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KELVIN NGOW

Managing Director of Coffex Coffee Malaysia

Born in 1959 and hailing from the suburbs of Melbourne, Coffex has more than 50 years of roasting experience under their
belts and is known as an international brand across the world. Sourcing beans from more than 25 countries across 4 continents, the
people at Coffex Coffee take their roasts seriously and have been working their magic here in Malaysia since 2007. Their Malaysian
headquarters are located in the industrial premises of Glenmarie Shah Alam. With the recent expansion into a larger and better show-
room and roastery, Kelvin Ngow speaks to us about some of his experiences and thoughts on how the local coffee industry may grow
further ahead.
Tell us a little bit about your journey in This helped me on where my window of customers build more volume and profit-
Coffee and how it all began? opportunity was and what I needed to do. ability. By just selling high quality coffee is
Back in 2007, Malaysia was in a bad There was a gaping hole in the market in not absolute enough to move the industry
place with it’s recession and there wasn’t customer service and we focused on that. to high gear. Quality to a consumer is about
much work in the market. It was then that It was never about beating a competitor, it a quality experience and brand image.
I had just folded my audio engineering was always an inward reflection on where Quality to us is that plus making sure have
business because the recession really hit we could do better. Better coffee, better the best ingredients for the price, product
the country hard. It was then my family service, better equipment, better training, treaceability, manufacturing consistency,
invested in Coffex Australia when Domi- it’s about how to better oneself. complying to the highest standards of qual-
nic Crevelli (Founder of Coffex Australia) ity and food safety ISO22000, Halal com-
was retiring and sold his shares, hence In your many years as the Managing Di- pliance, winning awards fast and prompt
we became the major shareholders in the rector of Coffex Coffee, What would you customer service, accuracy in delivery at
company. While I was pondering on what say was your biggest challenge in your any volume. Again it’s focused on the best
I was going to do next, it dawned on me entire career here at Coffex? we could do. The biggest challenge to me
one fine day that getting into the Coffee Coffex Malaysia started out with now is building from here on and exporting
business could really work! only two individuals. Myself, doing sales, more of our product and services.
Everything just clicked, I realised training, trouble shooting, installation and
even when we were deep into recession collection and the other, Sam who looks
and with everyone tightening their belts, after technical issues, installation and tech-
consumers could still afford a cup of coffee. nical parts. Sam used to repair audio equip-
It was a daily routine, people needed coffee ment and was a colleague of mine back
when they got out of bed, during meetings when I was still in the audio business, so an
and even social meets. There was a natural espresso machine was a walk in the park for
market for coffee. him. I recall the day we first installed our
Without the proper skills in the very first traditional machine back in Christ-
business, I have had no prior training the mas eve 2008. That was the the beginning.
Food & Beverage industry. I vaguely had a * Kelvin Trying his hands on Sorting defects
clue what a caffe latte and a cappuccinno in his recent trip to Kenya
was during my 6 years abroad in Melbourne
when I was studying. Even as a student, I As a growing nation, what do you think
could still afford a cup of coffee because needs to be improved in the local coffee
of its affordability. I concluded that coffee industry?
is a recession resistant product and that it We have some great cafes serving
usually survives the recession due to its great coffee in our country and it serves
demand in the world. to market well, we can always source and
I then ventured into the business roast a variety of coffee if there is a demand
telling myself, what could go wrong? It was and change in customer expectation. After
then I realized, I have never done anything travelling the world and gauge standards
like this before! I had zero experience and everywhere, we are not lacking in quality,
had to get into researching more about cof- we are just lacking in confidence. Barista’s
fee as well as getting some skills to improve The biggest challenge I had over the here seems to idolize some foreign brands
myself. I travelled to Melbourne in 2008 years was when we first started. I knew that and think they are better. Don’t look up to
to learn the ropes about what I was doing. coffee had to be based on volume because it, be it.
Everyone I spoke to more or less snubbed coffee was cheap. We needed to build a
me with the common term “It’s a trade market sizable enough to create scale that Within the recent years, we have seen the
secret”. People were overly protective of will help us create volume. The industry coffee industry grow tremendously. Tell
their knowledge and expertise that I felt can then support more competitors and us what do you think have changed in the
that they were pretty small minded. I then other business complementing the coffee Malaysia Coffee Industry, compared to 5
turned to reading books, a lot of books! business such as milk suppliers, filtration years ago and why?
Books didn’t really do the trick as most of systems, ingredients and even furniture. As mentioned before, we need to
them were consumer level books as well. Even today, although we do customized build volume. I believe Coffex and my
With some of the marketing techniques I roasts and specialty coffee, our direction direction is always about building a bigger
learnt from college, I ran a SWOT analysis. is still geared towards how we can help market place. We believe in the support-
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