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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Thursday 25 July 2013

Other's Bread is too Salt: Gardenia vs Massimo( Part 2 of 3).



Bread war.
When I wrote about the bread war between Gardenia and Massimo, there were a number of comments sent in, stating why they prefer one bread brand over the other. I have no quarrel over how a person spends his money on what bread the person wants. It’s his or her money and his or her personalised reasons.
I am however horrified at the instigation carried out to condemn one product by supporters of the rival product. I believe those who elect to consume one bread or the other must be aware of these. And these guerrilla attacks may not even be known to the personality in whose name the Massimo brand is fought for. The attacks might be the work of overzealous employees whose ethics in business are questionable and which were certainly uncharacteristic of the business ethics associated with the master. The actions of supporters with unquestioning minds make matters worse.
I have heard about business tactics that constitute  a war of competition waged in the interest of trade, but the viciousness of the lies and falsehoods spewed against Gardenia constitute none of that. .For instance consumers were shocked at the attempt to discredit and vilify Gardenia by a posting showing the picture of a dead rat/animal  together with gardenia bread. That was a clear attempt to show that the process of making bread by gardenia is unhygienic and even life threatening to consumers. This was an act done to cause injurious falsehood, trade libel and negligent misrepresentation.
The author of the falsehood later made a public and published apology for that trade libel. Not many people I supposed were aware of the retraction and apology. The damage and hurt was already inflicted. The first cut is always the deepest.
As consumers we must be aware and understand about actions taken to balance the need to protect one business against those who inflict economic harm and the wider need to allow effective, even aggressive, competition between them. But to cast the competition between gardenia and Massimo in terms of racial confrontation cannot be accepted as effective, aggressive business competition by right thinking citizens.
That was how the war between Massimo and gardenia was made out to be.  
Since 2011, the bread consuming public became participants to a race war fought through the common bread. Chinese internet readers were encouraged to reject Gardenia because the company is owned by Syed Mokhtar an UMNO Crony. Ownership of Gardenia became more bizarre when it was said to be owned by Rosmah Mansor who was also later reported to be the CEO. From there, Rosmah Mansor vanished from the scene because Gardenia’s new owner is Dr Mahathir. In other words, UMNO gallery of rogues were lined up to discredit Gardenia.
These attacks were meant to show that Gardenia is out there to elbow out uncle Bob Kuok who is considered the patron saint to Chinese business people. Put it simply, this is an attempt by the Malay government to squeeze out Chinese business interest gradually. In the case of Gardenia when it stopped buying flour from FFM (due entirely to commercial reasons), that was manipulated to make it looked like an attack on a legitimate Chinese business interest. If we don’t stop Gardenia, eventually all Chinese owned businesses will be taken over by UMNO crony companies.
The public forgets that Gardenia Bakeries (K.L.) Sdn. Bhd., producer of Gardenia is also a legitimate business. It has achieved its dominant position of a bread manufacturer and market leader through sheer hard work of its thousands of workers and distributors and fair competition. Since when is it a right for Massimo to defend its workers but the same right cannot be enjoyed by Gardenia? Gardenia has a legion of workers, distributors and support suppliers.
Perhaps because of that, it has attracted envy that turned into an insidious hate campaign. The campaign has gone to a ridiculous extent with someone publishing images of dead animals found in Gardenia bread as we mentioned above.
Some of the comments responding to my first article said, they eat Massimo because it is cheaper and tastier. About taste, that is a personal choice. About it being cheap, when I wrote about it, it was done in the most general terms. Since then, I have done a little research and found the following.
GARDENIA
MASSIMO
Bran & wheat germ
RM2.40
Wheat Germ
RM2.50
100% whole grain
 with sunflower seeds
RM3.20
100% wholemeal
RM3.50

It was clear then when commentators wrote about one bread being cheaper than the other, they were not comparing like for like. The attempts to mislead were pervasive. The truth of the matter is, Gardenia bread is cheaper in terms of value for money. For the same price, consumers get more.
And the wheat germ bread is still priced at the introductory price of RM2.50 since 2 years ago!. How is it possible for Massimo to maintain that price?
It can because not many people know that it enjoys unfair advantage in the cost of inputs. Massimo is 100% owned by FFM- Federal Flour Mill. FFM is enjoying the lion’s share of subsidies by the government. Haha- it now seems that the Italian Baker which produces the Massimo bread and is owned by FFM is more of a crony to the BN government. Its gets the lion’s share of subsidies and because of that, it can maintain the introductory price of its wheat germ bread at RM2.50!.
Now we know that FFM a flour miller is the 100% owner of The Italian baker which produces Massimo. It can run with the hare while hunting with the dogs. It gets subsides from the BN government, while Gardenia which is a bakery and does not own a flour mill does not get subsidies.
Syed Mokhtar who owns 30% of Gardenia may be an UMNO crony and enjoys benefits therefrom from other business interests but does not enjoy any subsidy benefits as does The Italian Baker. The Italian Baker is more of an UMNO crony than Syed Mokhtar in this instance.
The UMNO haters and the closet racists should reject Massimo then if hatred for UMNO was the basis for preferring Massimo over Gardenia.

