I was on New Klang Valley Expressway the other day where I saw a billboard showing ‘Russell Taylors Air Fryer’ product on Lazada, one of the region’s biggest e-commerce selling at only RM189.00. That is quite a bargain from a brand that I thought sounds imported though I never heard of it. Is the brand from UK or USA? How does it compare with other popular brands in the market like Philips or Tefal and yet is still able to sell at such low price? As a lady consumer who cannot help but wanting to know most electrical goods in the market, I was curious about the brand so I searched about Russell Taylor on the internet. There was something dubious about the official brand website, (russelltaylors.com). Considering that the brand sounded western brand, the website is very basic with little brand information and without background history of the company. To my surprise, the brand is in fact local and was set-up just 5 years ago by a young Malaysian named Satish Raguchandran who is still in his 30s. He is the founder of Russell Taylor kitchen appliances where it carries 7 types of products. The company imports and rebrands wholesale kitchen appliances from China and distributes only through e-commerce, yet his company revenue has recently grown by 50%.

Satish Raguchandran is a one man show. He brings the items from China to Malaysia, undergo the SIRIM process (Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia), load the shipments to Lazada warehouse, designs the instructions manual, designs the packaging of the box and even handles the customer service. (CNBC, Feb 2018) There is even a Whatsapp and Facebook group for Russell Taylors consumers where he handles almost every customer’s inquiries. The company does not own a market research strategy group, design and engineering team nor a store. This brand with very few manpower challenges the other big brands in e-commerce who has been in the industry for more than 10 years. Satish is one of the many entrepreneurs who seizes the opportunity from Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) establishment since March 2017 between Malaysia old government with China billionaire, Jack Ma.