1.0 Introduction
1.1 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a major part in the Malaysian
‘economy. Malaysia's 2011 Economic Census Report showed that there were 645.136
SMEs operating in Malaysia, representing 97.3 per cent of total businesses. In addition,
out of a total of 7.0 million jobs, SMEs employed around 3.7 million, comprising 52.7
per cent of the country's total workforce. With a total gross production share hitting
28.5 percent in 2011 compared with just 22.2 percent in 2000, it shows that the
functions are becoming important.
Small and medium-sized enterprises ( SMEs), including micro-enterprises, have
been instrumental in fostering growth, jobs and profits, and have become an integral
part of the economic transformation in Malaysia. The goal of the Malaysian government
is for SMEs to contribute to economic growth in 2016 by at least 40 per cent. It is
important that the government knows precisely which sector of its economy
contributes the most, which has the potential to bring about greater future
development, and which sectors are weak and need help to thrive in a competitive
economy.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unforeseen global phenomenon that has
plunged the economy into chaos and actually brought business to a standstill. It affects
most enterprises, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro SMEs,
which account for 98.5% of Malaysian enterprises (Malaysia SME Corporation, 2020).
1.2 Perfect Food Manufacturing (M) Sdn. Bhd
In this review, the company we are going to study is Julie Manufacturing (M)
Sdn Bhd, a biscuit manufacturing company. Its famous brand, Julie's, has a better
understanding of the company with its long-standing company name among customers.
Julie's cookies have a logo on it. A smiling young girl with golden braids, most
customers think this is an international brand. It is actually a typical Malaysian product,
produced by Mr. Su Chin Hock in Alor Gajah, Malacca in 1981 (May 2015).
Julie's initially offered only a few products and expanded its product line to 150
SkUs (stock keeping units) in 2015. The most famous products are peanut butter
sandwiches and love letters. These two products account for approximately 25% of
the company's sales (May 2015). From an interview with Julie's director Martin Ang in
The Star, he said that Julie's estimate holds about 16% of the market share. It has
18,000 outlets in Malaysia.
Currently, Julie's has launched its new product wafers, which are available in
two flavors, chocolate hazelnut and peanut butter (Julie's, 2016). Next, we will briefly
introduce the country we will recommend Julie to enter, that is, the small island country
of Japan. According to a report (Canadian International Market Agency, 2010), Japan
is a country with an estimated population of 127,078,679 people. Its growth rate is -