KUALA LUMPUR: Farm Fresh Bhd, which is backed by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, is the lone winner in the dairy products category from Malaysia to receive the "Brand of the Year" award at the 2022–2023 World Branding Awards ceremony at Kensington Palace, London.
Only 250 brands out of more than 3,500 nominations in 45 different countries were named champions in various categories.
The World Branding Award is the World Branding Forum's top honour. Winners are chosen through public online voting, consumer market research and brand valuation.
According to Richard Rowles, chairman of the World Branding Forum, there were only five winners per country.
Farm Fresh, founded by Loi Tuan Ee and Loi Tuan Kin more than a decade ago, had a market share of 23 per cent in the overall RTD milk segment and 49 per cent in the chilled ready-to-drink (RTD) milk segment as of June 30 this year.
The company has a "grass-to-glass" business model and engages in farming, production, and distribution of various dairy and plant-based goods.
It has developed into the No. 1 Fresh Milk brand in Malaysia and is well-liked by Malaysians.
In addition, it has exported to Brunei and Singapore, with the Philippines and Indonesia being targeted as potential future expansion markets.
Through Khazanah, the company created its Muadzam Shah farm in Pahang, which became fully operational in 2014 with a focus on rearing dairy cows.
Since then, it has grown its commercial operations by strategic acquisitions, most notably the purchases of AFS Dairy Company Australia Pty Ltd and the activities of Petabern Dairies Pty Ltd.
With a combined herd size of about 10,309 dairy cows and bulls, Farm Fresh now runs five dairy farms in Malaysia and one dairy farm in Australia. These farms span roughly 5,416 acres of land.
Additionally, it has a processing facility in Kyabram, Australia, with a capacity to produce around 84 million litres of processed milk annually, and two processing facilities in Johor and Pahang, Malaysia, which have a combined annual production capacity of about 137 million litres of finished goods.
With 135 stock keeping units, it offers a wide range of products in several product categories, including chilled RTD milk products, ultra-high temperature processing/ambient RTD products, plant-based products, yoghurt products, fruit jams, and sauces.