Gila Goodness, Malaysian savoury and wholesome granola model

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Usually thought of Malaysia’s nationwide dish, nasi lemak is one thing you’ll be able to’t miss if you happen to reside in or go to this nation.

However as aromatic and scrumptious as it’s, the indulgent dish may also be fairly unhealthy, what with all of the fat and sodium content material concerned. In fact, it’s effective when taken carefully, however for the health-conscious individuals on the market, even one bungkus could also be an excessive amount of.

Taking it upon herself to create an answer, Theresa Lam based a model by the title of Gila Goodness that includes a distinctive product: nasi lemak granola.

Satisfying a private craving

Theresa is initially from Hong Kong, however you may not be capable of inform, particularly when she’s utilizing Malaysian-influenced inflections.

Having arrived on Malaysian shores in 1995, Theresa has a Grasp’s diploma in communications from Limkokwing College and has been working within the PR trade for some years. Working in PR, she’s no stranger to having to drag late nights within the workplace.

Being based mostly within the metropolis, the roads are sometimes congested throughout rush hour as nicely. Meaning even when she have been to clock out earlier, it’d take some time earlier than she will get residence in supper time.

And with late dinners comes its personal vary of points. For one, chances are you’ll burn fewer energy than you’ve consumed as your metabolic price slows down within the night. It’s stated that consuming inside a couple of hours of bedtime might also worsen heartburn and acid reflux disorder signs.

For some time, Theresa did attempt to cook dinner within the workplace, however when that didn’t work out, she moved on to having yoghurt, including granola for some protein consumption.

However most store-bought granola is nice, Theresa identified. Widespread flavours embody berries, chocolate, honey, and should include sugary dried fruits. Theresa felt prefer it was extra of a dessert than a correct dinner.

“Typically, consuming is not only for the abdomen, it’s an entire emotional factor as nicely. As a result of I felt like I simply had a dessert or one thing candy, psychologically, I don’t really feel happy.”

Thus, Theresa started attempting to find some savoury granola choices. She noticed some choices from overseas, however she couldn’t discover any native manufacturers doing it.

So, she took issues into her personal palms, and commenced her journey of growing a homegrown savoury granola enterprise.

A pal in want

“Final 12 months round this time, my pal who was a spokesperson of a well known cookware model was retrenched,” Theresa shared.

That pal is Vivien Chin, who has expertise growing recipes that she demonstrates to advertise the cookware model.

In her late 50s on the time, Vivien didn’t need to get a brand new full-time job. Relatively, to maintain her monetary wants lined, she was pondering of being a contract chef.

Being buddies for over 10 years, Theresa wished to assist her pal in a time of want, so she prompt the concept of beginning a small facet enterprise collectively.

Pitching her concept of a savoury granola enterprise, Theresa introduced up the flavour she had in thoughts—nasi lemak.

Vivien’s instant response was “mm hou chi sin”, which implies “don’t be loopy” in Cantonese. (Maybe that has one thing to do with the “gila” of their title.)

Theresa wasn’t being loopy although. Being on a low carb food plan, she had been craving nasi lemak, which appears not possible to get pleasure from with out the nasi (rice).

Regardless of her preliminary response, Vivien begun work with out telling Theresa. Just a few weeks later, she shocked Theresa along with her creation.

“It was simply me asking her to do it for me, actually,” Theresa admitted. However after seeing the optimistic response from their buddies, they realised that they had some nice potential there.

Theresa and her husband together with some buddies at a roadshow / Picture Credit score: Gila Goodness

So in July 2023, they kickstarted Gila Goodness, sharing their creations with the remainder of Malaysia.

Not only for the well being nuts

Whereas health-conscious individuals would naturally be Gila Goodness’ first viewers phase, Theresa stated that the model is making an attempt to succeed in every kind of shoppers, not simply the healthy-eating ones.

“With Malaysia being probably the most overweight nation in Asia, we do need to see individuals round us turn into extra wholesome, and that consuming granola is an possibility as a substitute of munching on empty energy,” she defined.

Understanding that snacking tradition is sort of distinguished in Malaysia, Gila Goodness has additionally developed extra snack handy sheet bites the place no spoons are essential.

Apart from the primary nasi lemak flavour, they’ve additionally launched a tom yum granola. Though the model is specializing in savoury choices, they will’t ignore the sweet-tooths both, and have developed a onde-onde flavours too. For Chinese language New 12 months, they’ve even launched a pineapple tart flavour.

It takes a village

With Theresa being so busy in her day job, I puzzled the place she even obtained the motivation and braveness to begin her personal enterprise.

To that, she confessed that braveness was one thing she lacked in as nicely. However what satisfied her to pursue Gila Goodness was her need to assist a pal.

Friendship appears to be a standard theme in Gila Goodness, too. When making an attempt to pursue Gila Goodness severely, Theresa had realised that there have been some further prices and efforts required to deal with the social media, web site, advertising, sourcing, and extra.

To perform all this, Theresa ended up roping in her different buddies. Her husband is the Chief Expertise Officer who handles something digital. Her buddies with advertising backgrounds assist with PR and social media administration. There’s additionally a contractor pal who works on procurement.

“In Gila Goodness, altogether, there’s about six of us,” she revealed. “It needs to be a bunch effort, until we give up our jobs. It’s nonetheless onerous to manage, I’ll say, however all of us simply give our greatest.”

As they proceed growing the enterprise, Theresa hopes to sooner or later put their merchandise on grocery store cabinets. However in fact, with restricted time and capital, the main target is to maintain demand and manufacturing steady in the meanwhile.

Whereas the title “Gila Goodness” is perhaps a reference to how “insanely” scrumptious but wholesome their granola is, or the “madness” of her nasi lemak concept, possibly the true which means is the “insane” ambition of the model’s intentions. However as they are saying, the place there’s a will, there’s a means.