openrice.com/negerisembilan/restaurant/kedai-siew-pau-asia-seremban/212169

Ming Xiang Tai (名香泰餅家). (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from https://foursquare.com/v/ming-xiang-tai-名香泰餅家/4c495353fbafc9283585c3da

Ming Xiang Tai Pastry Shop. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://www.timeout.com/penang/restaurants/ming-xiang-tai-pastry-shop#tab_panel_2

Siew Pau @ Asia Siew Pau, Seremban. (2011, April 26). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from https://josephinemock.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/siew-pau-asia-siew-pau-seremban/

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