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Topmix - a leading surface decorative material brand owner in Malaysia

14 April 2024

Topmix stands out as Malaysia's leading brand for high pressure laminate (HPL), offering a diverse range of designs, colors, patterns, and textures, coupled with features like water resistance and anti-fingerprint properties. Typically affixed onto plywood, HPL transforms cupboards, wardrobes, and cabinets with desired aesthetics.

Under the leadership of its founders Jack and Jessie, Topmix has curated a collection of meticulously crafted products favored by interior designers. Its distribution primarily relies on a network of 9000 interior designers equipped with miniature samples from its catalog, showcasing to end-customers. Additionally, Topmix directly supplies housing developers for new projects and commercial property owners for renovations and refurbishments.

It derives its competitive advantage from:

  1. Rapid development and introduction of laminates with cutting-edge designs, achieved by close collaboration/joint-development with interior designers, ensuring a consistent lead of 1 to 2 years over competitors.

  2. Offering a wide array of designs across cabinet, wardrobe, tabletop, and wall panel categories, providing a one-stop solution and service, effectively streamlining the customer experience.

  3. Ability to produce customized HPL orders swiftly, meeting customer demands with short turnaround times. In contrast, most of its competitors do not provide customization.

  4. Delivering high-quality products at competitive prices, in contrast to competitors like Formica, an international player often pricing products at a premium. Topmix offers similar quality with a broader selection at a 30% lower price point.

  5. Based on our background check and engaging with its founder Jack, we are of the opinion that Jack demonstrates a strong strategic mindset and embodies progressive thinking. He enjoys a good reputation and displays integrity in his actions. he has effectively executed his initial strategy and showcases a vision that extends beyond the HPL market.

The HPL and overall surface decorative market has been growing as younger generations nowadays have grown to appreciate more about interior design. In addition to this organic growth, Topmix is propelled by the following factors:

  1. Conventionally, HPL is used in the making of cabinet and wardrobe. Topmix leads the market by launching high performance HPL products for tabletops, counter tops and wall panels. These offerings allow designers to maintain coherence and enhance the overall interior design, presenting an untapped market opportunity.

  2. Wall panels offer a convenient and cost-effective solution for covering existing walls or tiles, saving time and expense in renovation projects. They boast water resistance, antiviral and antibacterial properties, fire retardancy, impact resistance, as well as stain and scuff resistance. This opens new markets such as hotel refurbishments (where time is money) and upgrades for hospitals and educational facilities (where noise disruption is minimized due to no tile hacking).

  3. Topmix is venturing into the melamine face chipboard (MFC) market, which is a more economical material compared to HPL plywood. Aside from cost savings, MFC can be easily tailored to designs and reduces the need for carpentry labor. By supplementing the furniture carcasses with MFC and using our HPL products for the cabinet and cupboard doors as well as tabletops, customers can get a fully assembled product based on the colour scheme of their selected HPL product and MFC product, at competitive prices. The MFC market is estimated to be twice the size of the HPL market in Malaysia.

  4. Market expansion efforts are underway. Domestically, Topmix, which initially operated in the southern region of Peninsula Malaysia, is now extending its reach into the northern region. Internationally, the company is planning to enter the Singapore markets this year. With its headquarters in Johor Bahru, Topmix already attracts Singapore-based interior designers, giving it a unique advantage. The HPL market in Singapore is estimated to be larger than that of Malaysia.

Notes and Disclaimers

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  2. Oaklands Path may be long or short the securities mentioned herein and has no duty or obligation to disclose or update our action on these securities.

  3. This essay contains information and views as of the date indicated and such information and views are subject to change without notice. We have no duty or obligation to update the information contained herein. Further, we make no representation, and it should not be assumed, that past investment performance is an indication of future results. Moreover, wherever there is the potential for profit there is also the possibility of loss.

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