KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 ― Former newspaper photographer Syefry Moniz Mohd Nizar is used to capturing moments during his 17-year stint with Utusan Malaysia.
The 46-year-old now however has only happiness in his sights when people take a bite from his home-made ice-cream, Popslab.
Syefry said when his former employer closed down, he was at a loss on his next move.
“I did not know what to do then.
“I tried a job in sales initially but gave up as I was not getting anywhere.”
Then one day, while surfing through Facebook, the father of three children saw an advertisement offering an ice-cream making course.
“I decided to join the course as I loved eating ice cream and wanted to know the process behind it.”
With a starting capital of RM10,000, Syefry's venture into ice cream began in March, where he received orders for weddings.
The biggest order was during the opening of a mall in Cyberjaya before the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO).
“At that time, the mall ordered 1,000 sticks of ice cream to be given to visitors and the response was good.”
But things went back to square one for Syefry following the enforcement of MCO on March 8.
“I was in a daze for days. Thankfully I managed to snap out of it and started to think of ways to get myself out of the situation.”
Opportunity presented itself when Syefry shared news about his ice cream in his residential Whatsapp group.
“Slowly, there were orders from my neighbours.
“Thankfully, at least there was money to buy food.”
Initially, Syefry only made his ice cream on alternate days as orders were not fixed, but as the ice cream's popularity grew, Syefry began producing his ice cream daily.
Starting with just three flavours, Syefry's ice cream range has now expanded to 16 flavours.
“Besides the run of the mill flavours, I have fruits flavours such as watermelon, honeydew, mango, dragon fruit, apple, soursop and durian.
“I will also add on pink guava and strawberry flavour soon,” he said, adding that he uses real fruits for his fruit flavour ice cream.
While Popslab is available for delivery within Selangor, Syefry also has agents selling his ice cream.
“So far, there are two shops and two housewives selling my product,” he said, welcoming those who wanted to become his agents to get in touch with him.
The shops are located at Bandar Tun Razak and Seksyen 20, Shah Alam while the two housewives stay at Bukit Jalil and Serdang.
Asked what makes his ice cream different from others, Syefry said the price was affordable ― between RM1 and RM3 ― and he was not stingy on ingredients.
Looking back in the past year, Syefry said life has been a rollercoaster ride.
“From losing my job to becoming my own boss.
“I do miss the life as a photographer but at least now my life is more stable,” he said, adding that he hopes to be able to move his production from his Putrajaya house to a shop lot next year.
For further details on Popslab, visit its official Facebook page.
