PichaEats mulls frozen meal segment to support more refugees
PichaEats Malaysia, a food business that partners with refugee chefs, is planning to introduce frozen meals as part of its post-Covid-19 business strategy, riding on the crest of the foodie revolution and demand for ready-to-eat meals.
However, Picha Sdn Bhd co-founder Suzanne Ling said the company has yet to set a timeline for the new endeavour...
PichaEats Malaysia, a food business that partners with refugee chefs, is planning to introduce frozen meals as part of its post-Covid-19 business strategy, riding on the crest of the foodie revolution and demand for ready-to-eat meals.
However, Picha Sdn Bhd co-founder Suzanne Ling said the company has yet to set a timeline for the new endeavour.
She said the establishment of PichaEats in 2016 grew out of a desire to support the refugees by training them to provide catering and delivery services to enable them to earn a living and provide education for their children.
The company had previously focused on catering as a business model, but its operation was severely impacted by the movement control order (MCO) imposed to curb the spread of the pandemic.
In order to survive, PichaEats had re-evaluated its strategy, downsizing its food delivery packages to five-pax.
"For us, the biggest challenge is that 60 percent of our business comes from the catering segment.
“Due to the MCO, there were no buffet orders for breaking of fasts, Raya open houses, birthday parties or conferences, which required us to act quickly,” she told Bernama in an interview.
Ling (above) said PichaEats started capitalising on social media platforms to reach out to more customers, and the effort proved to be successful as orders began to triple due to the soaring demand for food delivery.
"That’s why we were able to survive through the MCO period. One hundred percent of our sales came from the social media platforms and about half were generated from Facebook Ads.
"However, our sales volume has declined as we are focusing on small orders now," she said.
Ling said she and two other PichaEats’ co-founders had volunteered in a refugee school from 2013 to 2015, before deciding to venture full time into helping refugees earn money, with the goal of providing the marginalised community with a sustainable livelihood.
There are currently 15 active refugee chefs at PichaEats Malaysia, with 25 families benefiting from their income.
"We posted a lot of our stories and milestones and managed to build our community on Facebook, where people are part of this movement together with us to strive for equality through sustainable business," Ling said.
Moving forward, with Malaysia loosening its restrictions, she said PichaEats' catering business could potentially reopen next year.
- Bernama
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