Dato’ Eric See-To
Tun Mahathir’s “The Loaf” bakery chain has never been profitable from the first day that it was founded 13 years ago and has racked up accumulated losses of RM31,866,547 until the end of financial year 2016.
Year 2017 audited accounts are not available yet and looking at the trend, they would probably have lost money too – as the main problem is the high rental and staff cost.
Tun Mahathir was reported to be the majority shareholder with 51% share.
It looks like Tun Mahathir has the financial resources to weather at least RM17mi for his share of losses all these years from this particular business.
Of all dates to close the store, closing the store now may give political dividends to Tun Mahathir as it will give perception that businesses in Malaysia is not doing well as economy is bad.
However, there are also many many other successful bakery shops in Malaysia too even if Tun Mahathir’s “The Loaf” had not been too successful or better managed.
Eric See-To.
P.S. A wisecracking friend told me that if he was still PM, he could use Petronas money to bail The Loaf out like he used to with so many other ventures and with his son’s businesses.
Source: Eric See-To
