KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — FamilyMart Malaysia’s new factory with a total investment of about RM100 million will be completed by the first quarter of 2022 (1Q 2022) which will enable the convenience store operator to supply more stocks to its retail stores.

QL Resources Bhd executive director Chia Lik Khai said the new factory would be located near to its current factory in Shah Alam, Selangor.

“I believe it will create hundreds of job opportunities for Malaysians as it will need a big worker pool to work in the factory. Our key differentiator is FamilyMart will be hiring local citizens,” he said at the fifth anniversary celebrations with the introduction of a new concept ‘Food Superstore’.

QL Resources is the FamilyMart convenience store master franchisee in Malaysia.

The first ‘Food Superstore’ concept stores are located in Sri Petaling and Bandar Puteri Puchong.

He said the new concept store lives up to FamilyMart’s commitment to making modern consumers’ lives easier and better through products, services and amenities that meet their daily needs.

Besides, Chia said the company is planning to open up to 20 upgraded stores concept by the end of 2021.

He said normally every year, FamilyMart would open 80 to 200 new stores depending on market conditions.

“But now it depends on how the pandemic situation will pan out. Under retail stores, we will actually create job opportunities of around eight to 10 workers for every store open depending on the store size,” he said, explaining that the company is aiming to achieve 1,000 stores in 10 years since its first launch in 2016.

To date, FamilyMart has open over 250 stores nationwide.

On increasing commodity prices globally, Chia said that like any food producer, FamilyMart is not spared from the supply chain disruption.

He said the company would try its best to mitigate the situation in the short term and does not plan to increase its product prices at this moment.

“But if the product prices keep increasing, we will eventually need to adjust them over the long term,” he said. — Bernama