Snack Haus: 2011

The Beginning
SH started as a very small "for fun" business entity sometimes in 2006 when our daughter enrolled into Lim Kok Wing University. The business popularly known as “Spring Rolls” then was operated by her and another student from Sweden by the name of Marcus Christiensen. Operating from Cyberia Condo they sold spring rolls (chicken & beef) to mostly fellow students of MMU & LKW residing in the condo & townhouses & villas. The business concept was “received order, roll it up, fry & deliver. Revenue started from about 30.00 per day and gradually increases. The income from the business was at first to supplement their living expenses besides the one received from their respective parents but eventually it gave them the opportunity to earn more and this prompted them to think of expanding the business. A discussion was held on their business idea and concept and after analyzing all possible angles and factors it was finally decided that other food besides spring rolls were to be included in the menu, and to suit the lines of food sold the name was changed from Spring Rolls to Snack Haus (License to operate under this name was given approval Reg. No. 001963389-V). Even today some of the older customers still addresses us as Spring Rolls.

The original recipe for the Spring Rolls was actually taught to our daughter by a student of Lim Kok Wing by the name of Mohamed from Yemen (we called him Skinny as he was thin) but some modification was however applied to the original recipe when the business of Spring Rolls started in 2006.

In the year 2007 Cyberia Smarthomes and the surrounding area were not as highly populated as now,
particularly the block D & E were isolated and rentals were considerably cheap then. Cyberia
Crescent 1 & 2 were almost empty and spooky. The shops, only a few units were occupied, the
Indian Restaurant, a Malay Restaurant which is now occupied by La Fresh and a few others on the first floor. Outside one can only find Hassan Cafe, very packed then and later Cafe De Arif. The rest of the eateries that existed now were not even under construction then. The place to unwind would be at The Cooler, Hops & Grapes and those with transportation would venture to KL city and even to states outside KL - the coastal town of Port Dickson and historical town of Malacca.. those not with transport would party at homes till the wee hours-it was havoc and very lively and good for Snack Haus business too.

The Transformation

A transformation plan was drawn up for Snack Haus and on January 7^th, 2007 we moved into a new premises and on January 9th business operations commenced. A new food product line was created and every aspect went as planned and revenue exceeded original projections. The strategy adopted was “Never Follow What Others Are Doing” and “Dare To Try New Methods And Approaches” in terms of food recipe, packaging, menu/promotions, organization set up etc . We were the first to have this business model and in a
well, organized and professional manner. The lines of food
were gradually increased to continue to be relevant to our
customer base and with it we continue to grow. Business
expanded mainly from words of mouth.

Our first menu-

The lines of food created were unique in taste and not to be found elsewhere and that was the reason that even the names of food were given strange names so as to distinguish it from other food found in the market. But when SnackHaus started we were also very much careful not to compete head-on with other eateries at Cyberia then by selling similar food as we felt that it was an unethical practice to do such a thing and we also believe that food is about creations, if we can savour and enjoy the food so will others, very similar to home cooking. Before finalizing on what food to sell we will first get opinions from close family members and also close friends to comment. A new line of food will be introduced into the menu once we are confident that it is marketable and a new line of food will only be introduced once we felt that our customers need something more and different from us. So gradually and eventually we expanded the menu and have varieties to stay relevant.

During this period and as we grow some people who were envious with the concept of Snack Haus tried to follow and emulate the business model & some even followed word by word as written in our menu even till today. We believe that to start a business the idea must be original with its very own formula & concept, then only passion comes in. Emulating a business model without a proper plan and sets of strategies will not sustain, it may for shorter term & perished in the longer term. But competition of all sorts are a common thing in the market-place, everyone wants a slice of the cake. However, all these developments had been anticipated and a strategy to manage it had been laid out much in advance during the planning stage.

We even had students who interviewed us for their research papers and we obliged.

The halal certification which is issued by the Muslim Religious Authority (JAKIM) is by procedure has to be obtained even though we are Malay and Muslim to certify that the food sold are complying to the standard outlined by the Muslim religious authority of Malaysia but the process to obtain one will take a very long process. We have however initiated an initial submission process after obtaining our business operating licence. We feels the certification is necessary in view of the large Muslim population in Cyberjaya especially students from the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia and not to forget Malaysians. We have been queried by many Muslims customers especially from the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Africa on whether we are genuinely selling halal food as displayed on the menu and we replied to them that we are a Malay as well as a Muslim. Sometimes we had customers who made confirmation with a third party just to ascertain that we are genuinely Muslims. In Malaysia it is commonly and generally acceptable as halal if the operator is a Muslim but is questionable if not.

