Company History

First Flour Mill in Malaysia

MFM is a pioneer in the flour milling industry in Malaysia. The first Prime Minister of Malaysia, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, officiated the opening of the RM40 million modern flour mill at Lumut, Perak on 15 October 1966. During the speech by the former Minister of Commerce and Industry, the late Dr. Lim Swee Aun, the mill was referred to as the ‘pride of the nation’.

The opening of the mill was the realisation of a long cherished dream of the mill’s founder, the late Datuk David L.F. Sung, a well-known banker and industrialist of Hong Kong. Datuk Sung came from a family whose ancestors founded China’s first machine operated flour mill in Shanghai in 1890. Datuk Sung found Malaysia to be an ideal environment to establish a modern flour mill to serve the requirements of the local market. The facility he established became an icon in the flour-milling industry.

The mill was designed and supplied by Henry Simon Ltd. of England. It is strategically located at Batu Undan, Lumut, off the Dindings River in the State of Perak. The location was chosen because of:

Its natural harbour which has a deep water anchorage where ocean-going ships carrying wheat from all over the world could be delivered safely to the door-steps of the mill.
The entire mill building is sitting on top of granite thus reducing construction cost as there was no requirement for piling.
There was a large farm population in the upper Perak and surrounding areas which could absorb a substantial quantity of the mill’s by-products.

MFM Milestone

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As part of the site preparation, the Company had to build several miles of roads, and blast away one side of a granite hill. It was an engineering feat then.

MFM’s jetty, with its intake plant and belt conveyor housed inside the conveying tunnel, was designed to discharge large ocean going vessels at high speeds.

This mill has created tremendous job opportunities and until today it remains as one of the well-known landmarks in Perak.

As a result of this flourmill consumption of flour increased rapidly in Malaysia due to:

General awareness of high nutritional value in wheat products.
Changing eating habits of Malaysians.
Increase of industrial population (migration from rural to urban areas).

The opening of Malayan Flour Mills Berhad (MFM) has transformed Malaysia from a flour importing country to being self-sufficient in wheat flour.