Annual Report 2020

snacks, to strengthen its offerings. Along with the acquisition, Santan inherited two T&Co cafés - in Gardens Mall and AirAsia’s headquarters - which were later rebranded as Santan Café. In October 2020, upon securing the appropriate license, Santan quickly rolled out its franchise programme. Subsequently, seven partners have opened Santan outlets in malls around the Klang Valley, ie KL Sogo, 163 Retail Park Mont Kiara, Aeon Shah Alam, PKNS Shah Alam, Nu Sentral, KL East Mall and IOI City Kiara. Expansion notwithstanding, reduced footfall impacted dine-in operations, shifting Santan’s focus towards home delivery. It also inspired the launch of three satellite kitchens which serve as delivery collection centres to enhance Santan’s service coverage. Delivery, meanwhile, is managed in collaboration with other AirAsia entities such as airasia food and Teleport. Another significant development during the year was the establishment of airasia farm, an online marketplace linking farmers directly to businesses. The business idea was inspired during the MCO when supply chain disruptions impacted both producers and consumers. The platform promotes price transparency and reduces supply chain costs through the elimination of middlemen, thus enabling farmers to increase their income. At the same time, F&B businesses benefit from the ability to secure fresh produce at lower prices. To fulfil customers’ orders, airasia farm works closely with logistics partners including Teleport, TheLorry, PKT and Vision Traxx. Since the launch of airasia farm in June 2020, we have onboarded 1,175 farmers linking them with 48 business owners. As of end 2020, about 360,000 fresh farm eggs and eight tonnes of cucumber have been sold, among others. In 2021, along with relaxation of movement and social restrictions, the team targets to expand its restaurant network to 50 outlets in Malaysia, while also taking the Santan brand international. Santan Kitchen will also be developed - a cloud kitchen concept housing six house brands with additional space for other restaurateurs/F&B operators to set up wholly delivery-based services. There are also plans to expand airasia farm to Sabah, an agricultural hotspot that has yet to be fully tapped, Indonesia and Thailand. Dedicated warehouses will be established in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu to ensure effective delivery. REDBEAT ACADEMY When AirAsia embarked on our digital transformation, it became evident that there is a dearth of digital talent locally. That realisation led to the idea of setting up our own training centre to build a tech talent pipeline, the same way we had done for pilots, with AirAsia Aviation Academy. Collaborating with our tech partner, Google Cloud, we identified the skills that we needed for our digital journey and designed programmes to fulfil these. Thus, Redbeat Academy (RBA) was born. The academy was launched internally during MCO 1.0, and received an overwhelming response with over 1,200 Allstars, including pilots and cabin crew, signing up. No doubt, the grounding of flights due to the pandemic contributed to the numbers. For some, the digital skillsets acquired will give them an edge within their own departments; for others, it opens up opportunities in other departments within the Group. 87 ANNUAL REPORT 2020