Extra Boost for Kalbe Expansion into Malaysia

Entering a new market, even for an established company, can be a daunting task. But, with DKSH’s support, Kalbe Malaysia managed to not only penetrate a competitive market but very quickly gained a strong following for its products and brands in Malaysia.

Kalbe Farma, with more than 17,000 employees, is the largest healthcare provider and pharmaceutical company in Indonesia. They are an integrated healthcare solution provider with four main business divisions: prescription pharmaceutical, consumer health, nutritional, and distribution and logistics.

Challenge

The client, working with their previous distributor, was facing various challenges in penetrating their products into all the major trade channels in Malaysia. They had a limited footprint, especially in the East Malaysia markets, as their business was highly dependent on stockists to distribute their stocks.

As this approach limited their business expansion opportunities, they decided to pursue working with another partner to help them open new channels and get better traction for their products.

Approach

From our extensive knowledge of the Malaysian market, we proceed with a hybrid model of Full Market Expansion Services combined with fourth-party logistics (4PL) management services under both the Business Unit Consumer Goods and Business Unit Healthcare teams.

We focused on pushing their brands into more new channels while expanding their business footprint across the market. This includes the listing of the Extra Joss products to all KK Mart outlets and reactivating Woods lozenges SKU in FamilyMart stores.

We also expanded the listing of Milna Puff to most of the top retailers, such as Aeon, Giant, Hero, TF Value, and The Food Purveyor.

We also collaborated closely with the client’s sales team to manage the 4PL operation and focused on monitoring the products’ performance and results. We are constantly looking for opportunities for better brand exposure and further market expansion for the client.

Result

From the first year alone of working with DKSH, the client’s products and brand presence in the market have already exceeded their initial expectations.

Besides helping to successfully placed Extra Joss into major modern trade accounts including Mydin, Econsave, TF Value, and KK Mart, the client also saw more than 250 new sales outlets across Malaysia carrying their products, including a significant increase in East Malaysia.

As a testament to our efforts on this project, we received the coveted Appreciation Award during the Woods Appreciation Night for the successful partnership with the client in 2022.