Lee Biscuits to shut Johor factory by end-October
The 92-year-old biscuit maker may quit snack manufacturing and focus on assets including rubber and oil palm plantations, media reports say.
Production at Lee Biscuits’ Pontian plant in Johor is set to end by the close of October 2026, AsiaOne reported, citing Malaysian media. The company makes Marie biscuits and is also known as Nam Lee.
Notices of the closure have reportedly reached customers and suppliers, while employees are said to be facing layoffs. Pekan Nanas assemblyman Tan Eng Meng told China Press he had been informed about the impending shutdown.
AsiaOne reported that the 92-year-old business may stop making snacks as part of an asset consolidation, concentrating instead on core holdings such as rubber plantations and oil palm estates.
The shutdown would be Lee Group’s second food-facility closure in Johor within three years. The New Straits Times reported that its Lee Pineapple cannery at Skudai ceased operations in November 2023 as the group concentrated on oil palm cultivation.
The biscuit brand was established in Singapore by philanthropist Lee Kong Chian in 1934. Manufacturing relocated to Tampoi in Johor Bahru in 1955, before shifting to Pontian in 2005.
Other products include cream wafers, banana puffs and crackers in lemon and sugar varieties. AsiaOne’s check of NTUC FairPrice’s Singapore online shop found listings for at least 23 products from Lee Biscuits.
