Loob’s Tealive expansion plan percolates, eyes on 3 countries this year

PETALING JAYA: Loob Holding Sdn Bhd’s Tealive is set to announce its expansion into three countries next month.

Founder and CEO Bryan Loo said the brand’s strategy is to strengthen its market presence with a strong focus on regional growth.

“Tealive is very focused on regional expansion. We are expanding to three new countries this year for Tealive and we will be ready to announce by next month. So for Tealive it’s really just focused on growing the brand. That will be our consistent mission.

“Last year we penetrated three new markets and we are looking to trigger the market by first and second quarter this year,” he told reporters after the joint launch of sambal toasties by Bask Bear Coffee and Village Park Restaurant today.

Loob said Tealive has always targeted to enter three new markets each year. It did so last year and will do so this year and will announce them as they happen.

Regarding Loob’s initial public offering (IPO), Loo said it is still up in the air but is leaving it to its private equity partner, Cradle.

“I would say the plan (IPO) has always been there, but we did not manage the plan ... because we leave that effort to our private equity partner to take charge of that so that we can focus in our business. As everyone know, IPO is a very difficult journey ... and we want to make sure that if we were to do IPO, we don’t want to lose touch of our actual business. So our goal with our partners is they focus on the IPO, we focus on the business. So when it comes to IPO, to be fair, I don’t have much clarity when the actual timeline look like, but I must say it’s always been ongoing,” said Loo.

He said Loob’s overall outlook remains positive on the back of Tealive’s robust brand equity and growth in the face of increased competition.

“Loob has had pretty consistent growth last year ... thanks to Tealive still having a very strong brand equity in the market and also thanks to a lot of competition that created a lot of demand in the whole segment. Tealive with the total store count of 870 stores, we managed to capitalise the growth of the demand,” he explained.

Meanwhile, its Bask Bear Coffee outlets which now stand at 115 stores are looking for further growth within the country.

Loo said Bask Bear is shifting its focus to mall expansion instead of shoplot for a more balanced outlet presence across Malaysia.

“Bask Bear has always been more shoplot than shopping mall. So today, now we have shoplots around the whole of Malaysia. Now we want to focus all the energy to grow Bask Bear outlets inside malls so that in future, maybe one year down the road, we have a balance between outlets in malls and shoplots in different neighbourhoods,” he added.