Holista to supply ingredients to Country Farms and Starbucks in Malaysia

Holista Colltech Limited’s subsidiary in Malaysia, Holista Biotech Sdn Bhd, has received its first commercial order from Country Farms Sdn Bhd for its innovative food ingredients to be used by Starbucks Malaysia and sold into Country Farm's modern trade channels in Malaysia.

Country Farms Sdn Bhd, which is part of the Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corporation Berhad (Berjaya), has placed an initial order worth approximately $43,000 for Holista's low glycaemic index (GI) food ingredient GI Lite^TM and sugar reduction substitute 80Less^TM.

Whilst the first order is relatively modest in value, Holista is negotiating a longer-term sales contract to support Country Farms' initiative to offer the Company's products in the latter's wholesale food catalogue and to fulfil an ongoing demand from Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.

The Country Farms catalogue goes out to around 4,000 modern trade customers, including leading supermarkets/hypermarkets and dealers in Malaysia, such as Lotus's (formerly Tesco), Cold Storage, Giant, Watsons, Aeon, Jaya Grocer and Village Grocer.

Meanwhile, Starbucks in Malaysia has decided to offer its customers healthy croissants that is made with Holista's unique ingredients following the successful conclusion of recent trials. Following the successful trials of croissants, Country Farms and Holista are co-developing low GI white sandwich bread and ciabatta for Starbucks Malaysia.

To cater for the demand for vegan customers, Country Farms is also working with Holista to co-developing the following products:
- plant based tuna
- plant based eggs
- plant based milk

These products are currently undergoing sensory testing. 

The parties are working on a separate agreement to bring these products to market and Holista will update investors when and if these discussions become sufficiently advanced.  

Country Farms supplies food products and ingredients to franchises under the Berjaya umbrella. These include Starbucks, Kenny Rogers Roasters, Simply Good Food vegan restaurant and Kelava vegan ice-cream. Country Farms also supplies to 7-Eleven stores in Malaysia.

This announcement has been approved by the Board of Directors.