Price increase is inevitable and is sometimes unacceptable to some customers but we have little choice in order to survive and maintain margin of profit, prices of packaging, ingredients, labour cost and raw materials escalates especially when fuel price increases and never comes down, the saying that “whatever goes up must come down” does not apply in business, the only thing that comes down is profit.So far there were only 2 price revision exercises, first was on October 25th, 2008 and the second one on March 15th, 2011, involving a very negligible increases of between 5% to 10%, not across the board but on selected items that were not profitable any more.

Crisis. After almost 4 years in operations in mid 2010 when 3 of our foreign Nepali ex-delivery boys left us with some knowledge of our food recipe and called themselves "Hello Cyber" or "Hellow Cyber" selling some of our popular food until we received many enquiries whether it is our another outlet. It took us a while to inform our customers and with some help from friends and customers of MMU and LKW the truth was disseminated fast. We believe that food is all about originality, quality of taste and reliable service.

As mentioned earlier a business must have its very own identity by having its own product, concept and formula then only passion sets in. Snack Haus cannot become like the famous SABA Resataurant, Cyberjaya that is selling mainly middle eastern cuisines or Kitchen Village, Cyberjaya offering a wide variety of Chinese cuisines, they have their own food with their very own recipe, they had found their niche through their own market research, plan and effort and not simply copy and imitate from other eateries. Similarly "Hello Cyber" cannot be like Snack Haus just by copying or "copy and paste" from what they know, whoever is behind and sponsoring the Nepalese should realize that it is not the right way to conduct a business, start thinking "Out of the Box" come out with something totally different as there are endless list of food in this world and if the list is not enough, create a new list of food that humans have never heard about before for as long as there is a demand for it. Create and plan something from nothing and get the satisfying feeling out of our very own creations. Maximize the use of our own mental faculty and not associate ourselves with the copying syndrome.

In business or in whatever we do there is a simple word called "ethics" which simply means we don't have to cross people's path in achieving our objectives then the competition becomes healthy and the business may flourish. Snack Haus started with a menu of only 5 food items and we tested the market first before gradually expanding the menu and not 100 over items as the current menu, plenty of effort, time and money invested and again its the passion, perseverance and the determination that gives us the strength. There is no magic formula to become successful overnight, even to this day we are still not yet successful and have not yet met our set of objectives, we never will as we always create a new set once we have achieved the earlier ones. Likewise you could do the same by starting from scratch with your very own creations, start small and slow, test and feel the market and gradually improve but along the way there will be many trials and errors as well as challenges that need to be faced and mistakes and lessons to be learnt but that is the way it is-its always an unending and an uphill task without a finishing line in sight. As William Shakespeare puts it " To Climb Steep Hills Requires A Slow Pace At First "

Signature Dishes. Snack Haus does not have any signature or recommended dishes in its menu as all the listed food are consistently on high demand on daily basis and that’s the

reason why we could not provide any recommendations when being asked. We are proud to say that to-date SH had not scrapped any of its food items that were introduced into the menu. Instead of deleting items we would further improved and enhanced the taste to continue to be relevant to our loyal customers. But, maintaining the quality of taste consistently and staying relevant is no easy task, it involves a lot of personal commitment and also higher cost as we have to be very selective on choice of ingredients that are available in the market. The cheaper ingredients will not give the desired taste and that is one reason why our pricing is slightly higher in the market but of cause affordable.

Alien Particles. There are instances but rarely when delivered packs contains hair strains, roach etc due to carelessness of the staff when preparing or packaging the food. Normally we would replace it with new food. Its unavoidable sometimes and our apologies. Exchanges of food will be subjected to verification by our field staff so packs to be returned must be left untouched.

Late Deliveries. Under normal circumstances the deliveries should be accomplished within 20 mins to 30 mins (low peak) and 30 Mins to 45 mins (peak period), this period of time include from the time of receiving order, preparation and to the point of delivery but there are times when the volume of orders gets too much at one particular time that we have to drag the delivery time from 30 mins to 60 mins and sometimes longer, when this happens we would normally advice customers about the time taken when they place orders so as not to create dissatisfaction, we understand that humans will only order food when they are hungry and the waiting time is normally from 15 mins to 45 mins the most, anything more than that will make them angry and furious due to empty stomach! So it does involves a lot of patience in waiting. We are of cause on our part putting serious effort in reducing the delivery time and targeting for zero complaints for late deliveries.

List of Food (Unpublished). The list of food which is yet to be published is endless, we have aplenty in the pipe-line awaiting for the right timing, like what has been said earlier its all about creations, most important is the taste! It is our desire to be a one-stop food delivery center centralizing on international cuisines (Fusions), whatever you need we have it, in the very near future.

Branding Slowly moving towards creating our own brand name and identity,God willing within the next 2 years.

