Capital A Rehires Airasia Workers For Its Grocery Platform

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Airasia grocer takes food products directly from the farm and sends them to customers. The company’s revenue has grown 18 times year-on-year. (AirAsia pic)KUALA LUMPUR: Capital A Bhd is rehiring the employees it had to retrench in 2020 through its subsidiary airasia grocer, an online grocery shopping platform that matches local farmers or grocery merchants with consumers.
Airasia grocer CEO Joanna Ibrahim said the platform was the grocery delivery arm of the Airasia super app (previously known as airasia farm).
Airasia farm was established during the Recovery Movement Control Order in June 2020, backed by Airasia Digital and supported by the agriculture and food industries ministry.
The aim was to address the issue of fresh produce going to waste because of logistics disruptions, she said.
“Two-thirds of airasia grocer staff are from the airline in various positions.
“We prioritise hiring our former employees to join our team as we believe that anything is possible with AirAsia’s multi-talented crew members who have a unique culture and are brave to take on new challenges,” she told Bernama in an interview.
According to Joanna, the company’s revenue grew 18 times year-on-year despite the initial obstacle of gaining the trust of farmers.
The business-to-business (B2B) segment rapidly grew within six months, she said, adding that the company profited on the momentum by expanding its operations to include business-to-consumer (B2C) sales.
“Within a year, airasia grocer was shipping live seafood to China,” she said, adding that the company’s initial public offering was expected in its five-year business plan.
To that effect, at an event to unveil the group’s new corporate identity on Jan 28, Capital A CEO Tony Fernandes said airasia grocer was exploring blockchain technology in its operations.
The company was seeking to take food products directly from the farm for the farmers to gain higher profit margins and for consumers to have fresher food, he said.
Former AirAsia pilot David John, 29, who has five years of aviation experience, said it was challenging to get a job after being retrenched but the airline did not stop providing alternative employment opportunities within the group.
“Now I am hired as a business development manager in airasia grocer, which is a vastly different field from what I was used to.
“Despite the challenges, I am encouraged by the new people I meet every day as they remind me of the joy I used to get when meeting passengers on my flights previously,” he said.
Former senior cabin crew member Hazree Zakaria, 40, said he was fortunate and grateful to be able to rejoin the company that he joined in 2008.
“I appreciate the initiative taken by Capital A to give us the opportunity to work in a new field,” the airasia grocer after-sales assistant manager said.
Meanwhile, airasia grocer head of merchandising and pricing, Trevor Wong, 31, who was a former flight operations senior engineer, said he now dealt with supply information from farmers and matched it to costing and demand from clients.
“I am still learning and collecting data to make improvements and contribute to the food industry as a whole,” he said. - FMT

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