Managing director of PLUS Malaysia Berhad Datuk Azman Ismail and corporate planning manager of Family Mart Sdn Bhd Andy Chia during the signing ceremony of Five New Retail Brands in ceremony in Kuala Lumpur April 18, 2019. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

SHAH ALAM, April 18 — No road trip or interstate commute on a highway would be complete without rest and service areas that offer respite to millions of Malaysian drivers.

PLUS Malaysia Berhad today welcomed five new food and beverage outlets Family Mart, Sushi King, Daily Fresh, Bon 900 Café and My Laksa that will be available at its rest and recreation (R&R) areas.

The announcement was made at a signing ceremony this morning at the Setia City Convention Centre during PLUS Malaysia Berhad’s inaugural Business Partners Conference.

Many brands have expressed interest to partner with PLUS but the selection of the new outlets was made based on customers’ feedback and needs, said PLUS chief commercial officer Christine Liew.

"A lot of it is looking at customer research so if the needs of the customers and our partner brands are met, whether big or small, that’s how we make the selection.

"The choices are made by our customers and we also have more brand coming soon,” said Liew.

With the new additions, there are a total of 25 major F&B brands, homegrown and international.

The largest toll expressway operator will introduce the new retail outlets in stages at selected rest areas beginning this month.

Managing director of PLUS Malaysia Berhad Datuk Azman Ismail speaks during the signing ceremony of Five New Retail Brands in ceremony in Kuala Lumpur April 18, 2019. ― Picture by Choo Choy May

On top of new offerings, PLUS will also commence upgrading works on several R&Rs, starting with Seremban Southbound. The facelift at the Seremban rest stop will feature a contemporary design with green technology such as rain harvesting for example.

"Seremban has been chosen as the pilot project because it’s a location where a lot of our customers commute to their homes and workplace.

"For the operators in the South, there will be value-added benefits in terms of business outcome,” said PLUS managing director Datuk Azman Ismail.

Here’s where you can find the new retail additions:

Bon 900 Café — Dengkil southbound

Daily Fresh — Machap northbound, Gunung Semanggol northbound and southbound

Family Mart — Sg Buloh Overhead Bridge Restaurant

My Laksa — Gurun northbound

Sushi King — Rawang northbound (in operation)

At the conference, PLUS also launched its Business Partner Incentive Programme (BPIP) to recognise top performing business partners who excelled in the areas of customer service excellence standards, food quality, compliance with Sirim’s 5S quality standards and business growth.

The Best Overall Performing R&R in Malaysia was awarded to Seremban northbound R&R.