KUALA LUMPUR – Premium and certified organic baby products manufacturer Offspring Inc Sdn Bhd is ready to introduce its "new babies" in the market, marking its expansion into the healthcare segment.
Chief executive officer Mohamed Roslan Ismail said the company is widening its playing field by venturing into health technology and the manufacture of face masks.
This allows it to capitalise on the current consumption behaviour catering to the sought-after digital healthcare needs, as well as its access to the manufacturing materials for face masks.
"We recognise the health economy as an opportunity for us to be closer to our consumers, to better understand the growing health and safety market. Hence, we have plans to penetrate the digital space platform by offering digital health passports in the ASEAN region and collaborate with health tech companies to provide virtual healthcare solutions through technological disruption of healthcare services," he said.
On the face masks, Mohamed Roslan said Offspring is currently developing reusable, anti-microbial and biodegradable face masks as an alternative to single-use masks. This is one of the new product segments that the company aspires to bring to the market as early as this quarter.
"The Covid-19 outbreak presented us with one of our biggest challenges, with a huge increase in the prices of raw materials for some of the components for our products, the same materials required to manufacture N95 masks as well as personal protective equipment. We also realised that having access to these materials was an opportunity in disguise that allows us to push our boundaries to potentially bigger things. Hence we incepted the idea of diversifying into health technology," he said.
Offspring has already seen significant success for its existing products.
Mohamed Roslan said sales surged by more than 300% to RM5.4 million in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier.
Offspring has pivoted into the manufacture of other essentials such as hand sanitisers and multi-surface cleaners. During the Movement Control Order enforced from March this year, its non-baby products experienced the highest growth in sales due to the changing landscape of consumer behaviour, with people being more willing to spend on personal hygiene essentials.
"Consumer goods is one of the most dynamic industries; hence, understanding the current trends and behaviours of our consumers is imperative in transforming Offspring Inc into a forward-looking digital-savvy brand. As we are in a niche market, pushing for aggressive growth towards becoming a globally recognised brand has always been my main objective," he added.
Offspring Inc started out as a brand advocating organic baby products – baby diapers, baby wipes, baby bath and skincare – and now its business direction has gone beyond the development of organic baby and childcare products and moved into the healthcare segment.
On strengthening its foothold globally, Mohamed Roslan said the rapid urbanisation and the rise of middle-class income group around the world have driven Offspring to continue penetrating new markets.
"There is a huge potential for all these countries to be the next big markets in organic products, and we are excited to have strategic partners on board to make that happen. We are expecting to garner a significant growth over the period of 2021-2022, as our partnerships across various countries will warrant the success of our brand.
"Currently, we are in negotiations with Spain, the Philippines, Germany, Taiwan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, South Africa, China, India and Indonesia. We are also eyeing on a few other potential countries to spread our wings. That said, we are carefully formulating our globalisation strategies, as we want to ensure the recruitment of quality partners internationally," he added.
Offspring's international sales have grown steadily, contributing 41.5% (or RM6.5 million) of total sales for the first nine months of this year from about 20% (or RM2.1 million) in 2019.
"Comparatively, we are expecting to quadruple the figure for the full year. This can be greatly associated with consumer attitudes and purchasing habits due to the current pandemic situation, and we predict that these buying behaviours will continue for some time. The good run in terms of the sales figures coming from outside the country signifies an upside to our venture into being a globally recognised green and sustainable business, centred on health and safety.
"We are confident that our robust e-commerce presence in the midst of current purchasing trend on personal hygiene essentials and health products, paired with the expanded digital adoption, will cause our business to flourish further," he said. – Bernama, October 24, 2020
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