The Journey to the Mini Mart Empire

The Malaysia's retail industry has begun to modernize since 1990s due to the influx of multinational retailers like Makro, Carrefour, Tesco and Giant into the country. For the past decades, grocery retailers have gradually transformed from traditional to modern concept such as in the form of supermarket, hypermarket and convenience store or mini-mart. While traditional concept like wet market is still actively operating, modern grocery concept has greater demand from the shoppers as it provide a better shopping experience for them. For instance, better environment, affordable price as well as good quality of products and services. In the 80s, Mr. Lee Thiam Wah, a visionary and extraordinary entrepreneur started his dream with little savings and opened up a traditional sundry shop successfully. However, he decided to abandon the traditional business concept and opt for a modern business concept by opening up his first mini mart. After 30 years of hard works and persistence, the company, which is known as 99 Speed Mart Sdn Bhd has more than 1000 outlets all over Malaysia. This case study will expound on how Mr. Lee overcame his weaknesses and where Mr. Lee got his courage to face all the severe challenges in order to make his dream a reality.