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.