Cars and coffee receive international LiveWIRE trade boost

Let’s Go Trade (LGT) funding, totalling over US $30k, has been awarded to 14 businesses from eight Shell LiveWIRE countries, including: Brazil, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. The successful participants include businesses involved in sectors ranging from solar energy to mushroom farming, and waste management to automotive services.

Indonesian coffee entrepreneur, Donny Orlando of Anugerah Tungku Mas (ATM) from Tangerang, Java, used his LGT grant to visit Taiwan, to explore new international market opportunities for his coffee trading company, which has 12 full time staff.

Taiwan is a leader in speciality coffee in Asia and has a well-established coffee culture, developed over many years. Donny’s decision to visit Taiwan was also influenced by the fact that ATM had already developed contacts within Taiwan’s coffee sector and had started to export some of its produce to Taiwanese coffee traders.

During his visit, Donny met with key industry contacts, including the Taiwan Coffee Association, and other leading coffee traders and retailers.

Following their discussions, ATM developed exciting partnerships with coffee retailers and will undertake joint promotions at leading regional coffee exhibitions in Taiwan, Indonesia and mainland China. This has enabled ATM to increase its share of the Taiwanese market, with plans to export around 18 tons of coffee per month.

The visit also enabled Donny to investigate the retail side of the business, by visiting one of Taiwan’s leading retailers, Mr Brown Coffee, and as a result he plans to open a retail outlet in either Jakarta or Medan, which is projected to double their domestic coffee sales.

Commenting on the impact of his LGT visit, Donny said, “Gaining a foothold in the Taiwanese market is an important milestone and presents a stepping stone to enter the Chinese market, which represents a huge opportunity.

“Let’s Go Trade has given us a big opportunity to sharpen our vision and create a new path for business expansion.”

Automotive innovator

Another entrepreneur to have just completed his LGT visit is Zohair Ali Khan, Founder of CARiger, Pakistan’s first online car repair service.

Employing ten staff, CARiger is an innovative solution within Pakistan’s automotive sector, that enables customers in Karachi to book a home service for their vehicle online. CARiger then sends a verified quality mechanic to carry out the maintenance or repair at the customer’s home.

In order to discover the latest innovations in the automotive sector which will ensure CARiger continues to be at the forefront Pakistan’s car repair sector, Zohair decided to use his LGT grant to visit Japan – one of the world’s leading centres of automotive innovation.

During his trip, Zohair visited two of Japan’s leading pioneers of automotive one stop superstores, YellowHat and Autobacs. He also visited Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Nagoya, and leading car auction houses.

The visit enabled Zohair to gain an insight into how he can implement processes to enhance quality within his business and to ensure consistently high standards for his services and repairs.

As a result of the visit, Zohair expects to strengthen his business through a combination of imported Japanese products and developing own label ranges, which is projected to achieve profit margins of up to 200%. He also undertook the necessary training which will enable him to begin importing used cars from Japan, which will provide an important additional revenue stream for the business.

Commenting on the impact of his LGT visit, Zohair said, “Let’s Go Trade has helped me to broaden the vision for my business.

“There are a lot of new business revenue streams which I will introduce that will enable CARiger to stand alone in the domestic market.”