After completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) in Marketing at the University of Auckland, Su-Lyn Wee decided to gain some work experience in New Zealand before returning to Singapore.
She unintentionally found herself in the FMCG industry, starting her career as a trade analyst at Hubbard Foods. Julia van de Coolwijk, who offered her this role was a major source of inspiration for NPD and marketing. According to Wee, the pace of product launches during her time was a testament to her relentless pursuit of achievement.
“You look like you enjoy solving problems” was an observation from a colleague at Hubbards’ that helped clarify her career choices. It helped support the decision to start a business at a time when being a specialist in one’s field was seen to be more rewarding.
Once it was established that Wee was not an introverted geek, she embarked on a 2.5-year stint that grew in scope beyond her wildest hopes, gaining invaluable IT and ERP implementation skills.
From there, she was fortunate to hold roles in SMEs, gaining hands-on experience in product management, sales and marketing, business development, and export. This laid the foundation of Optimo Foods.
Expanding Optimo Foods from Singapore and successfully setting up the service amid multiple COVID-19 lockdowns was a major achievement for Wee, who has since added to her portfolio of global clients and has continued expansion into overseas markets.
She considered it a blessing to have met and worked with many highly talented people in the industry. Their philosophies and ways of working have been integrated into Optimo Foods’ business.
Wayne Sands, founder of Twin Agencies, also showed her how treating people fairly could lead to deep loyalty and lower turnover in human resources, reducing disruption to business operations.
At the same time, Geoff Norgate, who was Managing Director at Anathoth Marketing, which Barker Fruit Processors subsequently acquired, had a unique approach to problem-solving that, at times, made the solution seem more than the sum of its parts.
Wee said that New Zealand’s FMCG industry has seen its fair share of seismic changes over the decades, from Woolworths’ acquisition of Progressive Enterprises and The Warehouse’s short-lived expansion into grocery to the merger of Foodstuffs and the entry of Costco to Auckland.
She added that the entrance of meal-kit delivery services like My Food Bag and HelloFresh also disrupted the industry when they began offering consumers a convenient solution for home cooking.
In comparison, the changes to the FMCG industry in Singapore, a country with a comparable population, have been along the lines of introducing novelty retail formats, as retailers attempt to increase foot traffic to stores by incorporating F&B formats, akin to a ‘store-in-store’ concept.
She highlighted that FairPrice introduced Grocer’s Bar and Café in their Finest banners, while their hypermarkets now offer Lotte and Korean products, merchandised exclusively at Lotte Mart Express, a dedicated area within the stores.
Cold Storage has entered into a tie-up with Australian-based Laurent bakery, enticing consumers with the smell of freshly baked sourdough loaves at the front of its stores.
She would like to see a future where AI and technology help drive significant inefficiencies out of the part of the industry that still relies on manual processes, enabling retailers and manufacturers to collectively provide consumers with affordable, real food and better-for-you products with clean labels.
“We should also continue work on sustainability and reducing single-use plastic in packaging, especially in these parts of Asia, where packaging is a driver of product sales,” said Wee, director of Optimo Foods Pte Ltd.
“The FMCG industry is like a constantly evolving kaleidoscope, perhaps reflecting changing consumer behaviour and preferences. In most markets, retail supermarkets remain a key channel for food distribution. Making better-for-you foods accessible and affordable to consumers remains a goal that drives our business.”
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