A Leader in The Regional Cake and Dining Market – Secret Recipe Cakes & Cafe Sdn Bhd
Founded in 1997, Secret Recipe is renowned for its extensive range of fine quality gourmet cakes and variety of contemporary cuisine. The Malaysian brand has since evolved to become one of the fastest growing lifestyle cakes and café chain with over 400 café outlets worldwide to date. In 2016, the group successfully launched a new brand Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart that took the market by storm and has become one of the top dessert brands in the region with over 140 stores today. Secret Recipe and Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart can be found in prime urban locations and shopping malls in major cities around the world including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Maldives, Vietnam, Australia and United States. The company offers a friendly and personalised full-service dining experience for customers and incorporates a modern contemporary and vibrant interior concept with comfort ambience, and great food. In terms of brand value, Secret Recipe promises a value lifestyle proposition of great variety and quality food at affordable prices. The uncompromising quality of food and desserts using quality ingredients, coupled with moderate pricing, has created a loyal base of food and cake lovers.
Besides that, the Group has diversified its revenue streams and upgraded its capabilities as a manufacturer by supplying to world renowned brands such as McDonalds, Ikea and Starbucks. Their production facilities are in compliance with stringent supplier requirements such as quality control, halal and environmental, social and governance (ESG) international standards. By partnering with Secret Recipe, they have been able to boost the performance of their own stores through our quality products, innovative ideation and strong branding.
The secret behind Secret Recipe
Secret Recipe’s success is built upon many things but the main ingredient is its people. Throughout the years, the company has built a strong culture of adaptability, which is driven by hard work, passion and a compelling mission – to continously surpass its commitments through innovations and continual improvements. “Secret Recipe is proud of our ability to craft and commercialise high quality products and concepts into the market in a short period. Furthermore, our existing commissary business model enabled us to scale to where we are today. Even with hundreds of outlets, we are able to maintain a high level of consistency for our products. This is the main challenge faced by food and beverage brands when they start to expand,” says Patrick Sim, the Group Business Development Director. Innovation and passion is very important for the business and Secret Recipe does not limit innovation to new product creation but also looks to innovate processes, branding and restaurant designs.
Patrick says, “As a team, we always make it a point to always learn and be better. Ideas can come internally or externally from our competitors, business partners, suppliers, market trends and our own customers.” He adds that it is vital to have the passion to turn ideas into reality. True innovation comes when Secret Recipe is able to lead the next trend or find a new gap in the market.
Digital transformation
Online shopping doesn’t provide the tangible experience of enjoying cake and coffee with friends and family. “We believe this is a core part of the human experience and we are embracing technology to enhance it. Malaysia’s eCommerce industry has recorded momentous growth within these few years. As the F&B industry is becoming increasingly competitive online and offline, we had a presence on famed e-marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada, which sells Secret Recipe’s Ipoh Coffee Packets and e vouchers,” explains Patrick. “We (the next generation) want to make the organization more efficient. We have an app that allows our franchisees and restaurant managers to check up on operational matters, latest updates and standard operating procedures. If they want to be sure of how certain items are made, they can refer to the app. If our people need to be updated on new SOPs or recipes, we can reach them through our app. Such technological innovation improves operations,” says Patrick.
Secret Recipe has also been constantly reimagining and rethinking how profits are made, how brandcustomer relationships are created and managed and how their business can lead the entire F&B industry. Years before the current pandemic, the company saw the potential of online delivery and started offering a service known as Cakes-OnWheels in 2010. This has currently evolved to be a feature and part of our latest own membership app where besides offering delivery and pick up options with a click of the button, we also reward our fans for their loyalty. On the backend, we are able to track the purchasing habits of our customers to an individual level and offer a customised marketing approach to them based on their personal preferences and buying habits to drive better customer engagement and increase frequency of purchase.
Expansion and staying relevant
Secret Recipe’s success shows that it is really important to have a solid core brand concept and scalable business model before expanding out of
the country. The company’s strategy has been to find a strong, reliable local partner with that shares the same passion. “There may also be a need for some level of customisation of products or even brand positioning to suit the market needs. But we always remain true to our core promises of provided high quality products to our customers,” explains Patrick. The company plans to further expand its brand within Malaysia and internationally to other regions such the Middle East, South Asia, North America and even Europe and Africa. “We need be constantly evolving as a brand to be relevant with the changing times and younger generation. Currently we are putting in many initiatives to be more technology forward, upgrading our store ambience, crafting “Instaworthy” products improving the workplace culture. People today want to associated with a brand that takes environmental, sustainability and social aspects seriously and thus we have been actively reducing single use plastics, food waste and energy consumption plus helping the needy within the community, which culminated in us winning awards for CSR and Green Initiative,” says Patrick.
