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Kelvin Tan love durians and he usually traveled to Pahang to hunt high-quality durians from the native farmers there.
That was how he obtained acquainted with the proprietor of Fook Gor Durian farm. Of their conversations, they’d usually focus on the logistical and high quality challenges that plagued durian companies in Singapore.
They needed to assist bridge the hole, and that was what led to the start of 99 Previous Timber.
“In Fook Gor Durian farm, there’s a piece of land that resides on a mountainous space. On this piece of land, [it] stands precisely 99 outdated timber which can be greater than 25 years outdated. These timber have constantly produced very high-quality durians over time and have been a blessing to us. To honour these timber, we named our enterprise ’99 Previous Timber’,” defined co-founder Kelvin.
Apart from Kelvin, the 2 different co-founders are Jeffry Ngadiman and Avinash Mahendram (Nash).
Previous to 99 Previous Timber, Jeffry — who’s Kelvin’s schoolmate from the Singapore Administration of College — labored in an oil palm firm, whereas Avinash had an in depth expertise within the hospitality sector, having labored in inns, Michelin-starred eating places and a number of other mega golf equipment.
Pivoting away from a D2C mannequin
The three of them got here collectively and pumped in a S$60,000 capital to buy gear and supply autos, in addition to finance the renovation of their outlet.
In line with Kelvin, they didn’t face any “actual fundraising challenges”, including that the durian enterprise is definitely thought of a low-capital enterprise.
In truth, it took them round solely two durian seasons to interrupt even.
He additionally shared that after they first began up, they adopted a completely totally different enterprise mannequin.
Initially, we needed to run 99 Previous Timber in a direct-to-consumer (DTC) mannequin. We had no shops firstly; all of the packing is finished straight at a processing facility close to Fook Gor Durian farm. The packed durians are then transported to Singapore and delivered on to clients’ houses.
Nonetheless, after one small season in 2017, it was clear this mannequin is fraught with issues. There have been frequent customs delays and site visitors jams, which generally resulted in very late deliveries. In some cases, orders had been cancelled as a result of it was just too late.
– Kelvin Tan, co-founder of 99 Previous Timber
He additionally recounted a time after they as soon as delivered to a buyer as late as 1.30am. These made them realise that they wanted to arrange a bodily store in Singapore.
Nonetheless, this led to a different enterprise problem: manpower points.
“It was extraordinarily tough on the lookout for individuals with durian expertise,” lamented Kelvin, including that it’s nonetheless a recurring drawback now.
“The seasonality of durians makes it arduous for us to maintain a big full-time workforce all yr spherical. Due to this, despite the fact that we’re keen to pay excessive wages throughout the durian season, persons are unwilling to come back ahead as a result of we can not assure them a [permanent] full-time employment.”
One other key enterprise problem that Kelvin cited is high quality. Since durians are extremely delicate to climate circumstances, an excessive amount of or too little rain on the improper time could be disastrous to its high quality, he defined.
Luckily, because of their long-standing direct relationship with the durian farm itself, 99 Previous Timber have managed to constantly safe first entry to the best high quality produce in Pahang.
As such, it’s essential for them to “set up a very good relationship with the durian farmers” to not lose their aggressive edge, stresses Kelvin.
Controlling the durian provide chain from end-to-end
Their durian stall finally grew into an F&B enterprise that sells a durian-extensive menu, together with durian desserts and pastries.
Earlier in February this yr, they opened a brand new retailer with an even bigger dining-in capability at Outram. Kelvin mentioned that the transfer was “out of necessity” as a result of they anticipate Singapore to obtain extra vacationers (and therefore, extra clients) because the nation opens up.
He added that Indian chef Gaggan Annand — who “completely detests durians” — lately visited his outlet, and this fuelled his desires to have an opportunity to work with famend world cooks and have them use durians to create new desserts and pastries.
Past retail, 99 Previous Timber additionally deal with the exporting and importing of durians — they primarily personal all the provide chain, which is a large perk.
There are two major benefits [to this]. Firstly, the velocity, as a result of we will belief our personal individuals and system. Often, on the durian consolidation centre, the wholesalers need to weigh each single basket to make sure that the burden of durians [match] as acknowledged earlier than they ware loaded up onto the lorry.
When the lorry arrives in Singapore, each basket has to weighed once more [before they are handed] over to the retailers. Pilferage is frequent, and that’s why distributors have to do that step even when the method of re-weighing can take an hour or two.
– Kelvin Tan, co-founder of 99 Previous Timber
Resulting from the truth that they personal the entire chain, they’ll afford to skip these pointless steps and save valuable hours.
Secondly, in addition they get firsthand entry to the best high quality durians.
“The subpar high quality durians are then offered at a less expensive price to different distributors, who might then promote to retailers in native markets in Malaysia,” he added.
They promote as much as 800kg of durians a day throughout peak season
COVID-19 was an surprising tidal wave that affected most companies.
“We had been initially nervous when COVID-19 hit us. We had been nervous that as individuals lose their jobs, and with the tourism grinding to a halt, individuals will in the reduction of on discretionary spending — which incorporates durian, as a result of it’s extra of a luxurious relatively a necessity,” mentioned Kelvin.
Nonetheless, they had been stunned to see that their gross sales weren’t affected in any respect. In truth, their enterprise really improved throughout the pandemic interval.
“I assume individuals couldn’t journey overseas and people budgets had been redirected for spending on high quality meals and experiences domestically,” he justified.
It additionally helped that they already had a sturdy web site up and working, which helped increase their e-commerce gross sales. In any case, they began as an online-only enterprise again in 2017.
The durian season usually happens between June and August, generally stretching until September.
In line with Kelvin, they promote between 500kg and 800kg of durians per day throughout this peak interval, which equates to round 300 to 500 durians.
This yr, sadly, the durian harvest in Pahang is down 70 per cent in comparison with the identical interval final yr. Regardless of the smaller provide, costs of durians are less expensive. Kelvin cited two major causes for this.
[Firstly], the zero-Covid coverage in China has resulted in larger restrictions within the importation of international merchandise. The customs in main port cities there are going through a logjam, which resulted in lots of durian processing factories in Malaysia [to have] storage points. Durian harvest can’t be processed by these factories, and has to go straight into the retail markets, which resulted within the sharp fall in costs for these one to 2 weeks. [Additionally], demand for durians in Singapore shouldn’t be as nice because the earlier two years as our borders are open and persons are as soon as once more, free to journey. Most individuals journey throughout the June faculty holidays, which [coincide with] the durian season.
– Kelvin Tan, co-founder of 99 Previous Timber
Summing up on his entrepreneurial journey to this point, he mentioned that their final objective is to unfold the love of durians past our shores and hopefully, set up durian as a ‘nationwide fruit’ which symbolises Singapore.
“Durians have a particular place in Singaporean’s hearts despite the fact that we don’t develop it commercially in Singapore, [and it serves as a] cultural bridge between Singapore and Malaysia.”
Featured Picture Credit score: 99 Previous Timber
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