We are now in a watershed moment of history, where the ‘new normal’ may be a permanent feature of life from now on. Many businesses have been taken by complete surprise with the way things unfolded.
But SMEs are a resilient lot, who persevere through challenges great and small. Across Asia, many businesses have taken measures to defend their business and hunker down for what will be a rough year ahead. Institutional help from governments and banks like Affinbank have also enabled businesses to weather the storm.
PERSEVERING IN A NICHE One of the SMEs that’s currently riding out the crisis is PRC Bike & Toys. Based in northern Malaysia, PRC started its business in bikes and toys. At present, PRC has a huge variety of products that is offered to its customers of all ages. It includes baby tricycles, children bicycles, electrical bikes, e-cars, e-scooters & e-bikes. Besides, the bicycle range, PRC also has a line of children and baby toys.
Founded by Ch’ng Wee Ping in 2015, PRC has established good reputation and trust and is well known among local suppliers of the same industry. Currently, it has seven outlets at hypermarkets across Malaysia.
Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has affected it. Wayne Tan Teik Zing, the CFO of PRC, said, “On 16 March 2020, we received the news announced by our Prime Minister that there will be a lockdown on whole country with effect from 18 March 2020. We were terrified. During the lockdown, we are not allowed to open our stores for business and we do not know when the pandemic would be over. The lockdown started and if this continued without any timeline, our business will be severely affected. The things that came to our mind were our employees’ salaries, rentals and our trade creditors debts. A day before the lockdown started, we called for an emergency meeting and discussed how to save the company.”
Denne historien er fra August 2020-utgaven av SME Magazine Singapore.
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Denne historien er fra August 2020-utgaven av SME Magazine Singapore.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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