Since it inception in 2005, Mr DIY has grown into a popular home improvement retailer offering a wide selection of more than 16,600 types of products at low prices. Currently, they operate more than 688 stores throughout Malaysia, Thailand and four in Brunei. Behind all those achievements, not many know the humble beginnings of this giant retailer.
This homegrown company opened its first outlet at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur back in 2005
MR DIY didn’t start big as people have come to expect. Rather, the home improvement retailer started with just a single hardware store at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in July 2005. It is like a typical hardware shop that you commonly go to buy stuff.
However, by the end of the first year, the shop had grown and was operating a total of 3 outlets.
The company experienced rapid growth from 2010 onwards after it began to open stores in malls
From 2010 onwards, the company experienced rapid growth. It was in the same year in which they opened their first mall-based outlet and marked a new trend for the company.
From standalone shops, MR DIY grew to become ann anchor tenant and forged partnerships with big retailers such as AEON, AEON BIG, Giant and Tesco.
They started their venture abroad in 2016 by selecting Bangkok, Thailand as the first location to open their first overseas outlet.
Here’s the timeline of how rapid their growth is:
2005: First outlet at Jalan TAR
2014: 100 stores
2017: 250 stores
2018: 450 stores
May 2019: 500 stores
Sept 2019: 550 stores
2020: 600
30 Sept 2020: 688 stores
MR DIY offers a wide selection of more than 16,600 types of products
With ten categories; Hardware, Household, Electrical, Furnishing, Car Accessories, Stationery & Sports, Toys, Gifts, Computer & Mobile Accessories and Jewellery & Cosmetics, the giant retailer offers a wide selection of products at low prices – according to their tagline ‘Always Low Prices’.
They will ensure to constantly bring in new products monthly. In a month, they easily bring in 200 containers’ worth of products from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand as 95% of their products are imported.
The company revealed that housewives are their main target, but, the home improvement retailer cater to everyone from 8-80 year old.
The giant retailer is expanding into the different retail format as in launching MR TOY and MR DOLLAR
MR DIY is expanding its offerings as in launching MR TOY – focusing on products for babies and children and MR DOLLAR – low-cost household products, F&B items and groceries priced from RM2 to RM5. As in August 2020, there are over 28 MR TOY and MR DOLLAR outlets locally.
In 2017, MR DIY launched its e-commerce business and it paid off especially during the MCO
It was a smart move to launched the e-commerce business earlier. This move paid off especially during the pandemic period. As customers were unable to go out, its e-commerce helps customers to order online. Customer can also simply choose the click-and-collect model where they are able to order their goods online and select which outlet they wanted to pick the items up from.
All the milestones paid off when the g retailer made history in October 2018 when they won the World Branding Awards at Kensington Palace, London.
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Besides, MR DIY market cap stands at RM15.2 bil today – making them bigger than Genting Malaysia, AmBank and YTL. The home improvement retailer also now has the largest IPO on Bursa in 3 years, aiming to raise RM1.5 billion from its listing.
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