Focus Point president and chief executive officer Datuk Liaw Choon Liang.
PETALING JAYA: Focus Point Holdings Bhd
expects stronger performance on the back of aggressive expansion, marketing as well as higher consumer spending.
President and chief executive officer Datuk Liaw Choon Liang said the group would be opening 20 more optical outlets and 12 Komugi outlets.
“We have 198 outlets including franchise, so we should break our 200 mark by this June,” he told a press conference after Focus Point AGM yesterday.
As for its frozen yogurt business, HAP&PI, which recently opened its first branch in Mid Valley Megamall in March, Liaw said Focus Point would be expanding the segment once it has stabilised.
“We only started about two months ago, so we’re still monitoring and getting feedback from customers.
“We still need to improve the quality of the products, and once we finalise that, then we will talk about expansion,” he added.
Meanwhile, Liaw expected the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) Account 3 to augur well for Focus Point as this would spur consumer spending.
Member accounts have been restructured into three separate accounts effective May 11, with 10% of the monthly contributions going into Account 3 that would allow withdrawals at any time.
However, he said the impact would be minimal as compared to the previous special EPF withdrawal announced during the Covid-19 pandemic, which had led 2022 to be an exceptional year for the market, especially during the second and third quarter. He added that downside risks such as inflation, interest rate hikes, as well as the recent boycotts, are less likely to have an impact on the groups’ performance.
“Optical as well as food and beverage are essential products and we are quite lucky because we can still see strong growth from the two segments. We see our revenue improving,” he said.
He explained that the groups’ F&B segment had benefited especially in terms of its business-to-business (B2B) model as it has a wide range of corporate clients. To date, Focus Points’ major B2B customers consist of convenient stores of about 70%, followed by supermarket department stores and restaurant chain stores.
Meanwhile, despite a huge proportion of its customers being Singaporeans, Liaw said its sales performance would not be affected by the recent rising cases of Covid-19 in the neighbouring country.
“We will not be affected (because) borders are still open. Once the Rapid Transit System is ready, more Singaporeans will come to Malaysia and spend more here,” he said.
The company posted 22.89% increase in net profit to RM7.41mil in the first quarter ended March 31, from RM6.03mil a year ago, on the back of higher revenue of RM68.30mil versus RM59.67mil previously.
