Saturday, June 25, 2011

BRUNEI - HALAL - Brunei Halal to hire locals for UK unit

BRUNEI Halal is opening its doors for interested candidates to be part of the brand's global expansion programme.

A job vacancy advertisement was recently released in the local media by Brunei Wafirah Holdings Sdn Bhd owner of the Brunei Halal brand, to find local talents to fill positions overseas. (source)

Brunei Wafirah Holdings Sdn Bhd, as the holding company, is set to open up a subsidiary in the UK, which will be in operation by November this year.

According to Noel Shield, Chief Executive Officer of Brunei Wafirah Holdings Sdn Bhd, "The UK and European markets were identified as potential growth regions for the Brunei Halal brand and the establishment of an office and distribution facility in the UK will provide a solid platform for growth across these markets."

Sheild said that he hopes a percentage of the employees in the UK subsidiary will be made up of locals.

"The positions that are being opened up will be spread across the board from IT to accounting to marketing and so on, and we'll see what happens," he said.

"This provides a good opportunity for these young Bruneians to obtain overseas exposure and to bring this wealth of commercial experience and knowledge gained back to Brunei," Shield added.

The Brunei Halal brand will also be expanding its product range into ready-meals, baby food, dairy products as well as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

He said, "As the Brunei Halal brand gains global recognition, we are receiving many potential opportunities for expansion and it's important that we are in a position to capitalise on them and develop the company and the brand to its full potential".

"To do this, we need to have a solid foundation of young, energetic and educated people to manage this exciting phase of our development and we are looking for talented Bruneians in various fields to come join us and be part of this expansion," he said.

The company was recently in Melbourne, Australia to meet with an estimated 40 Australian companies, which could be potential manufacturers for their future range of products.

Shield said that by the end of July there is expected to be about 55 different products and the national brand will be releasing 30 products per cycle.

"There will be new products basically coming into the market every four months, in different categories," he said.

Asked about what sort of products will the brand be looking at to expand their range, Shield said that Brunei Halal was looking for Australian manufacturers of dairy products, baby food and "long-term meat products".

Recently, it was reported that the national brand is enjoying good reception from Singaporean shoppers, especially the Muslim population, who acknowledge the halal certification from Brunei, said a representative from NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd.

Winston Ng, assistant manager of Corporate Communications in an email to The Brunei Times said that the more popular items include the brand's seashell chocolates, biscuits, sparkling juice and instant noodles.

NTUC FairPrice, which is run by Singapore's National Trade Union Congress, started offering the Brunei halal products in the middle of October 2010, the first supermarket chain to do so outside the Sultanate.

Brunei Halal will be opening its doors to potential candidates on June 24 and 25.

Source :  http://www.bt.com.bn/business-national/2011/06/23/brunei-halal-hire-locals-uk-unit - June 23, 2011

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