Malay-Muslim firm finds global success after shedding Al-Arqam links

 

Lokman Hakim Pfordten and staff of GISB Holdings, which has shed its past as the business wing of a now-banned religious movement and found global success.

PETALING JAYA: A Malay-Muslim company has found global success in the shopping and restaurant business after shedding its association with the now-banned religious movement Al-Arqam.

Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISB) has businesses in 17 countries, in the Middle East and Europe and in China. It owns 38 shopping marts, called GISB Mart, 63 bakeries and 120 restaurants called Ikhwan Delights.

The company’s chief executive, Lokman Hakim Pfordten, said Global Ikhwan had discarded its former image as the business wing of Al-Arqam and is currently positioned as a multinational company.

GISB has 16 subsidiaries in human capital development, education, industries, media, farming, livestock rearing, manufacturing, as well as youth and family development.

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He also said the company remained resilient throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and had hired new workers and expanded its business, contrary to what other businesses did during the period.

He said GISB now had 5,350 workers, including the 170 hired during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

“We were not burdened by the form of lockdowns. This is because we don’t have to service any bank loans,” he said.

He hoped the company’s success would make Malaysians, especially the Malays, not think about what the government should do for them “and instead think about what we can give as a form of gratitude to the government.”

Lokman said GISB had grown organically, with the profits from the first store being used to build its second store. This process will continue, with zero loans or foreign funds.

When asked about the company’s profitability, Lokman said: “Of course, we are making profits or how else do we expand our business overseas?” However, he said the company was “not obsessed with profits” and did not find a need to declare its profits.

Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd was the business wing of Al-Arqam, with the movement’s founder Ashaari Muhammad, as its chairman.

The movement was declared haram by the National Fatwa Council in 1994, and Ashaari was detained under the Internal Security Act. He was freed 10 years later. He died on May 13, 2010.

The company was renamed GISB Holdings before his death in 2010.

Lokman said GISB only adhered to the Sunni teachings of Islam.

He said the Al-Arqam movement was now history. “We have nothing to do with what has become history,” said Lokman. - FMT