TEXTILE retailer Jakel Trading Sdn Bhd has acquired a parcel of land worth RM180 million for a mixed-development project that has a gross development value (GDV) of RM1.3 billion.
Jakel group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Mohamed Faroz Mohamed Jakel said the company will build another Jakel Mall with two towers that comprise serviced apartments, hotel and offices on the land here.
“The land is next to our Jakel Mall Kuala Lumpur. The construction is expected to commence in 2019.
“The new mall will complement our existing mall as it will give us more space to sell our products,” he told NST Business in an interview recently.
Faroz said Jakel is the only Bumiputera-owned company that has a mall in Kuala Lumpur city.
The new mall would be a catalyst to attract more crowds to Jakel stores.
“We will build a 300,000 sq ft mall that can house between 150 and 200 shops. The mall will have food courts and middle-class apparel brand stores,” he said.
Previously, Jakel had received many enquiries from middle-class brands to rent its shoplots in its mall. But the mall did not have sufficient space to cater for all of them.
“Hence, we will offer them retail space at our new mall. We will bring Bumiputera companies to our new mall. Our main target is to bring in local products and operators.
“Currently, we have many new entrepreneurs and young start-ups in the Muslimah apparel business,” he said.
Faroz said the four-storey new mall will have a pedestrian bridge connecting to Jakel Mall KL.
“The new mall is expected to be completed in 2022. I foresee there is much room for Jakel to grow in the local market. Most of the textile traders are not keen to expand in the Malaysian market.”
On the serviced apartments they will range from 550 to 1,200 sq ft.
Faroz said there is a high demand for apartment units in the area as there are two mass rapid transit stations about 200m from the mall.
“The new mall will have a total 1.5 million sq ft of gross floor area and a total net lettable area (NLA) of 1.2 million sq ft, comprising 300,000 sq ft of NLA for retail space, 550,000 sq ft of net saleable area for serviced apartments and 350,000 sq ft NLA for offices.
“We believe there is a huge demand mainly due to old offices and buildings with limited facilities in the area. Jakel will utilise about 100,000 sq ft for office space and the remaining 200,000 sq ft will be rented out.”
Faroz said the company has seen an encouraging footfall.
“We have pulled in huge crowd in recent years. We have rejuvenated this area since 2014. This place has become a new centre for Muslim shoppers,” he said, adding that his aim is to make the area a Muslim-centric hub.
“We have all the Muslim brands under one roof. We also have crowds which come from Lulu hypermarket.”
Faroz said despite the economic downturn, Jakel has attracted numerous new customers this year thanks to endorsements by local celebrities.
RM25m allocated for operational expenditure
KUALA LUMPUR: Jakel Trading Sdn Bhd has allocated RM25 million for its operational expenditure (opex) this year.
Some of it would used for its marketing strategies such as celebrity endorsement, brand ambassador and advertisements.
Group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Mohamed Faroz Mohamed Jakel said Jakel has allocated about RM40 million to purchase and refurbish Wisma Jakel Senawang.
He said the company’s textile division has about 6,000 employees across 21 stores in Malaysia.
He said Jakel will not expand into the international market, as he believes the online business will provide a sufficient revenue stream.
“We want to expand our online business. We do not need to open branches overseas as it will incur additional costs. We’d rather focus on our online business, which has generated revenue of RM70 million last year. This year, we target our online business to hit RM100 million,” he said.
Faroz said its Ariani brand recorded healthy revenue of more than RM98.3 million last year.