In an act of boycott, Malaysia makes its own ‘McDonald’s’

KUALA LUMPUR - It was a Saturday afternoon in the middle of 2024, and Ms Lailatul Sarahjana Mohd Ismail’s children were asking – again – to go to McDonald’s.

But Ms Lailatul, like scores of other Muslims in Malaysia, was

boycotting the fast-food chain and other American brands over US support for Israel

.

That choice, in solidarity with the people of Gaza, did not override her children’s craving for fried chicken, one of the chain’s most popular offerings in the country.

As the chorus for crispy drumsticks grew louder, Ms Lailatul satisfied their cravings by frying her own at home. And then she went a step further – she launched her own small-scale competitor to the mega chain.

Just over one year in, Ahmad’s Fried Chicken – the brand that Ms Lailatul and her husband, Mr Mohd Taufik Khairuddin, originally started out of a food truck – has grown to 35 outlets. By the end of 2026, that number will soar to about 110.

In Malaysia, customers who have sworn off global restaurant chains in solidarity with Palestine have fuelled a boom in local brands.

Malaysian cafe chain Zuspresso, for instance, which had fewer locations in the country than Starbucks in 2023, doubled its store count in 2024 as Starbucks’ shrank.

Today, the chain known as Zus Coffee is the largest coffee purveyor in Malaysia, with more than 700 outlets that sell pumpkin spice lattes as well as concoctions infused with local flavours such as coconut and palm sugar.

Even as the prospects for a peace plan in the Middle East is increasing, the consumer shift to home-grown alternatives appears to have staying power.

“The change is permanent,” said Mr Adib Zalkapli, founder of Viewfinder Global Affairs, a geopolitical consulting firm that tracks trends across South-east Asia.

Malaysia is by no means a make-or-break market for major global brands. The size of the food service industry in the country will almost double to US$27.5 billion (S$35.5 billion) by 2030, said estimates research company Mordor Intelligence. In comparison, in the US, it will surpass US$1.5 trillion.

But the loss of its customers still has commercial implications, especially since Malaysia is not the only country rethinking its relationship with global consumer brands.

Coca-Cola Icecek, which bottles and sells Coke products in the Middle East, reported a loss of market share in Turkey and Pakistan this summer, following calls to boycott Western companies with perceived links to Israel.

In Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, KFC’s franchise operator Fast Food Indonesia has closed dozens of outlets over the past two years as buyers abstained from its fried chicken. The list goes on.

And once customers made the shift to local brands, many said they are not going back.

Malaysia’s Zus Coffee, which expanded to the Philippines in late 2023, has since launched storefronts in Thailand, Singapore and Brunei as it realises everyone, not just Malaysians, want localisation and tailor-made products.

In the Philippines, for example, it is building allegiance by selling coffee drinks flavoured with ube, or purple yam.

“This growing confidence in local brands is something we strive to sustain,” said Zus chief operating officer Venon Tian.

Of course, not every local brand that thrived during the boycott period will survive.

“Expansion may slow down from resource constraints,” said Mr Azizul Amiludin, a senior non-resident fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research.

And while consumers may be gravitating towards local names now, “legacy brands have their heritage and their strength”, said Mr Sydney Lawrance Quays, chief executive of Berjaya Food, the operator of Starbucks in Malaysia.

Despite the boycotts, store closures and steep losses triggered by the Gaza conflict, the company still “believes strongly in the Starbucks brand”, Mr Quays said, adding that business is gradually recovering.

For now, domestic brands such as Ahmad’s Fried Chicken are riding high. The restaurant chain founded by Ms Lailatul and her husband, both 34, brings in about RM3 million (S$946,000) in sales a month, an excellent return on the RM700,000 they initially invested to build the first physical storefront in December 2024.

In Shah Alam – a manufacturing hub in Selangor, Malaysia’s most developed state – the bright red exterior and sleek layout of a recently opened Ahmad’s could easily be mistaken for any one of the international fast-food chains.

Inside, Mr Faisal Mohamad and his wife settle at a table with fried chicken, fries and soft drinks for lunch.

When it comes to international fast-food brands, Mr Faisal, 41, also a frequent consumer of coffee from Zus, said: “I don’t think I’ll go back. The local ones are just as good.”

He added: “This has everything the other restaurants offer, minus the political issues.” BLOOMBERG