ILTIZAM for Entrepreneurship

Kapten Batik is a young Bumiputera business set-up that produces premium men’s batik shirts with modern designs that can be worn for all occasions. It started with the founders’ appreciation of batik and the desire to normalise batik-wearing tradition in everyday life.

The brand originally focused on classic slim fit men’s shirts made from batik sourced from Kelantan and Terengganu, as well as other countries such as Indonesia and India. Their range of collections has since evolved to incorporate modern and contemporary motifs featuring geometrical and floral themes.

After underwent diagnostic tools and discussion, ILTIZAM formulated an action plan to address business challenges faced by Kapten Batik – brand awareness and online marketing. A digital media consultant was engaged to plan Kapten Batik’s marketing and promotional calendar and to execute high-impact media marketing campaigns that would increase brand awareness.

As the programme progressed, ILTIZAM identified more initiatives that could help Kapten Batik such as securing a premium place in KLCC and a collaboration project with Raw Denim House, 2018 ILTIZAM EMP participant.

“Our allocation for online marketing was not significant as we were focusing more on promoting our stores. When retail stores and shopping malls had to shut their operation as part of the Government’s efforts to prevent COVID-19 spread, ILTIZAM helped us in mapping our digital marketing and it multiplied our online sales by 5 times. On top of that, we also received assistance in terms of rent and staff salary through Dana Ihsan COVID-19 ILTIZAM,” said Farhan Omar, Kapten batik Co-founders.

Raw Denim House (RDH) was registered under the name of Art Star Enterprise and one of the very few bespoke vintage jeans makers in Malaysia that focuses on bespoke handmade jeans in Malaysia. RDH customises and produces handmade jeans from imported denim fabrics from Japan, China and the United States.

As a niche business, RDH has big potential. To grow, they realised the business needed help to increase its visibility and marketability of their bespoke jeans, as well as their financial understanding.

Once the challenges were identified, ILTIZAM assisted to improve RDH’s financial statements and built an interactive e-commerce website for “made-to-measure” custom-tailored jeans as well as introduced their ready-to-wear line so RDH’s products are available for more customers. Other initiatives include the implementation of a marketing project to build brand awareness and increase Raw Denim House’s capability to market.

In addition, ILTIZAM introduced synergies between the companies under EMP which saw RDH and Kapten Batik (an EMP beneficiary for 2019) collaborated for a project in conjunction with Merdeka by introducing limited edition vintage jeans with batik motifs.

“We used to sell approximately 50 pairs of jeans per month, but now, we can reach a total sale of 100 pairs of jeans per month. We expect our jeans and other apparel sales to increase by putting our marketing strategies in motion,” said Ahmad Safuan, one of RDH founders.

In 2020, RDH had to stop operating when the Government announced Movement Control Order (MCO) to curb the COVID-19 spread. ILTIZAM through its Dana Ihsan COVID-19 ILTIZAM assisted in covering their rent, sewing machines’ instalment and most importantly to keep their well-trained staff which would help them recover once the situation improves.