Rafizi To Play Barista At Launch Of New Social Enterprise Businesses

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Former economy minister Rafizi Ramli has announced that he will be serving coffee and manning the crew at the launch of his two new businesses next month.
The convenience store and eatery will operate on a social enterprise concept, where profits will be shared between capital contributors, employees, and the public.
“The more profit, the higher the employees' salaries, and the profit is contributed back so that prices can be kept low,” he explained on X.
“My intention is to open up more job opportunities for young people and to help the public by offering food and goods at cheaper prices,” the Pandan MP added.
The first venture, Fleximart, will be a convenience store focused on ready-to-eat meals under RM5, and groceries at low prices.
His second, Kesum, will be an eatery aimed at selling breakfast, lunch, and dinner at prices also below RM5.
According to Rafizi, the name is based on the kesum leaf, while also being an acronym for “Kenyang, sedap dan murah” (filling, delicious, and cheap).
Fleximart will be launched this Saturday at Seksyen 7, Shah Alam, while Kesum is set to open the following week on Nov 8, at Pandan Indah, Ampang.
“InsyaAllah, I will make coffee, prepare food, and be part of the crew for Fleximart and Kesum on those dates,” he said.
Co-op business model
Fleximart and Kesum are under Rafizi’s Ayuh Malaysia social enterprise platform, which launched in June.
In general economic terms, such enterprises are also widely known as co-operative business models, which can be defined as businesses that are democratically owned and controlled by their shareholders, staff, and consumers.
This model often prioritises equitable distribution of surplus profits to its members, and is often seen as a more egalitarian, less hierarchical model for business and entrepreneurship.
According to the International Cooperative Alliance, there are an estimated 3 million businesses registered worldwide operating through a similar model, which have provided work opportunities for more than 280 million individuals across the globe.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the Co-operative Group Limited runs a chain of nationwide grocery stores which employs more than 56,000 people, bringing in an annual revenue of more than £11 billion (RM62 billion), which is then distributed amongst its co-operative members.
According to a study from last year, co-operations in Malaysia often face obstacles such as rapidly shifting consumer tastes, lack of funding, and fierce competition from larger retailers.
The long-term success of such businesses often depends on their ability to adapt to these problems.
The Malaysian Co-operatives Commission states that there are at least 14,629 registered co-operatives in the country as of 2022.
Job opportunities, affordability
Rafizi shared that he was not sure whether his businesses would succeed, but nevertheless stressed that his priority was to create more jobs and more accessible goods and food.
“If these two social experiments are successful, we have a better chance of expanding them to more branches.
“The more branches that are opened, the more lower-priced offers there will be and the more young people will be trained to own and operate their own businesses,” he added.
In July, Rafizi described Ayuh Malaysia as part of a larger mission to develop a “third sector” in Malaysia, distinct from profit-driven businesses and donation-dependent NGOs.
Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli during the launch of Ayuh Malaysia in JulyHe also aimed for it to be a central platform which could support the creation of social enterprises in various fields, provide expertise, secure funding, and connect these enterprises to their target beneficiaries.
He had said that it was an expansion of the People’s Income Initiative Programme (IPR) he launched in 2023 when he was the economy minister.
The IPR aimed to lift B40 households above the poverty line by providing them with opportunities to earn at least RM2,000 a month, whether through food vending machines, farming contracts, or micro-entrepreneurship.
- Mkini

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