02/06/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | JUNE 2, 2026

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Sedania Innovator goes big into sustainable FMCG

Ű BY HAYATUN RAZAK sunbiz@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: Walk into the office where Datuk Azrin Mohd Noor ( pic ) holds court and you will find, arranged across the room with the confidence of a product pitch, a row of baby care items including biodegradable baby wipes, plant-based sanitising sprays, oral cleansers for teething babies, nappy balms and premium diapers, alongside a small bottle originally designed for teething infants that, he notes with some satisfaction, mothers have since adopted as a make-up remover. This is not the office of a man who thinks of himself as running a technology company anymore. Sedania Innovator Bhd, the ACE Market listed group that made its name as a peer-to peer telco technology disruptor in 2004 and later moved into Islamic micro-financing and renewable energy, has quietly recast itself around Offspring and Tanamera – two Australian-linked consumer brands spanning baby care, postnatal recovery and wellness. Together, Azrin said, they represent the most compelling commercial opportunity the group has ever pursued and the clearest expression of a founding philosophy that predates the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement by roughly two decades. “It’s not that we changed the way we do things. It has always been about improving lives. Our motto has always been ‘Improving Life Sustainably.’ Today, the buzzword is ESG, but we’ve always had that as a belief system. Technology was just a tool,” Azrin, the founder and managing director of Sedania Innovator, told SunBiz in an interview recently. To understand why Azrin is so bullish on Offspring, it helps to sit through his pitch, which is part founder conviction, part fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) economics lecture. Start with the base, he said, about 470,000 babies are born in Malaysia each year. Each of those babies will need between four and ten diaper changes daily for the next three to five years. Every diaper change, in turn, creates demand for at least five to eight companion products, wipes, bum spray, nappy balm, lotion, head-to-toe wash, all of which Offspring makes. “Is there any other product where you can sell to the same customer four times a day for three to five years? For example, a kopitiam, can you sell four cups of coffee to the same customer every day? It’s not logical. But with mothers, the velocity is real.” The stickiness compounds the velocity, Azrin said. Once a mother converts to a diaper brand and her child has no adverse reaction, no rash, no redness, no disruption to what is already a sleep-deprived household, she has almost no incentive to switch. Azrin puts Offspring’s brand retention rate at about 97%. “She won’t change it because she’s afraid that if she does, her unable-to-speak child will turn red. If the child is okay, she won’t change it. And then brand loyalty kicks in.” That loyalty, critically, Azrin said, is not a Malaysian phenomenon. It is a universal one. And that universality is what has taken Offspring far beyond the geography its modest ACE Market profile might suggest. Russia is one of Offspring’s largest customer bases. Through a Russian distribution partner, Offspring has amassed some 215,000 active mother users in the country, according to Azrin. From there, the network has extended into

o Founder and managing director says company’s pivot to consumer brands has always been part of its mission – improving lives sustainably

Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The Maldives, Oman, Singapore and Indonesia are also active markets. Offspring’s international footprint reflects the brand’s growing overseas presence across multiple markets. The brand carries Australian provenance – it was conceptualised, designed and originally manufactured there, and retains its regulatory certifications from that market, including European and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance obtained within seven months. Azrin was candid that this was not incidental to its international reception. “When we went to Indonesia, we gave the product to some artists there, and they started saying, ‘Oh, this is an Australian product, but it’s only available in Singapore. I had Indonesians going to Singapore to buy it,’” he recalled. “If I said this product is from Malaysia, maybe not so fast, you know.” Azrin argued it is a commercial reality that Malaysian export-oriented brands must confront pragmatically. He estimated that obtaining the relevant overseas regulatory approvals, including those related to the US FDA, for a product originating from Malaysia could have taken years rather than months, making the Australian route less about branding opportunism and more about regulatory practicality. The group’s digital-first sales strategy has delivered strong traction, said Azrin. During last year’s 11.11 sales campaign, Offspring recorded RM1.5 million in sales on Shopee in a single day. He added that sales volumes typically double during double-date and payday promotions, prompting the company to expand into a larger warehouse to support growing demand. Online sales, however, are increasingly only part of the picture. Offspring now sells through both digital and physical retail channels in Russia, a market that continues to see strong demand growth despite broader geopolitical disruptions affecting logistics and margins. While Offspring focuses on baby care products for new mothers, Tanamera is aimed at keeping those customers within Sedania Innovator’s ecosystem as their needs shift towards post natal recovery, wellness and self-care. “The logic behind pairing the two brands is straightforward. A mother who trusts Offspring enough to use its products on her child is more likely to extend that trust to a wellness label developed by the same group,” Azrin said. Tanamera, positioned around postnatal recovery and premium wellness, is designed to capture that spending shift as mothers move from baby care products towards their own self care and recovery needs.

