Nasty Cookie builds for overseas growth

Its founder says scaling operations matters more than adding stores.

Singapore-grown Nasty Cookie has acquired two factories in Malaysia as it builds manufacturing capacity ahead of its planned expansion into the Middle East.

“We are looking into the Middle East because we believe there's strong demand for premium lifestyle brands there,” founder Regine Sum told Singapore Business Review.

She said the facilities are the company's first major infrastructure investment outside Singapore and would serve as a food hub supporting its next phase of growth.

The investment comes seven years after Sum started Nasty Cookie as a home-baking side project in 2018.

What began as an experiment has grown into a five-store chain, including an outlet at Jewel Changi Airport, which Sum said was chosen as a gateway to introduce the brand to international visitors.

Scaling the business exposed the challenges of growing a food and beverage company, particularly the capital required to expand beyond a single outlet.

“There are a lot of mistakes that we make, and the biggest mistake is the capex (capital expenditure),” Sum said, adding that many founders underestimate the investment needed to sustain growth through downturns and inflation.

The COVID-19 pandemic became a turning point for the business. Sum said Nasty Cookie digitalised its operations early, helping sales increase fivefold.

“From that, we managed to obtain our central kitchen, which allowed us to start expanding into a lot more stores,” she said via Zoom.

Rather than prioritising rapid outlet growth, Sum said the company is focused on boosting its operating systems before expanding further.

“We try not to expand faster than our system,” she said, adding that demand continues to outpace execution at times.

Alongside the Malaysia food hub, Nasty Cookie plans to hold pop-up activations across Asia later this year to test demand ahead of a broader international rollout.

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