Querubin J. Miñas

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – Every business started with a need to fill a demand.  In launching a new business, the benefits of having extensive market research and experience can be a major contributor to business success.



Yet market demands and preferences are more than just needs and wants. It is a defined ‘want/need’ for a specific product, backed by purchasing ability.



In one way or another, Ibrahim Al Shemimry must have taken into account this precept when he decided to launch Munch Bakery together with Princess Hala Mishari Al Saud.  As its website states, Munch products which include cupcake, tart, cake and candies “started with an idea to share happiness and smiles through mouthwatering delights that can give people a reason to congregate with family and friends or simply take out time for oneself and savor the moment…(and) every product delivers a unique sense of fulfillment that is incomparable” appropriately describe its vision of ‘satisfying the world’s craving’ and state its mission of “develop(ing) the most desirable products through sheer imagination, innovation and creativity.”



Al Shemimry underlined the importance of branding in the success of a business, saying that he learned its value during his stint at Coke where he discovered that  “the most valuable thing in the world is branding…you’ve got to have your own formula or you’re nothing.” It is a strategic approach used to create a separate identity for the product offered to attract customers. For him the “most valuable thing in the world is a brand.”



Seeking to shift away from the mainly French-styled bakeries which dominate Jeddah’s sweets scene, his ingenuity tempered with vast experience of ups and downs showed him there is (still) so much opportunity in the Saudi market for more American-type bakeries. And for Ibrahim “suffering will bring creativity out of you. If you suffer and you go through problems in life you will always find a way out, because you are pushed back against the wall. That’s one way to do it. Either you give up or you figure something out. The other way is to realize the opportunity of this land. There is so much opportunity.”



“When we started reviewing the market in 2006, and we realized that everything was French sweets, and that there was no real American bakery here, we said that Saudis are almost Americans in the way they eat, talk and consume, so we thought the American taste profile can fit better than the French profile. This is the target we wanted to go after, and we chose it specifically knowing the consumer is lacking it in the market. And also the ability to do professional 3-D cake designs that are not done as well as we do,” Ibrahim revealed.



Therefore, armed with fortified experience and strong vision, he, along with the princess, formed Munch Bakery. Knowing the Saudi culture by heart, he knew what is wanting in the local bakery and pastry sector.  



“When we created Munch bakery, what we wanted to prove is something different. That we can invent our own stuff. And we did this.”



Munch has 20 flavors. “We circulate flavors based on their success. During Ramadan we have other flavors as well. (Barely) eight months ago, we launched the other side of the spectrum. We launched Munch Maleh, which is salty Munch,” the CEO heartwarmingly noted.



Started with one store in late 2008, currently, Munch Bakery has 5 stores and plans to open the 6th store this month. Moreover, the company plans to add the 7th store in the next 3 months with the 8th in sight for the 4th quarter of this year (2014). Besides, more are in the pipeline as part of its expansion plan Kingdom-wide.



“We have to expand it. We have no choice. It is all about the brand equity. Within the next three years we will be in the GCC first, then Turkey, then going East after that. Of course the most important thing for us is to dominate the Saudi market first, which we hope we can completely do it in the 3-5 year range. But in the meantime we will expand out,” the calculating but dynamic Ibrahim asserted.



How is this so? Remember that for Ibrahim the most valuable product is branding, and his vision did not fail him.



“We’re in the sugar business. If you want to go after sugar, you go East, not West, because of a conscious consumer. You want to make money in sugar dollars you go East, you don’t go West. Every person on this Earth consumes 50 percent of his body weight in sugar every year. Since the discovery of sugar, one thousand years ago, sugar has become the number one consumable,” he said to illustrate that man’s craving for sugar-related food will not cease, but all the more heighten.



Is he wary of any direct competitor? “I don’t think we have an immediate direct competitor. I think we have many smaller types of competitors, which if you combine them all, they could all potentially be our competitors. I think we are 5 years ahead of everyone, in regards to infrastructure, size, production, capacity and the way I built this company,” Munch CEO comfortably said.



Munch products have a very unique taste patronized by young and old. How did he achieve it? Ibrahim can’t help but recall how it all began. “I have experience. It’s food science. I worked with Coca-Cola for four years, running their snack and beverage sector. In my experience there, I learned how to become a food scientist. Munch bakery’s unique taste comes from the food science experience that I’ve had. Our formulas are unique to us. They are patented worldwide… (that’s why) it has a very special taste. I am a formula maker,” Ibrahim explained.



Conscious of the fact that Munch products are susceptible to imitation, he dismissed outright any possibility, saying “in order for you to copy it, you will need certain materials that you need to buy from a supplier, (but) will not sell it to you because someone owns it.”



The Munch CEO, an accomplished entrepreneur and connoisseur par excellence of cakes and pastries by heart, also revealed that “what we wanted is the beginning and the end – the hors d’oeuvres and the sweet. We wanted to help people satisfy the beginning and satisfy the end.”



“The success of Munch is the direct result of 4 concrete principles that are part of basic operation of Munch, they are: outstanding quality, unique taste, something new and the Munch experience,” he intimated.