Ex-pilot flying high again with bread and butter business

 

Former airline pilot Hakim Azimi and wife Ummi Shairah Suhaimi promoting their cookies at the Publika shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur.

PETALING JAYA: When pilot Hakim Azimi lost his job with a Middle Eastern airline two years ago, he returned home with his wife and two young children, not knowing if he would ever fly again.

Malaysia had just come under lockdown then and there was a lot of uncertainty, especially for those in aviation as countries around the world shut their borders.

Hakim and his wife Ummi Shairah Suhaimi then started Bread & Butter, a business that sells homemade snacks such as double chocolate chip cookies and espresso walnut cookies.

Less than two years on, the business has expanded into a large operation comprising five kitchen staff and a team of 60 stockists, including those from the B40 community.

Hakim Azimi and daughter Naurah Jasmin in Riyadh before the pandemic struck.

“Our business has expanded so quickly. We couldn’t have done it without our committed stockists. Thanks to them and our staff, we have been able to sell up to 5,000 jars of cookies a month,” Hakim told FMT.

“While our initial intention was to generate income for our family, our business has grown into something bigger than that. It’s also become a platform for other people to make money in these tough times,” he said.

Ummi said she was grateful to be able to make an impact in other people’s lives, especially when times are hard.

From cameras to homemade ricotta

For foodie Ivan Chong, the pandemic left him without a job after his company, which handled merchandising rights of the Ultraman cartoon character, had to shut down.

Ivan Chong, a social media and photography buff, took a risk in starting his cafe, Cotta.

Refusing to give up and driven by his love for food, he then decided to open Cotta, a small cafe in Damansara Heights that features his homemade ricotta cheese on its menu.

A social media and photography buff with no training in the culinary arts, Chong admitted that it was a bold move.

“It definitely was risky. I actually learnt to make ricotta from YouTube as a way to impress the women I dated,” he said cheekily.

The hardworking 34-year-old applied the business skills he had learnt from his previous job and hustled every day to keep the cafe running.

Ivan Chong makes ricotta cheese from scratch to ensure freshness.

He began collaborating with other local brands and provided them space at his cafe to display their products. “I wanted a business model where different brands could leverage each other’s social media following for a bigger pool of customers,” Chong told FMT.

Now, he supplies his ricotta cheese to premium grocer Qra in Damansara Heights and Bukit Tunku, as well as to several restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. - FMT