PETALING JAYA: Bioalpha Holdings Bhd unveiled its three-pronged strategy to boost its exports of health supplements, venture into the personal care segment and also open more retail pharmacy outlets.

Managing director William Hon said yesterday the manufacturing division planned to boost exports of its health supplements to China, Indonesia and Thailand following the strong performance in Malaysia.

“The domestic market was the primary growth driver during the year on the back of increased demand for our original design manufacturer (ODM) products from our existing and new customers, while our house brand products gained traction through our retail pharmacy outlets,” he said in a statement issued after the shareholders meeting.

“For our manufacturing division, after strengthening our foothold in the domestic market in financial year (FY) 2018, we are shifting our focus on growing our export sales,” he said.

Hon said that in China, Bioalpha was broadening its distribution network by entering the business-to-consumer market.

Bioalpha had appointed a local partner to promote and distribute its products there, which would include listing the products on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Taobao.com.

He said that in Indonesia, the company had started to manufacture health supplements, which was in addition to the food products which it had been producing and distributing in Indonesia.

“We expect our Indonesian sales to gradually improve as we launch more health supplement products moving forward.”

On Thailand, Hon said the company had appointed a distributor to market its house brand products.

On the group’s prospects, he added: “On our agriculture side, our herbal farming is progressing well at both Desaru and Pasir Raja Herbal Parks. In addition to our herbal plants, we have started to harvest medicinal value plants such as soursop leaves, which are rich in anti-oxidant properties, as well as papaya leaves, which have been proven to help accelerate the platelet count for dengue patients.

“We expect our agriculture business to start contributing to the bottom line in FY19.”

On its Malaysia operations, Hon said Bioalpha was venturing into the personal care line by collaborating with an experienced local company in the hospitality sector.

“We are working towards launching an exclusive line of personal care products which will be marketed under our house brand labels. At the same time, we also offer our ODM clients the opportunity to introduce new product category to their customers. This personal care line shall form a new revenue stream for us,” he said.

Commenting on the retail pharmacy business, he said the company would launch more “Constant” pharmacy outlets through franchising.

“At the same time, we are also exploring opportunities via collaboration with major high-end grocery chains. Currently, we have more than 20 outlets nationwide and plan to launch more in the next 12 months,” he said.

In FY2018, Bioalpha recorded net profit of RM11.6mil on the back of RM70.1mil in revenue.

Bioalpha remains in a net cash position with net cash per share of 1.4 sen as at end-March 2019, backed by net assets per share of 18.4 sen.