12 comments:

Anonymous,  25 July 2013 at 18:51  

Gardenia originally sold its bran & wheat germ bread at RM2.80, and was forced to reduce its price to the present RM2.40. It's good that Massimo came along with its RM2.50 bread, thereby forcing Gardenia to reduce its profit margin by RM0.40

Anonymous,  25 July 2013 at 19:57  

Finally people got it :

This is an attempt ( a systematic plan ) by the Rebranded Elite UMNO Malay government with support by the compulsive liar supporters aka cybertroopers to squeeze out Chinese business interest gradually, every entity in the private sector the past years, from S&M enterprises, selling bird nests, durians ( pun nak red tape ), lrt, rapid, pharmacy, medicine and law faculty, look how screwed up the education system is, balasan terkena sendiri jugak, anak - anak elite umno serta supporters di perumahan Melayu premium, ramai dah pergi sek private eksklusif serta support business mereka sdn bhd, pergi naik fast train ke klia.. bypass putrajaya, semua profesional hebat - hebat, itu... mereka senyap, tapi Melayu PAS, Pakatan, DAP jauh berbeza, berintegriti, sanggup berganding bahu dengan semua bangsa Malaysia supaya masing- masing, bangsa Malaysia berpeluang untuk mencari rezeki murah, diberi peluang peniagaan yg murah, sama - sama memajukan semua komuniti Malaysia, seperti kemurahan rezeki yg dicurahkanNya pada semua insan, bila mencekik insan lain, maka kena jawab serta terima balasanNya nanti, semestinya.

Elok kurang bandingan Malaysia dengan Singapura, if the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu, Idris Jala mempunyai integriti, ketulusan, urgency serta kesungguhan; dengan kegigihan, innovatif, perpaduan serta azam yang baru, open market bukan untuk Elite, tapi direct kepada semua rakyat from Bottom Segment Up with the intensified regulatory scrutiny Pakatan, one government with two systems ( ? ) our multiracial Malaysians will progess by leaps and bounds - long delayed. Compared Indonesian government, it has freedom of expression, moving from that, but why the Indonesian, India, China , Korea elite and their private individuals ( chaebol , which is equivalent to UMNO puras - uber wealthy, yet do not contribute massive volunterism ( whatmore zakat and creating meaningful jobs to Melayu miskin kita ) in proportion to their immense wealth, why their mass live in poverty, compare it with Taiwan, has become a super economic power, its population has well paying jobs, they have savings from its inverted capital creation.

To be progressive, ones have to compare with the best and the very best, learn and unlearn their mistakes and make inclusive projects and innovations better and not subject ourselves to the scripts of UMNO's lies and its media and the indon elite cybertroopers in our midst, don't believe, in dirty politics, issues are spurned, in clean poitics, it is different !

Anonymous,  25 July 2013 at 20:10  

hi dato, first of all congrats on being our MP in parliment. Spot on Dato! Guys n gals, please do some research before believing anything nowdays..Basically both are UMNO croniesla..please dont be a closet racist as Dato said..buy anything for tht matter for its value and not race

Unknown 26 July 2013 at 00:42  

dato sak,

sorry...
i buy gardenia and massimo only once in a while...means every few months once... for a change... i dont spend mare than RM15 for these two brandd nowadays... RM2.40 / RM2.50 for 400 gram...

I mostly buy bread in Giant...I buy cheaper in-house Giant bread (RM2.65) for 600 gram (50 percent more) or Mighty White (RM2.20)400 gram ...

I prefer give the money to whiteman company like Giant or small local bread company or IKS/ SME bread makers in shopping complexes....

I do not want BILLIONAIRES keep on getting richer and shut out smaller businesses....

Robert Kuok or Syed Mokhtar are not as innocent as they look... both are cronies of mahathir.... so boycott both of them...

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 00:55  

Dato

I am doing better than most people. I quit eating bread and switched to roti canai. Maybe that can be said to be supporting one side of the 'bread war' but at least, I don't get embroiled in the Gardenia-Massimo joke.

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 03:11  

Dato' the bread you are talking about tastes like cardboard. Come to Pitsbug PA if you want to taste real bread.

anakselangor,  26 July 2013 at 07:52  

Thank you for clarifying the gardenia/massimo bread brouhaha. A most enlightening read. These days I bake my own bread by hand so I am in control of what we ingest and at what cost. Far better returns and peace of mind!

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 11:24  


While the powerful cronies screwed the country and the people dry.....ordinary people are made to fight each other by politicians.

Small businesses are destroyed to achieve monopoly and huge profit at all cost.

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 11:40  

I agree with Unknown. We take care of the small timers wherever and whenever possible. Our grandparents never had Gardenia or Massimo and they lived to a ripe old age surrounded by friends from every ethnic groups.

At all times beware of the hate-mongers and super-rich. We can and must move forward.

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 12:00  

hahaha we eat massimo bread for two weeks, toasted, occasionally with ramly patties and loads of salad, or vegemite or marmite; on the third week, we settle for gardenia ( more expensive ? ) to ensure Malaysians stayed in employment.

Could it be Gardenia's own perkasa type of plotters created the norm highly irresponisble acts to hijack the set up of Massimo ?

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 12:15  

Why Massimo is able to maintain its pricing? Is it because the subsidies received by FMM are passed on to them and ultimately to the rakyat? Would the owners of Gardenia do the same if they have their own flour mill?

Anonymous,  26 July 2013 at 12:57  

You talked a bit about the current Malay dilemma.

Dr.Azly : The dilemma of thinking, meaning that they have to expand themselves out of the Malay - ness. We should look at the Malays as being able to understand other races rather than being about having to fight other races and exert their Malay - ness to the point of enhancing racism, and producing groups that are ultra-Malays at the same time. These groups do not project the true Malay identity. The peaceful Malay ethos is very different from what we see on the media.

Woohooo, an emergence of new Malays yg bermaruah tinggi serta disayangi semua rakyat Malaysia who definitely want to enhance things which have eternal values for own and our fellow Malaysians regardless of religion and race, thru daily meaningful deeds, actions and words,and Allah is pleased ! Amin.

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