Ramarama had a short interview with Best Durian, a durian business located in at Pasar Borong Pandan, Pandan City, Johor Bahru.
Could you explain a little bit about Best Durian? How did Best Durian start?
Mr. Teo, the founder of “Best Durian” has been serving fresh, authentic quality durians for more than 20 years. Best Durian Johor was established in 2017 after Mr Teo returned back from Singapore to Johor Bahru and started up the business. Apart from serving great durian here, we also supply frozen durians and durian paste to local businesses here as well as export to neighboring countries.
What makes Best Durian different from other durian businesses across Johor Bahru?
Most durian sellers only sell durians during peak season, but we sell and supply durians for most of the months in a year. We also provide a large quantity of different types of durians, be it normal grade like durian kampong, at a very low price point, such as 3 biji for rm10. We hope to be able to cater our durians to all types of consumers and their individual cravings.
How much has Best Durian been affected by e-commerce and is online a good platform to promote Best Durian?
Retail sales have decreased during the pandemic and we sustain our business through online platforms and Grab is one of the effective platforms that has helped to increase our overall sales. We decided to convert more to online during the MCO period as most consumers were also focusing their purchases towards online channels. Many have turned to online ordering and we joined the platform to increase our overall sales from there which has since been effective.
How has being on the Grab app helped Best Durian, especially during the pandemic/MCO?
During the pandemic, our online sales contributed around 30-40% of our overall sales. Online platforms can actually help us to increase our brand awareness and sales and we decided to continue it even after the pandemic is over.
What is the future plan for Best Durian?
Running a business requires a lot of work, and some days you might feel like you won’t see the fruits of your labour. We are looking forward to doing more online branding and advertisement to promote our brand to nearby cities and countries. Remain persistence with good business planning, constraints drive innovation and force focus.