Hygiene. Even though our cooking operations are behind the scene and not in direct contact with our customers, it is our personal commitment to ensure the highest standard of hygiene at all levels.

Hari Raya Goodies. It was our intention to give away Raya goodies during every Hari Raya celebrations since 2007 but time was not on our side, always busy. This year we would however try to our level best to make it happen for the first time. Our apologies.

Garden Food Kiosk. We were supposed to open one outlet located at the Cyber Heights Clubhouse on Jan 1st, 2011, but since the place was not ready we had to put the plan on hold first.

Freshly Cooked Food. We never conduct mass cooking or "nasi campur style" or re-cycling of all our food to ensure freshness and sharpness of taste even in situation when customer orders are rapid and that's one reason why we sometimes takes slightly longer preparation time. There are of cause some isolated cases when customers wants the food instantly right after placing their order without taking into consideration the preparation time and delivery time so we would jokingly tell them "we will send it raw then" to make it possible!

Credit Terms. Strictly no credit terms allowed.

24HRS Operations. We operated 24 hours for 14 days in November 2010 but the pressure was too great as we were understaffed then, demand was good as there were large numbers of customers who feels that sleeping is a waste of precious time so they never sleeps and we keep receiving orders until the wee hours of the morning but our staff were like walking zombies, we assume they also sleeps on their bikes. We therefore put the plan on hold first until we have sufficient staff. Road accidents involving our staff thus far is 3 and 2 bikes were smashed to pieces but the staff escaped with minor and treatable injuries, there are far too many F1 drivers in Cyberjaya as compared to other parts of Malaysia.

12HRS Operations. With effect Sept 2012, our new business hours shall be from 3pm to 3am (12Hrs Mode).

Off-Days. With effect February 10th, 2013 we will operate daily with no off-days.

Weekly Thursday Goodies. To show our sincere appreciation to our customers we have recently include weekly goodies to every orders on every Thursday (previously every Fridays) which is consistent to our Islamic Practice of giving away something in return but our apologies if some may not be able to receive it when we ran out of stock.

Catering Service. FEBRUARY 29TH, 2012 marked our first time providing catering service for about 200 pax for "WOLTERS KLUWER SERVICES PARTNERS SDN BHD". It was a disaster as our timing was not well managed but the food was excellent, we were told. A quote seen on the office wall of a former colleague, which says "Assumption Is The Mother Of All Screw Ups" shot us right in the head, the grocery supplier arrived late and 2 part time workers also reported late on the day and eventually all that have been planned fall apart. As a norm a letter of apology with explanations was shot to Wolters and for reasons only known to them instead of being black listed we were being offered another one contract, this time 4 events in 2 days that took place on 20th & 21st March 2012.

The 2 days events went on smoothly and as planned with only a minor complain of one of the dishes being too spicy particularly for the visiting Australian top management.

THE WAY FORWARD

Short Term Plan

1.In the process of moving towards brand name and creating our own identity within the next 2 years.

2. Venturing into small scale food catering service segment.

3.Creating synergy to the existing business by opening up a Fine Dining Outlet -'House of Malay Cuisines' (name is subjected to approval by ROB) as well as delivery of a very popular Malaysian Cuisine (But Snack Haus very own recipe) in Cyberjaya. Execution of these two plans will be made known later.

4.Twenty-Four Hours (24) operations-Subjects to availability of manpower and demand.

Medium To Long Term Plan

1.Be the first Malaysian " Mobile Restaurant" with similar concept having outlets in selected strategic areas.

2.Franchising of Snack Haus.

SNACK HAUS 'THE NEW BEGINNING'

EXECUTION OF 'SHORT TERM PLAN'

SOME IMAGES OF OUR NEW OUTLET AT P3A-01, SHAFTSBURY SQUARE, CYBER 6, 63000 CYBERJAYA (ABOVE TAPPERS). February 10th, 2013 marked the day we commenced delivery business from this new outlet.

It is about 3000 sq ft indoor and outdoor with a sitting capacity of almost 200 pax at any one time.

Located at a corner lot and on a commanding level allows customers to have a view of the highway, roads, buildings and nearby hills and its vegetation.

It is quite secluded and away from large crowds and with minimum level of noise at night especially.

A perfect place for loafing, sisha smoking, watching ASTRO channels, surfing the internet, group discussions, catching up with friends or even dating with your loved ones or even partying or celebration of any kinds.

The ordering concept here is:

(1) Select Your Favorite Table -Mark Occupied
(2) Proceed Cashier Counter To Place Order/Pay

We provide FREE 'SELF SERVICE' cold and hot plain water dispenser whenever you need it.

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SNACK HAUS-A BRIEF HISTORY AND THE WAY FORWARD