“When a mom believes in Offspring for her baby, she will equally trust Tanamera for herself, for her sister, for her mom, for her daughters,” Azrin said. Sedania Innovator acquired Tanamera in November 2023, and Azrin is candid about the rebuilding work that followed. Packaging was redesigned, pricing repositioned and the brand’s distribution strategy overhauled to better align with its premium wellness positioning. While the full impact has yet to be reflected in the numbers, he believes the growth trajectory is beginning to emerge. Azrin said Tanamera is now stocked at the spas of Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, The Majestic and Mandarin Oriental a placement that signals a great deal about where the brand sits in the luxury wellness hierarchy. In China, within a year of the acquisition, Tanamera signed a five-year supply contract with a Chinese confinement centre operator with 198 facilities. “Tanamera today we dare say we are probably the number one, if not the leading postnatal brand in the world. There isn’t another postnatal brand as strong globally,” Azrin said. He believes Tanamera’s long-term market potential, once the business reaches operating maturity, could be worth at least 2.5 times more than Offspring at full scale. He acknowledged, however, that the brand is still in the investment and scaling phase. Tanamera’s three manufacturing facilities, acquired as part of the deal, provide a broader operational hedge beyond the brand itself. The factories manufacture products for third-party clients including Sunway Group, Amway, Coway and Shaklee, giving Sedania Innovator an additional manufacturing revenue stream that is not solely dependent on the performance of its in-house brands. The expansion has also come with challenges. Sedania Innovator’s recent filings showed higher inventory levels, while overseas revenue, particularly in Europe, softened despite typically generating better margins than domestic sales. Azrin said the higher inventory levels were the result of deliberate stockpiling rather than weak demand. In the FMCG sector, running out of stock can be especially damaging for brands that rely heavily on consumer trust and loyalty. “A mother unable to find her preferred diaper brand may simply switch to another product and not return. Out-of-stock is unacceptable in this industry. So we have to hold stock,” Azrin said. The softer margins in overseas markets are more difficult to ignore, although Azrin attributes the weakness to broader industry style footwear. Shellys Marketing CEO Simpson Wong shared, “We have grown steadily with a clear vision to make XES Shoes a trusted and go-to household footwear brand for Malaysians. Our focus has always been on delivering comfortable footwear to our customers, supported by strong retail operations, technical know-how in footwear, efficient value chain management and continuous product innovation. “Our journey has received national

wide supply chain disruptions rather than company-specific issues. Shipping disruptions in the Red Sea, the spillover effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on Central Asian logistics and uncertainty surrounding US trade policy have all increased costs and added complexity to Sedania Innovator’s multi-continent distribution network. “It’s a level playing field, everyone who has to send stuff is paying that price. I’m hoping that things will come back to normalcy.” Azrin is not benchmarking Offspring against local baby care brands, but against global players such as Huggies, which he said is worth about US$22.8 billion (RM90.4 billion). He said many legacy brands have been slow to adapt to the preferences of millennial and Gen Z mothers, creating opportunities for newer, digitally driven and sustainability focused brands to capture market share. “They don’t understand what Gen Z or Gen Y wants from a baby brand. That’s the opportunity. That’s what we’re hoping to disrupt.” Azrin hinted, without specifics, that further brands are being considered, all targeted at the same consumer archetype, and all designed to deepen Sedania Innovator’s presence within a single household’s spending rather than chase unrelated categories. Whether a group of Sedania Innovator’s current scale can genuinely cannibalise meaningful share from a category that size is still a question. Much still needs to fall into place, including sustained margin recovery in export markets, the successful execution of Tanamera’s repositioning strategy, and the ability to avoid out-of-stock situations in a market where consumer loyalty can quickly shift within a single shopping cycle. Azrin said the core idea is simple: modern mothers are loyal, repeat customers, and once they trust a brand, that trust can extend across multiple products for the family. “Over its more than 20-year history, Sedania has consistently pursued businesses built around that long-term consumer relationship.” recognition, highlighted by our inclusion in the Malaysia Book of Records in 2022 for operating the most outlets among Malaysian shoe brands, alongside attaining Superbrands Malaysia status in 2020. The opening of our 156th outlet in Sungai Siput, Perak, reflects the positive momentum we have built over the years, and we see further opportunities to expand our reach across the country.” Ekuiti Nasional Bhd holds a controlling stake in Shellys Marketing.

Home-grown brand XES Shoes marks expansion with 156th store PETALING JAYA: Home-grown footwear and accessories brand XES Shoes, operated by Shellys Marketing Sdn Bhd, marked a major milestone with the opening of its 156th outlet in Malaysia, reflecting more than two decades of steady growth and its continued commitment to providing affordable and comfortable footwear. Founded in 2002, Shellys Marketing has grown XES Shoes from a single store in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur, into a recognised name across Malaysia, with a retail network spanning nine states. Its multi-format store strategy, centred on affordable outlet and studio formats in hypermarkets while complemented by premium and signature stores in shopping malls, enables the brand to serve a diverse consumer needs across both value-oriented and lifestyle-focused retail environments. Today, XES Shoes offers more than 1,000 products across its brand portfolio – XES Shoes, catering to a wide range of career and casual footwear needs, and Refresh, focused on sport