Annabelle Co- Martinent
Co-Founder & Director, La Juiceria Superfoods, Super Saigon, Hawker Hall
Text by Farrah Darma
La Juiceria founder Anabelle Co-Martinent has a few more tricks up her sleeves when it comes to introducing new innovations to her health and nutrition-based brand. Her journey began when she forwent a comfortable career and began making better choices for her and her family.
The eldest of three daughters in a traditional Chinese family, the pressure for Anabelle to meet expectations had always been high. She eventually found herself pursuing a successful career in tech, working for multinational giants like HP, Microsoft and Nokia – even flying with the Pussycat Dolls for a Nokia concert in Manila.
She always dreamt of riding the glamourous wave associated with working in the corporate world. After being introduced to her future husband on Friendster, she tied the knot in 2006 before eventually moving to Kuala Lumpur. The natural thing to do in Malaysia was to continue with what she was familiar with – working in tech. She spent nearly five years learning about Malaysia and how Malaysians work, observing how they behaved, purchased and their diverse culture.
After becoming a mother, something new dawned on her. She left her high-flying corporate career and transformed her outlook in life. “Despite a really good career, I decided to quit my job when my daughter
turned one. My company dismissed it as mommy blues and gave me three months of maternity leave. I did not come back.” Instead, Anabelle went on a two-year journey of self-discovery, questioning what she was meant to do in Malaysia.
She landed a job with radio station BFM, producing shows for its enterprise segment. That experience gave her the reassurance that entrepreneurship was going to be challenging, but was entirely possible and rewarding. She was pregnant with her second child when she was on the verge of creating La Juiceria. Motherhood and pregnancy anchored her craving of wanting to create something new, driving her energy, determination and success. “I believe motherhood makes women stronger, more daring. Becoming a mother means making critical decisions that on a normal day you wouldn’t,” she says. Watching the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead with her husband served as an additional wake-up call to re- evaluate their approach to nutrition. “Living in Malaysia, we have 24-hour access to cheap and affordable food. We lose our way because of our business, our schedules and because of deliciousness being everywhere.”
In lieu of nagging her husband to hit the gym every day, he was her first customer in practicing La Juiceria’s famous juice cleanse. “After I recovered from my caesarean, I started La Juiceria straight away.” It began as an online store before expanding to multiple juice bars and cafes across the Klang Valley. After setting up the juice franchise, customers kept asking if they had any healthy food options.
BrilliantC Wave ear climber diamond earrings; BrilliantC Bond necklace, bracelet and ring. On her right hand: BrilliantC Unity diamond bracelet.
Always with the go-getter spirit in mind, she says: “This woke us up again and I thought, let’s do it.”
From La Juiceria to La Juiceria Superfoods (the food business) and then later Super Saigon and Hawker Hall, with her spin-off new brands and services, Anabelle is grounded with the same mission – to give better options and solutions to people. “Malaysia had the highest obesity rates in South-East Asia and remains the same eight years later. So, it’s a real problem we’re trying to solve. I think when businesses solve an issue, it becomes something that thrives rather than just a cool idea.”
Reminiscing on a quick trip down memory lane, Anabelle remembers how she started her cold-press juice business alone in her kitchen and is proud to reflect on the journey she has been on. She recalls the initial anxiety she had over starting a business in Malaysia as a foreigner: “Did I have the right contacts; can I speak Bahasa Malaysia? I don’t even speak Cantonese. It was me trying in a very different world and in a different country.”
Having already touched the lives of many Malaysians, the Covid-19 pandemic was a very new playing field altogether. “Thankfully, we were always part of the digital drive – it’s part of our DNA. Even prior to the pandemic, we already had a strong presence on Grab. Since day one of the pandemic, we continued to operate and, thankfully, we never stopped.”
When talking about working alongside men, she demurs that it’s a disadvantage. For Anabelle, the men are the yin to her creative yang, and both play a role in balancing the other off. The stigma of women being emotional in their decision-making might be a prevalent one, but Anabelle firmly believes it’s an advantage as well. “I think being emotional is a superpower of women,” she explains. “In all these years I’ve worked with men, most of the time we can learn and hone our skills from how they make decisions. However, they cannot learn the other way round – they just can’t feel like we can.”
Anabelle believes that being a woman is the same reason her brand is built different. “It’s all the emotional touches that go into the decision-making that make us who we are – things like the packaging, launch price, shopping mall decisions.” She adds: “When people ask me how it’s been working with men, I love it.
There’s much to learn and much to balance off each other. It’s quite an eye-opening, on-the-ground MBA.”
She believes that the biggest challenges women face is the perception that they are not expected to be clear on what they want, and aren’t expected to be aggressive or to fight back. “Being a woman means embracing who you are. This is what makes us different.” She gives a simple example of how being emotional falls into her own decision-making early on at the start of the business: sustainable packaging. While her male counterparts dismissed the need at that stage, Anabelle had already started looking into different straws, paper bowls and biodegradable bags.
“Of course, being a mother, you naturally think of moving to things like paper packaging and question how we can make the business more environmentally friendly. This is where a company moves forward faster, because its emotional. It makes us very human and that makes the company better,” she says.
She considers a self a true world citizen: “My husband is French, while I’m a Chinese born in the Philippines with a China passport. I was married in Singapore to a French man who was living in KL. I always say my kids are imported materials assembled in KL.” Anabelle hopes to impart her lessons learnt over the years to her children. “I always tell my daughter how running a business is like and I am more vocal with my explanation than my mom was with me. I think that is going to groom a whole new mindset in children. After all, they’re growing up in an Internet era and are far better than me at that age.”
Anabelle is used to being asked how she juggles her time between running businesses and caring for a family at home. For her, its straightforward: “If other people can do it, so can I. Also, I think women will always have that guilt of leaving their children at home. It won’t go away, but when we are clear on what we want, we make a decision and move forward.” She also credits her husband and helper who have been more than supportive in her endeavours. “By knowing how to utilise your ecosystem, you are able to be here and there at the same time.”
Anabelle defines a successful woman in three ways: Healthy in mind and body – for her, you need to be able to take care of yourself first before looking after others; Family – “What you achieve is meaningless if it’s just for yourself,” she says; Grateful – for any entrepreneur, there will always be moments of doubt, of prayer, of guilt. Reflective of her own practices, Anabelle is a firm believer that being grateful and slowing down to enjoy the smaller things in life is the first step towards re-discovery. Despite contracting Covid-19, she was grateful that it allowed her an opportunity to revisit painting, something she had neglected for almost a decade. “I picked up my brushes for the first time in a long time and just started painting seascapes. I discovered what I love to do and became more thoughtful about it.”
For 2022, Anabelle is excited for her projects that will redefine the plant-based food industry. The plant-based food choices have become more than just a trend; it’s a new phenomenon and one that Anabelle looks forward to supporting. She’s improving her menu and working with more plant-based companies, like FutureFood, Beyond Meat and Nestle Harvest Gourmet, to create more meatless meals at affordable prices. “We’re also abolishing the ridiculous surcharges on plant choices like soy or oat milk in your latte.”
Her plant-based revolution in Malaysia stems from her own stance against dietary discrimination. As options and supply become wider, she looks forward to plant- based meals being more affordable. “It’s something that I feel strongly about,” she says. We have no doubt she will pursue it with her characteristic passion.
