Skin problem leads to business success
Published on: Thursday, October 01, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Skin problems have led a 44-year-old woman to venture into the world of beauty and cosmetics. Women Entrepreneur Award recipient Anita Mohamad said her suffering from skin problems for 20 years had resulted her to become obsessed with beauty products."My skin was sensitive and it used to swell and peel daily which led me to keep looking for better products to treat it."I have tried a lot of products including the ones from overseas. I even went to consult a 'dukun'. I am grateful that I finally overcome the problem," she said.ADVERTISEMENT Besides, the demand for beauty and health were high during that time and Anita said she started to dream about owning her very own beauty brand. "That's how Anita Fragrance and Body Care came along," she added.Anita said before she got into the cosmetic and beauty business, she spent most of her time reading about herbs and ingredients used in the production of cosmetics."That was the concept I brought into our company currently known as 'AFCL Bio Science' whereby we would help cosmetic entrepreneurs and product founders to produce effective and safe products to solve skin problems," she explained.ADVERTISEMENT She said her company currently had managed to penetrate the global market namely Japan, China, Brunei and Singapore. "I am very proud and satisfied that most of our products have been published in local magazines such as Harmoni and Mingguan Wanita … I was also excited to see our products being advertised on TV3 and made viral on Facebook. That was a very big achievement for me," she said.
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Anita also said that her company had also benefited the State by producing female entrepreneurs with their own brands and reduced the number of imported products."There are several of our entrepreneurs who used to sell their products from house to house but now they are able to commercialise them and sell their products throughout the world," she said, adding that she also offered opportunity to her staff to get involved in business as well as promotion based on their capabilities and talents.Unfortunately, she said, there were a lot of challenges because not many people trust Malaysian products especially the ones manufactured in Sabah."Logistic problems also force us to compete in terms of price and transportation of raw materials as well as products from peninsula to Sabah and vice versa," she added.However, she said they never gave up and continued using their expertise in producing safe and high quality products."For example, we had to sacrifice part of our profits to pay for the courier services to make sure that our customers are happy and satisfied." According to her, there were several times when their customers decided to cancel their contracts due to the delay in their production of goods.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Anita who is Malay Chamber of Commerce Dewanita Chairperson and Umno Wanita Branch Chairperson also won numerous corporate awards such as the State level Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) Entrepreneurship Awards 2008, Malay Chamber of Commerce Female Entrepreneur Awards 2009, Most Innovative Halal Product Award 2010 in Kazakhstan and others."I hope to conquer the beauty and health product market with the building of more joint venture factories throughout Malaysia in the long run," she added.