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The online cheese dish business space has become competitive due to the low barrier to access to the supply of ingredients and the delivery of products.
Recently, we wrote about a KL started by an a serial entrepreneur to help family friends earn an income. On the other hand, for this Kota Kinabalu business, Dolfin Platerak, the secret point for its creators to enter this market came after the closure of its cafe in the first MCO 2 months ago.
“For the second MCO in September 2020, we had very little income and our bank accounts were left with less than 3 figures,” Dolly said, adding that she had just given birth to her second child.
To feed the growing family, the couple sold kitchen equipment in the cafeteria. They managed to raise about 2,500 RM, which was earmarked for the launch of Dolfin Platters, and along with an additional 1,000 RM, for selling their home cooking counterparts.
Selling food to put on the table
The cafe that Dolly and Hanson operated together, before the pandemic, was a children’s cafe, complete with a playground inside.
Dolly was 2 months pregnant when MCO first hit her, and they offered their cafeteria a chance to fight, carry, deliver, and pack food kits, even if it was in vain.
Unable to sustain the operation, they decided to close the cafe. But with a family of five to feed him (including Dolly’s mother and grandmother), Hanson began preparing food at home to provide food in hopes of earning some income.
However, the business never went up, so they decided to take a different approach by selling a different product.
From a coffee shop to a business cheese
Dolfin Platters was nicknamed “Fintu” (Hakka dialect) by her basketball team at school and named after Dolly and Hanson. By combining their names, they created “Dolfin”, using a dolphin illustration in the logo.
Encountering photos of the cheese plate on Instagram was the moment of the light bulb for Dolly. He showed it to Hanson, and they tried to make cheese dishes for dinner with family and friends.
The cheese dishes were relatively new at the time so Sabah, according to Dolly, was a good time for them to enter the market.
Although the couple enjoyed consuming the cheese, they didn’t know much about its combination, texture, and types.
“We sold our first box to a friend’s sister for RM88, but the feedback wasn’t good because we didn’t get the packaging and decor well,” Dolly recalled. That was their impetus to start looking for better looking containers and to learn more about cheese.
“We also learned how to make the best combination of soft, semi-hard and hard cheeses so that our customers can try different cheeses on a plate,” he noted.
Once they started selling to family and friends, they slowly found more customers asking for party products. Customers also demanded more variety, so the brand expanded to also offer cakes made by former coffee bakery suppliers.
Start growing in the lock
As the MCO expanded for the 3rd and 4th time — at least in Sabah — Dolfin Platters began to see greater demands from customers who were less accessible at home.
Already expanding to offer baking, Dolfin Platters soon launched a bunch of tea, Dolly reported, an item that is currently on sale.
However, the best-selling cheese dishes remain RM68 (pax portion) and RM298 (wine included). Dolfin Platters also offers dishes with caviar and truffle cheeses worth over 500 RM.
These prices are in line with the planned market range for cheese dishes made and sold by KL companies. But when it comes to Sabahan’s offering, it seems that there are limited options for cheese dishes on the net. nomsgrazer it was one of the only other names I could find for the price (after taking it), and theirs cost between RM65 – RM550, which is also within the range of the market.
Therefore, it would be a wide market share for Dolfin Platters to make a name for itself in the Sabahan cheese plate market. But Dolly doesn’t want to limit Dolfin Platters to that; is looking at the gift industry in general.
There is a bigger market to deal with
“Because we are competing not only with dish companies, but also with baking, we generally have a lot of competition in the gift industry within Sabah, ”Dolly explained, adding that most Sabah bakers also offer delivery services, especially during the MCO.
He emphasized that as shopping malls and shops are able to welcome pedestrian traffic again, gift businesses such as perfumes, cosmetics, chocolates, etc. are also being considered as competition.
“In the meantime, for tea games, we have to compete with restaurants and cafes that offer the same,” Dolly pointed out.
To sustain and stand out for Dolfin Platters, the team will focus its efforts on the quality of its products and services. We hope this will encourage customers to return.
In addition, Dolfin Platters devotes 70% of its marketing efforts to satisfying existing customers, and the remaining 30% is used to acquire new customers.
He probably favored Dolfin Platters, as Dolly said the brand currently has a 45% return rate on customer returns.
Catering for VVIPs
Since its launch in October 2020, the creators ’proudest achievement has been when they sold 500 Christmas dishes in December 2020. At the time, their dishes were also supplied by Lintas Supermarket, a reputable grocery store in KK, for immediate sale.
A year ago, they sold about 2,000 cheese dishes. Dolfin Platters Jesselton Group was also hired by Sabahan developer companies to provide the fodder table for their office event, and the VTS Group to respond to their VVIPs.
“Then we had the opportunity to grow in the gift and premium food business,” Dolly said.
In the future, the founders hope to open a physical store to make their online business a dream come true. The store would allow customers to browse various gifts and taste the cheeses available before making a purchase.
We already have a brand partner in Tawau, Sabah, but we would definitely like to expand to more cities in Sabah and Sarawak as well, as there are a lot of people from other cities and states asking about our products. We had to give them up because we couldn’t deliver them.
Dolly, founder of Dolfin Platters
- You can learn more about Dolfin Platters here.
- You can read more of the Malaysian F&B brands we’ve worked on here.
Featured Image Credit: Dolfin Platters team
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