Hard-hitting-success: From firefighter to burger franchisor

ISKANDAR PUTERI: After serving in the Fire and Rescue Department for nine years, Muhammad Dinie Mohamed decided to shift his priority to become a full-time entrepreneur after handling a growing burger franchise business.

As Muhammad Dinie, 31, was then managing more than 60 burger stalls through a franchise system, it was really difficult for him to handle the business while working as a fire brigade officer at the Iskandar Puteri Fire and Rescue Station here.

Hence, he took a bold step to quit his job in February this year and dedicate himself to the expanding business.

“I handed in my resignation letter twice to state director Datuk Yahaya Madis but each time it was rejected. When I sent it in for the third time, he called me to his office and asked whether I was sure about my decision.

“When I told him that I had made up my mind, only then he approved my resignation. He advised me to fully commit myself to my business so that it can sustain and grow into a household name.

“He told me that he’s proud of me for trying something different -- building a career in business,” he said when met at his company’s headquarters in Iskandar Puteri here, recently.

Recounting his venture into the burger franchise business, the father of three said he started out from a small burger stall in Taman Universiti here in 2014 by pumping his own savings of between RM3,000 and RM4,000 as its startup capital.

“My idea then was to make an extra income for my family but after running the stall for some time, I realised that the business holds a huge potential if I were to have a proper business plan.

“So in 2018, my wife suggested that we built our own brand. That’s when Official Street Burger (OSB) was born before we started to turn it into a successful franchise business with a total of 18 stalls in that year alone. To date the number of stalls has quickly increased to 103 throughout Johor and Melaka,” he added.

Muhammad Dinie said the turning point of his business was during the Movement Control Order (MCO) implemented by the government since March 2020 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

During that unprecedented times, he said the number of new entrepreneurs joining the OSB franchise business climbed to more than 60 from merely 18 in 2018.

“About 40 per cent of them are in late 20s to early 40s with some who had just lost their jobs in Singapore due to the pandemic.

“So, we’re happy that our business has actually helped others deal with the tough times,” Muhammad Dinie said, adding that he is now employing about 30 people to help his business continue to grow.

Likewise, Muhammad Dinie’s wife, Nur Khalijah Zaidan, 30, resigned from her banking job at end-2019, albeit much earlier than him, to help run the business.

She said they were eyeing to make inroads into the Klang Valley and other states in the near future, as part of the company’s expansion plan to become a major burger brand in the country.

“To achieve this target, we aim to produce 1,000 burger entrepreneurs by offering two attractive packages with a guidance on how to run a burger stall to those who are interested,” she said.

Nur Khalijah said they were in the midst of diversifying into other products such as fritters, for example, curry puff, samosa and banana fritters, under the OSB brand through the same franchise concept.

“InsyaAllah, we would also like to produce our own burger patties, buns and sauces to be channelled to all our franchise outlets. As for now, we are depending on the third parties,” she said, adding that currently OSB outlets were using at least 72,000 burger patties weekly.

-- BERNAMA