I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all attending.  It gives me great pleasure to welcome Yang Mulia Tunku Dato’ Seri Mahmud Bin Tunku Besar Burhanuddin, our Executive Chairman, Yang Bahagia Col. Dato’ Cheng Wah, Independent Director of Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Berhad, Encik Mansor Bin Mohd Darus, Director of Tamadam Forwarding Sdn Bhd, Management & Staff of Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Berhad to this, our 25th Anniversary Annual Dinner.

Seeing as our Company is 25 years old, we can consider ourselves an established, mature and reputable Company.  I thought it would be interesting to share some statistics with you.  We currently have 178 employees.  The average age of our staff is 34 years.  The average length of service is 8 years.  I am pleased to inform you that we have 40 members of staff (or more than 20%) who have been with us for more than 10 years.  In short, we have many loyal and experienced staff and I believed this is what contributed to the success of the Company.  Later this evening, we will have a short ceremony to present Long Service Awards.

Over the years, I am sure you have seen many changes in the Company.  What outsiders see are our huge warehouses but the real assets of the Company are you – our dear staff, which is why the theme of this Annual Dinner is “YOU ARE THE STAR”.   We are having this annual dinner to thank you so please let your hair down and enjoy yourselves.

Over the last few years, I believe the Company has improved our quality of service tremendously. Our stock accuracy is very much better than before, I truly believe that our members of staff are more systematic than before and, of course, we have achieved ISO 9001:2000 Certification.

Now that we had achieved ISO Certification, I still see that our processes can be improved much further.  What we need to do is to have a proper system, so that customers can be assured of consistent high quality service.

I would like to offer McDonald’s as a Company we can try to emulate. McDonald’s is able to deliver consistent food to customers at all their restaurants worldwide.  Regardless of whether their staff are male, female, young, old, Chinese, Malay, Indian, Caucasian or anything else, the product served to customers is consistent.  This is because they have a GOOD SYSTEM.  Tamadam needs to achieve this level of quality going forward to ensure we are able to compete with the best in our industry.

Our customer service today has to be more focused and better than before because our industry is facing tremendous competition from local and foreign players.  Compared with even 10 years ago, there are many more warehouses in Port Klang, not to mention Shah Alam, Bukit Jelutong and so on.

This is no doubt that each and every one of us has to work harder than ever before just to maintain our income and standard of living.

Definitely, Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Berhad is regarded as one of the best warehouse operators in Port Klang.  However, perhaps a few of our competitors are as good if not better than us and customers are always looking for the best combination of price and service

Our warehouses have always enjoyed high occupancy and we have always tried to maintain premium pricing.  Our competitors have had no choice but to reduce their prices to compete with us.  Currently discounting in our industry is becoming too widespread and we have no choice but to compete on price and service, therefore, we have to be more frugal and work smarter and harder than ever before.

Going forward things in our industry will be tough.  Some companies will not be able to survive and close.  Some will merge but definitely a few will emerge stronger, leaner, more efficient and larger than before this crisis.

Our job is to do our best to ensure Tamadam is one of these winners.

We can only grow by offering our customers a competitive price but most importantly we have to ensure they are satisfied with our service.

It is so difficult nowadays to get new customers for our warehouse because, basically, we have to steal someone else’s customers as the cake is not growing.

Therefore, it is very important to keep the customers that we have, and that is up to you – the staff.  You, the Staff, are definitely “The Star”.

How you talk to customers, whether you are rude or polite, even your body language and tone of voice – everything makes a difference in this ultra-competitive environment.

There are not many of us in Tamadam, and as I said earlier, we have the experience and knowledge to serve customers well.  Therefore, when I hear of any complaints, damages or stock losses, you can understand that I get very upset because I know we have the experience and knowledge to avoid such occurrences.

Sometimes, having been in this industry for a long time, we long for the good old days when we were more highly paid, there was less competition and so on.

But for each of us as individuals, it is only when we let go of the past, stop blaming others for our problems and start taking responsibility for our own success that we can move on and make the most of what we have.

If we work as a team and work 100% for the Company, this could be the beginning of a new chapter in Tamadam’s history.  I hope all of you will support me and the Management team as we try to bring Tamadam forward as best we can.

I do not want all of you to think only of work.  No matter how tough times may be for us as individuals, there are always others who are less fortunate than us.  I am glad that recently we were able to contribute to relief efforts for flood victims in Johore.  I hope that going forward, we will be able to do more social work this year.

Finally, I would like to thank the Organising Committee and participants for helping to make this Annual Dinner a reality.

Most of all, I would like to thank all of you, our loyal staff for helping the Company get where it is today.  If harsh words were spoken or you have been unfairly treated, I sincerely apologise and I hope you will not hold any grudges in your heart.  Whatever we, the Management do, first and foremost in our minds is our responsibility to you, our Dear Employees!

I would now like to invite, our Executive Chairman, Yang Mulia Tunku Dato’ Seri Mahmud Bin Tunku Besar Burhanuddin to say a few words.

Thank you and have a very enjoyable evening!

