Head right into a Malaysian mall, and likelihood is that you simply’d see a Mr DIY store. It’s just about develop into a staple in a lot of our malls.
In July 2005, it was only a single ironmongery shop alongside Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. However by the tip of the primary yr, it had grown and was working three shops.
Simply inside 15 years, Mr DIY now has a community of 674 shops and is the biggest residence enchancment retailer in each Malaysia and Brunei.
One would possibly marvel if the aggressive growth has led to the model struggling financially, however quite the opposite, it reported a 14% year-on-year enhance in web revenue from RM308.33 million to RM317.57 million in FY19.
Headed To The Malls
In an interview with The Star in 2016, Andy Chin, then-senior advertising supervisor, now-Advertising VP at Mr DIY, shared that rising the enterprise had at all times been within the plans from the get-go.
With that in thoughts, they’d invested in a point-of-sale (POS) system with a purpose to facilitate a straightforward and environment friendly growth.
It labored, and the corporate started experiencing fast development after stepping foot into malls in 2010.
Mr DIY’s entry into malls marked a brand new pattern for the corporate, evolving into an anchor tenant from its earlier standalone retailers mannequin.
Because it’s cast partnerships with massive retailers resembling Tesco, Big and Aeon, you’d be onerous pressed to seek out considered one of these malls with out a Mr DIY.
Andy informed The Star, “Some would possibly say we’re partnering with the competitors, however we consider that we’re filling a spot of their companies.”
“Our shops are a one-stop centre for every little thing {that a} residence may wish—besides groceries, which is the specialty of the big retailers,” he added.
Good Methods Set Their Path
Mr DIY’s iconic motto is “All the time Low Costs”, and that is simply one other issue that provides to their attractiveness.
Within the aforementioned The Star interview, Andy revealed how they’re capable of keep on with the motto.
“We checked out profitable companies in developed international locations for inspiration. As an example, we discovered that in Japan, wholesome competitors available in the market saved costs low, which was a method of attracting prospects. It was an excellent lesson.”
“Different methods we’ve got employed embrace buying in bulk and even giving buy quantity dedication, not buying on credit score and doing our personal logistics,” he shared.
Doing the latter truly introduced their logistics value down from 5% to 1% then.
Due to methods like these and extra, the corporate is ready to proceed its development full velocity forward, even in the course of the pandemic.
This September, amidst the rising variety of pay cuts, layoffs, and retailer closures, Mr DIY grew the variety of its shops nationwide by 33.
So, what’s the key behind this sturdy development pattern? The Star sought out the reply to this in one other interview with Andy.
He informed them that it was the corporate’s potential to react quicky to adjustments available in the market.
“For a giant organisation, it’s often onerous to maneuver with that a lot agility, because it tends to be extra conservative with a protracted decision-making course of. Therefore it’s slower in responding to the market.”
“We react fairly rapidly, as a result of we’re a homegrown model that understands the market. In order that’s a core benefit of our enterprise in Malaysia,” he added.
Taking & Offering Alternatives
In 2017, Mr DIY launched its e-commerce enterprise to herald choices to the market that had been deemed “unsuitable” for his or her retail shops.
This transfer paid off, particularly so in the course of the MCO, as they had been capable of remobilise staff to fulfil on-line orders and proceed bringing in income.
“E-commerce doesn’t cowl all of the issues we promote in-store—resembling fragile objects—but it surely allows us to serve a special group of consumers,” Andy shared with The Star.
By using the click-and-collect mannequin, prospects had been capable of order their items on-line and choose which outlet they needed to choose the objects up from.
As Mr DIY grows its enterprise, it wants manpower. In July, the corporate kickstarted a nationwide recruitment marketing campaign providing 1,000 job vacancies.
Inside 2 weeks, it obtained greater than 8,000 purposes comprising unemployed individuals, contemporary graduates, and abilities from the disabled neighborhood.
By the tip of this yr, Mr DIY will begin one other marketing campaign to fill in additional positions.
Understanding What The Individuals Need
The fast development of the house enchancment retailer has led some to marvel about self-cannibalisation, but it surely doesn’t look like a problem for them.
New Mr DIY shops are opened based mostly on precise market demand, decided by way of a combination of in-house evaluation of self-collected knowledge and enterprise acumen.
“Our market analysis is sort of intensive and relies on uncooked knowledge that we gather from our actions, in addition to from gross sales.”
Usually, as soon as we’ve got learnt what works for a sure form of localised market, based mostly on location, surrounding inhabitants demographics, and many others., we are going to apply the identical logic to a retailer in an space with comparable circumstances,” Andy informed The Star.
So far, this has labored effectively for them.
Apart from Mr DIY, the corporate additionally branched out into different companies, particularly with the launch of Mr TOY in 2019, a home-grown toy retailer chain now with 28 shops, and Mr DOLLAR in 2020, a dollar-store idea the place every little thing is RM2 or RM5.
No Indicators Of Slowing Down
Mr DIY’s market capitalisation of RM10 billion has made it even extra worthwhile than Malaysia’s airport operator, MAS, and even our nationwide postal service supplier, Pos Malaysia.
The one different family names which have a better market cap than Mr DIY are Telekom Malaysia, Fraser & Neave Holdings, Genting, and Genting Malaysia.
The house enchancment retailer additionally now has the biggest IPO on Bursa in three years, aiming to boost RM1.5 billion from its itemizing.
They’re displaying no indicators of slowing down in any division, and are aiming to have 900 shops throughout Malaysia and Brunei by the tip of 2021.
- You may be taught extra about Mr DIY right here.
- You may examine different iconic Malaysian manufacturers right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Mr DIY by way of SG Journal
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