Loi Tuan Ee has a dream to produce fresh and pure dairy just as nature intended. Armed with his solid ambition and dream, the founder of Farm Fresh Milk decided to purchase a small piece of land in Johor and import 60 Holstein Jersey cows from Australia! Read his inspiring story of starting a dairy company.
1. Loi Tuan Ee went into a business he knew little about
The founder of Johor-based milk company, Farm Fresh had zero experience in the agriculture business when he decided to start his own dairy company. Much to his surprise, in just 7 years he successfully built and scaled a dairy farm – making Farm Fresh brand the market leader in fresh dairy products in Malaysia.
2. He had previously run a carton packaging company
The farmer-entrepreneur behind The Holstein Milk Company had previously run a carton packaging company that served factories. Growing up in a small town in Perak, Loi Tuan Ee loves nature and has a deep respect for agriculture.
3. He was thinking about what kind of business that is more sustainable, besides packaging
In the mid-2000s, Loi began to think about going into a business that was more sustainable. The packaging business faced a lot of difficulty in securing new clients when technology began to relocate. So, he wanted something more stable and profitable.
4. He then hired 15 workers and acquired a piece of land
In 2006, he started a new company named Rainforest Capital. He hired 15 workers and acquired 83 acres of land in Kota Tinggi, Johor to farm goats. He farms dragon fruits and breed arowana fish too.
Sadly, his arowana business didn’t turn out as he was expected. He then managed to sell his fish to places as Taiwan and Hong Kong. He began to convert his farming land into oil palm plantations and acquired another 500 acres of land in Kampung Mawai, Kota Tinggi.
5. Then, he decided to focus on goat farming
After the failure, Loi started fresh and decided to focus on goat farming. He incorporated Ladang Anflo Nubian with the money he got from the fish sale, together with his personal savings and investment from Khazanah Nasional.
6. He began to sell goat’s milk!
In 2009, the company had started bottling goat’s milk and sell to the hypermarkets. But, they only managed to produce in a small amount and the customers complained that it’s expensive. That’s how he began to think about going into producing cow’s milk.
7. The company’s name was changed from Ladang Anglo Nubian to Farm Fresh
He acquired 100 cows and still retaining the 300 goats he already had. The company’s name was changed to Farm Fresh, a subsidiary of Holstein in 2015.
According to Loi, Farm Fresh is probably the only milk company that sells fresh milk. Most of the other milk brands use reconstituted milk, milk powder or solids. Farm Fresh also choose to be all-natural by not adding preservatives or any colouring to their products.
8. Today, Farm Fresh produces about 1 million bottles of milk a day!
The 100 cows they had have grown to 3,200 and are kept in two farms. One in Kota Tinggi, Johor and the other at Muadzam Shah Cattle Research and Innovation Centre in Pahang. Today, Farm Fresh products are available in most leading hypermarkets with their huge number of customers.
