How Marrybrown Went from Being Rejected by Banks to Malaysia’s Largest Home-grown Fast-Food Chain

Despite being one of the top students at Sultan Ibrahim Girls School, Datin Nancy Liew had to miss out on attending university due to financial constraints. After six years in nursing, she left her career to start Marrybrown. There is no particular reason for the name, simply being a catchy one that is easy to pronounce.

Showing her pluck despite her young age of 25, Datin Nancy struggled to obtain funding from banks and had to turn to their joint savings as well as resorting to borrowed money from close friends and relatives. They also faced other issues like suppliers being only willing to supply goods on a cash delivery basis and shop lot owners being reluctant to lease their premises.

With other American based fast-food chains in the market such as KFC already dominating the market at the time, they decided to stick out from the crowd by injecting local flavours into their menu including dishes such as nasi goreng, nasi lemak and rice porridge besides offering fried chicken and burgers. This has proven to be popular not only with local Malaysians, but overseas as well. They struggled for the initial five years, but business picked up in 1986 with their first franchised outlet.

Over the years, they have since achieved numerous milestones including being the first Malaysian-owned quick service restaurant franchise to venture abroad in 1996 with their outlet in China. In 1998, they made their mark in the Malaysia Book of Records as the ‘First Malaysian Fast Food Franchise’. This brand now has a presence in 16 countries and territories including Sweden, China, and Qatar with over 400 restaurants. They are also currently one of the world’s largest Halal fast food chains. Malaysia boleh!

Dato' Lawrence Liew and Datin Nancy Liew’s son, Dato’ Joshua Liew now acts as the brand’s CEO. Talk about a great Malaysian success story!