By Khairie Hisyam
It has been nine years since a husband-and-wife duo started their little tudung business and the success that came their way has proven beyond their wildest expectations. But it all began from a simple dream, as the co-founder of Fareeda shares with KINIBIZ.
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For some people, it’s never too early to queue up. And the crowd in front of the store were unmistakably part of those people.
Most sat on the floor outside the storefront. Some were on their backs, catching some shut-eye before the sun rises. A few had small children, even toddlers, in tow. But none of them were waiting for the latest iPhone release.
What the assembled crowd was so eager to get their hands on was something that may sound more mundane: Fareeda’s latest scarf (or tudung in Malay) designs, which are only produced in limited quantities and always unveiled at its main boutique in Bangi first.
“It’s a dilemma for us,” admitted Fareeda Global Resources managing director Aminuddin Basirron to KINIBIZ, because “they are customers, so we can’t exactly chase them away”.
The enthusiasm, shown by customers camping outside its stores hours before sunrise at times whenever a new design is being unveiled, showcases the strength of the Fareeda brand. Coming into its ninth year of existence this year, the tudung line has even spawned an entire secondary market – unheard of for tudungs – where the scarcity of its offerings can and often push prices far beyond original retail prices.
And the 300-strong operation with eight outlets nationwide, raking in over RM30 million in turnover annually, began from a simple idea for Aminuddin and his wife Faridah Zakaria nine years ago, when they were living in Penang.
The dream that took off
It was year 2006. They lived in Penang, with Aminuddin holding a comfortable post at a local statutory agency. Despite the relative stability, the couple harboured bigger dreams, driven in part by a desire to achieve, to be successful.
“We read other people’s success stories all the time,” said Aminuddin, sitting behind his simple wooden desk in Fareeda’s Bangi office, reminiscing how they felt a persistent urge to go into business. “And of course materialistically we all want a better life. A bigger house, a better car.”
That desire has led the couple down several business ventures, though given Aminuddin was a full-time employee at the time, Faridah handled most aspects involved. Among others they tried going into food and beverage and even opening a women’s spa.
But business was difficult, in part due to tough competition. While they were doing okay, things weren’t so profitable. Then one day Aminuddin made a suggestion to his wife that would later change their lives.
“I noticed that my wife had some sewing talent – her mother was a tailor,” reminisced Aminuddin. “I also knew she has a lot of creativity, so I said let’s change the business, let’s do something which she likes and has ideas about.”
She agreed. At a time when custom-designed tudungs have yet to catch on, Faridah designed her own tudungs and made them herself. By April that year, they began selling the first batch to family members, friends and Aminuddin’s co-workers.
The response by mid-2006 was beyond their expectations. Fareeda’s line of tudungs gained a growing following, relying on word of mouth from satisfied buyers. Not long after Aminuddin transferred back to Selangor in mid-2007, they began taking formal distributors of Fareeda tudungs in states outside of the Klang Valley like Pahang, Kelantan, Johor and Sabah.
“The first time we took an advertisement was in late 2007 at a local Malay daily,” said Aminuddin, adding at this point they were still running the business from home. “It was a small box, roughly the size of a cigarette box, but people responded to the ad nonetheless.”
Making a name
By early 2008, the media began taking notice. Fareeda made its maiden appearance on national television in a segment of TV3’s Wanita Hari Ini programme, followed by one on state-controlled station TV1.
Malay-centric newspapers like Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian also started to take keen interest in Fareeda with a number of articles. The reason? Fareeda’s brand of tudungs had sparked a massive frenzy in its norm-bucking designs.
“The trend at the time was plain tudungs with less striking colours,” said Aminuddin. “At the time tudungs with awnings haven’t become popular yet.”
Awnings refer to the portion of an underscarf that peeks out of the brim of the tudung above the wearer’s forehead. Fareeda played with the concept and innovated. Some of its designs sewed the awnings onto the tudungs directly, sometimes with different but matching colours.
“Some were negative on our designs – they said the colours were too striking, too bright and so on.” said Aminuddin. “But a lot of people liked it and despite the scepticism we grew a following for our new ideas.”
It was essentially a blue ocean approach. Rather than wade into an existing, potentially crowded niche in the tudung market, Fareeda created a whole new segment from the get-go. And tudung as a fashionable apparel took on a new level.
Fareeda’s growing popularity was in turn good for business. While still based from the couple’s home at this point, with five to six helpers, Fareeda was raking in just around six figures in monthly turnover. And Faridah was single-handedly producing up to 3,000 tudungs a month, recalled her husband, using two second-hand sewing machines they initially bought when starting out.
“We bought two because they were different types for different sewing needs,” explained Aminuddin, adding they didn’t want to invest in the top-of-the-line models on the market at the time straightaway because at the beginning they were just testing the waters.
But there was one issue: the crowd coming to their house to get Faridah’s handiwork was getting bigger and bigger. And eventually the couple decided they needed a proper premise for the business, which they started looking for in early 2009. They eventually found a small first-floor room in Bangi.
“We divided the room into two, so we had a very small boutique so it became easier for our customers to come,” said Aminuddin. “Before that it was mostly dealers picking up stock and us doing deliveries to nearby areas like Bangi, Puchong and Sungai Besi.”
And it was also shortly after the move into its very own premise that the tipping point came for Fareeda.
Tomorrow: Rise of a tudung empire
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