NEW OUTLET: The photo shows the outlet located at Matang, featuring varieties of local food.
KUCHING: Kayu Manis, a new cafe in Kuching is offering varieties of local food for food lovers in the Matang area in addition to its catering services.
Business owner and manager, Sara Nadia in an interview with The Borneo Post revealed that she picked the name ‘Kayu Manis’ as it has a traditional feel to it, enabling everyone to enjoy the ‘kampung’ style of food available.
The young entrepreneur ventured in the food and beverages industry since July last year. This move was fully supported by Sara’s mother who invested the capital for the shop but is solely managed by Sara herself.
Originally, Sara had a few ideas for starting up a business in the local market but she had chosen to do catering first to ‘test the waters’ for demand. She only came up with the physical Kayu Manis outlet in October last year and in order to save cost, she used the shop lot which belonged to her family to reduce monthly expenses.
“We wanted to choose some places near BDC but the rental was much higher and thus, we decided to use the shoplot belonging to my family. Overall this was a financial decision,” Sara revealed.
She added, “This is more towards a family-based business, whereby all the workers are my relatives and once in while, we will hire some part-time workers to help out when needed.”
Many customers would visit the outlet for breakfast, brunch and lunch since there are several offices located nearby. Prices of Kayu Manis’ food range from RM4.50 to RM8 per dish, depending on the size.
The cafe also offers mixed rice whereby customers can choose and pick any accompaniments.
The young businessowner further revealed that although the cafe was not making profit yet, she was expecting to break even hopefully by July this year.
Speaking on her catering gig, Sara said this would still be her main focus, having had great success with several companies, government agencies and also for some open houses during festive seasons.
Kayu Manis also offers food deliveries, supplies to food retailers, catering for parties, courses, seminars and festive functions.
“The very first catering services I had provided was for 300 people,” she enthused. “I hope to get more orders and reservations for different theme parties as catering is served in a larger scale. The minimum order for catering is 15 people per order.”
Looking at future plans, Sara opined that a relocation of its outlet from Matang would be possible, in addition to introducing more variety of food.
“It is possible to relocate the outlet to a better location and there will be more food being introduced ranging from fusion to Western food,” she added. “I have a lot of ideas to improve on the cafe itself and catering whereby I’m taking a step at a time and improving it slowly.”
The outlet located at Lot 6965, Ground Floor, Sublot 20, Section 65, 4 ½ mile Jalan Matang Jaya, 93050, Kuching. The outlet started operating from 8.30am to 5pm daily except Sundays. For more information, call 016-8621487 or email to [email protected].