Recently, the state of Johor in Malaysia was affected by severe flooding. The rainfall was the heaviest for thirty years. Many victims were left homeless and in need of assistance from the authorities and charitable organisations. Many were forced to seek refuge in relief shelters. Many people and companies were kind enough to donate items to flood victims, many of whom were left with only the clothes they were wearing.

Tamadam is pleased make a modest contribution to flood relief efforts by providing transportation for items donated to flood victims. The items were collected from the Klang Valley and sent to relief centers in Johor.

Lorry delivering items for flood victims in Johor

Mattresses for Johor flood victims
contributed by charities

Our earlier announcement on our Sale and Leaseback of Lot 11614, Mukim of Klang, District of Klang (“Tamadam 1”) refers. Tamadam is pleased to announce that the Sale and Leaseback of Tamadam 1 was completed on 15 December 2006.With the receipt of the proceeds from the Sale and Leaseback, Tamadam’s gearing will be reduced to only RM12.1 million. In addition, Tamadam will have cash deposits with financial institutions of RM6.8 million.

With the completion of the Sale and Leaseback, Tamadam’s cashflow and finance costs will be reduced substantially.

The Quality Management System of Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Berhad has been certified that it complies with

BS EN ISO 9001 : 2000

For

WAREHOUSING AND LOGISTICS SERVICES

The certifying body was NQA of Warwick House, Houghton Hall Park, Houghton Regis, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom.

The services certified were:

• Warehousing
• Marketing
• Trucking
• Distribution
• Operation of container yards.

With ISO certification, customers are assured that they will receive a consistent level of service, that all processes are properly designed, that documents are properly maintained and that Tamadam’s staff are properly equipped and trained.

Furthermore, Tamadam suppliers are also vetted and Tamadam’s management is committed to receiving feedback from customers which helps in our efforts to constantly improve our service.

Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Berhad is one of Malaysia’s premier logistics companies. We provide total logistics, warehouses, forwarding and transportation services. We are listed on the Second Board of Bursa Malaysia .

Tamadam’s ISO Certificate can be downloaded here.

SPEECH DELIVERED BY YANG MULIA TUNKU DATO’ SERI MAHMUD BIN TUNKU BESAR BURHANUDDIN, CHAIRMAN, TAMADAM BONDED WAREHOUSE BERHAD, AT THE SIGNING CEREMONY BETWEEN AMANAH RAYA BERHAD AND TAMADAM BONDED WAREHOUSE BERHAD ON 8 JUNE 2006

Our honourable guest,
Dato’ Haji Dusuki bin Haji Ahmad (Chairman of Amanah Raya Berhad),
Distinguished guests,
Members of the press,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to this significant signing ceremony between Amanah Raya Berhad and Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Berhad.

After months of discussions and fine tuning by our respective advisors, we are here to witness today the signing ceremony of various agreements which will see Tamadam entering into partnership with Amanah Raya Berhad for the next ten to fifteen years.

I founded Tamadam in 1984. I am extremely gratified that after twenty two years, Tamadam has grown to be one of the biggest warehouse operators and logistics service providers in Malaysia. We offer a full range of logistics services which includes warehousing, trucking, forwarding, distribution and customs clearance. We have more than three hundred customers ranging from growing companies to multinational world renowned corporations.  We have quality assurance programmes in place to ensure top quality consistent service to our customers.  We will shortly be awarded the ISO 9001:2000 quality certification.  We also conduct regular feedback programmes to gauge customer satisfaction.  I am pleased to report that our customers have indicated that our service levels have consistently met their expectations.

I would like to share the history of Tamadam 1 with you.  In 1992, Tamadam spent about RM10 million ringgit to buy Tamadam 1.  At that time, our paid-up capital was only RM2.3 million ringgit.  With such a high gearing ratio at the time, clearly, we need the support of bankers and financiers who understand our business and its highly capital intensive nature.  With the completion of this transaction, we expect our gearing ratio to drop to about 0.3 times which is very low for our industry.

Since 1992, we have invested more than RM17 million ringgit into the property.  These sums have been used to upgrade the buildings on the property, build cold rooms, construct mineral and container yards and so on.  Therefore, our total cost is about RM27 million.

Taking into account depreciation, the book value of Tamadam 1 is now about RM18 million.  Thus, we will enjoy a gain of about RM9 million on the property.  This will have a positive impact to the company and will  improve our net tangible assets, strengthen our working capital position, reduce our gearing and provide us with funds for future expansion.

We strongly believe that this is a win-win deal for both parties. We have seen that investment into logistic assets has recently increased dramatically.  In the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, there are entire REITs solely devoted to  logistic assets, namely warehouses and distribution houses.

I would therefore like to congratulate Amanah Raya Berhad for having the vision and foresight for seeing the potential of logistic assets. I am confident that their investment in this industry will secure attractive returns on their investment and to unitholders of their REITs.

I would also like to thank the professional engineers, valuers, consultants, bankers, lawyers and the various staff involved in this project from Amanah Raya and our own company who have made this partnership possible.

Thank you.