Rumour: Massimo belongs to Robert Kuok and Gardenia is racist bread.
Recently, there have been rumours circulating on the Internet, mostly via emails, that the new bread in the market, Massimo belongs to Robert Kuok and we should support it. Also, we should not support Gardenia Bread because it belongs to the Malays and is considered "racist".
As a result, Gardenia sales dropped significantly and had to come out with an advertorial to deny that they are racist and to restore their market position.
If Massimo does not actually belong to Robert Kuok and Gardenia is not racist, then we would be guilty of burying a good business. I thought it would be nice if I can get confirmation of the facts.
I had the opportunity to talk to a flour distributor who had been in business for more than 40 years. Their first generation management decided years back to go with Federal Flour Mills (FFM) which belongs to Robert Kuok, as opposed to Malayan Flour Mills (MFM) which is the other main player in the flour market. This was what I gathered from a conversation with their CFO who decided to remain anonymous.
> When Gardenia was taking flour from FFM, they demanded that FFM stop supplying to one of their competitors, High Five. FFM refused, and Gardenia stopped buying from them and went to MFM instead.
> Gardenia is actually owned by Chinese and not Malay. The boss was a Sabahan and some years back he was murdered at his home in Sabah. The news made headlines then. For listing purposes, they had to give Bernas a 30% stake in their company.
> In order to protect their business, FFM decided to start their own bread business in the form of Massimo Bread. This is quite normal as flour companies in Australia and a few other countries also use the same business strategy.
Facts: Based on the above findings, Massimo Bread actually belongs to the Robert Kuok Group but Gardenia should not be considered racist. You may support Massimo if you like Robert Kuok and dislike Gardenia's trade practices.
