Helping Sabah cooperatives go into retail
Published on: Wednesday, April 03, 2024
Kota Kinabalu: The Co-operative Societies Commission of Malaysia (SKM) provides special allocations for cooperatives in Sabah and Sarawak to venture into the retail business.
This is to enable retail goods to be offered through cooperatives at reasonable prices to consumers in both states.
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SKM Deputy Chief Executive Officer Amran Abdul Kadir, who disclosed this, said it is also part of the efforts to provide opportunities to cooperatives in Sabah and Sarawak to strengthen their operations through retail business.
According to him, the wholesale and retail sector is one of the businesses that can boost the business of a cooperative.
“We know that the wholesale and retail sector is capable of providing quick income to cooperatives,” he said when met after delivering a talk on strengthening cooperatives.
It was held in conjunction with the breaking of the fast session organised by the Sabah Government Employees Co-operative Society Berhad (Kopeks) at the Sabah International Convention Center (SICC), here, recently.
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Besides retail business, Amran also urged cooperatives in Sabah to take advantage of other opportunities such as plantation, Ar-Rahnu, tourism and even petrol station businesses.
“In Sabah, cooperatives should also explore the opportunity in the plantation sector because there are lands that can be developed or oil palm plantations of private individuals or companies intended to be sold.
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“Cooperatives in Sabah should take this opportunity. When we look at several cooperatives in Sabah that are involved in plantations such as Koperasi Sahabat Kita, Koperasi Kakitangan Sawit Kinabalu Sabah Berhad (Kosawit) and several other cooperatives in Lahad Datu and Tawau, I see great potential.
“Among the best cooperatives in Sabah are cooperatives involved in plantations, especially sustainable oil palm cooperatives.
“In Sabah, there are two sustainable oil palm cooperatives, namely in Keningau and Beaufort, which are listed in Malaysia’s 100 best cooperatives,” he said, adding that cooperatives should consider venturing into the Ar-Rahnu business.
“I found that many cooperatives in the peninsula have spread their wings and opened Ar-Rahnu branches in Sabah which grew rapidly and made profits.
“Therefore, the cooperatives in Sabah should take this opportunity to strengthen their businesses.”
In the tourism sector, he said a tourism cooperative in Kinabatangan is one of the greatest tourism cooperatives in Malaysia which can serve as a guide for other cooperatives.
Amran also revealed the current trend of cooperatives in the peninsula venturing into the petrol station business in the peninsula.
“Petrol station is another business that can boost a cooperative. Most of the top 10 cooperatives in the peninsula have credit, Ar-Rahnu and petrol station businesses, which rapidly boost the cooperatives.
“In Sabah, there is only one cooperative that operates petrol station business, which is Kosawit. In the peninsula, it is now a trend for cooperatives to run petrol station businesses.
“There are 176 petrol stations in the peninsula that are owned by cooperatives such as Smart Stream.
“Cooperatives in Sabah can take the opportunity to open petrol stations and rest and recreation (R&R) along the Pan Borneo Highway. This means that the R&R site is either owned by the cooperative or managed by the cooperative,” he said.
Amran, however, advised every cooperative that wants to explore new business areas to do a bit of research first so that every business they venture into would continue to grow.
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