BACHOK I Who would have thought, starting by selling ready -to -eat oden at the site of a student entrepreneurship stall, two Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) students can now be proud of their product, King Oden Seasoning.
The King Oden seasoning product was developed by Imer Jibril Mohd Nasir and his partner, Wan Azehan Helmi Wan Abdul Halim, who is also a student at the Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business (FKP) UMK.
The seasoning product, which is inspired by popular food in convenience stores from the Land of the Rising Sun, went viral on social media and the King Oden instant paste was fast selling and managed to reach sales of RM950,000 last year.
Even prouder, as a result of the hard work of Imer Jibril, who just graduated last year and Wan Azehan Helmi, who is a final year student at FKP, now they have both managed to own a processing plant located in Bachok, Kelantan.
The effort was quite impressive because the two students did not have cooking skills but managed to produce the popular oden paste using a recipe mixed with fresh spices and sensational original taste of tom yam and best served with fish balls, meat, crab meat, sausages and others.
Sharing about his early involvement in the world of the King Oden Seasoning product business, Imer Jibril or more affectionately known as Jibril said he and a partner started founding the King Oden brand instant oden seasoning business starting in 2019.
Initially, we started by selling ready -to -eat oden at the site of a student entrepreneurship stall rented under the supervision of the Entrepreneurship Education Development Centre (CEED), UMK Entrepreneurship Institute (UMKEI) located at UMK Pengkalan Chepa.
"The income from the sale of small-scale oden reaches around RM1,000 to RM1,500 a day, but unfortunately, every semester break, our sales revenue is severely affected due to the absence of students on campus," he said.
Since then, Jibril and Wan Azehan Helmi get the idea to commercialize instant oden flavouring products with the King Oden brand in packages to further expand their business market.
“Alhamdulillah, our strategy was successful and starting from there, about 30,000 King Oden packets were distributed nationwide every month through 500 agents appointed for the online and offline markets.
"This King Oden seasoning is sold at RM10 per pack for three types of flavours, namely original, spicy and sour laksa, which have received overwhelming response until the production stock runs out in a short period of time," he said, who became a partner since his first year studying in UMK in 2017.
According to Jibril, they have previously tried various types of businesses, starting from selling kurta for the festive season, selling drinks at the night market, fried bananas at rental kiosks, printing business, photostat, lanyard and shirt printing for students.
“But luck was not on our side at that time as it is customary in business is to gain and to lose until the idea to market King Oden seasoning commercially was successful.
"Our main focus this year is to achieve annual sales of RM 1 million and to ensure this mission is achieved, I am entrusted to manage the company's finances as well as sales agents, while my partner is given the responsibility of managing the production and marketing of products," he said.
Following their field of study, the two youngsters also shared the skills and expertise gained while studying at UMK with King Oden's agents throughout the country and even strengthened their digital marketing and social media knowledge.
The two young entrepreneurs also received help, guidance and advice from two FKP lecturers, Ts Dr Muhammad Ashlyzan Razik and Dr Shah Iskandar Fahmie Ramlee.
