Sunshine Bread: Why this iconic Malaysian bread suddenly disappeared in the 90’s

When Sunshine Bread, a ‘new’ brand entering the Malaysian market sent us a care package, this writer was suddenly touched by a fleeting childhood memory of wax paper-wrapped bread with the words “Sunshine” printed on it back in his grandparents’ house in Ipoh.

Just to make sure it wasn’t some kind of Mandela effect, he called the PR company that sent the package and… yes, it was a real memory.

As it turns out, this is the same Sunshine Bread that was a staple in every household up till the late 80’s. In fact, this writer’s dad confirmed that Sunshine was the bread that he grew up eating. But if you were to google the history of this company, you’d find a pretty detailed history of Sunshine in Singapore but not in Malaysia – no milestones, no founders and, most importantly, no reason why they suddenly disappeared.

So we asked for an interview with Sunshine and, wheatout further ado, here’s what we found out.

Sunshine Bread pioneered plastic bread wrapping in the 1970’s

Michelle, the regional head of Marketing; and Michael the CEO for Malaysia told us that Sunshine Bread started in 1930, with bakeries in Semenanjung and Singapore.

While we might go out of our way to get bread from independent bakeries nowadays because it’s boujee and artisanal, bread back then was a specialty item that spoilt very quickly. You had to buy it from a bakery and you had to finish it fast. Sunshine was the earliest pioneer of affordable and accessible bread in Malaya, and the convenience of going to a nearby sundry shop and having the bread stay fresh for longer was life-changing.

“We were huge. I’d like to believe that back then, breakfast was not complete without a slice of Sunshine.” – Michael

And this likely isn’t a marketing spiel because this writer’s dad remembers many school mornings where he’d grab a slice from the wax paper wrapping, slap on some butter and jam, and be off to school.

“The bread will be kept in the food cabinet, and your grandmother will scold if we don’t wrap the paper back properly. You know ah, your father was the naughty one so… [long conversation unrelated to bread] – Writer’s dad

And it’s to that point that Sunshine maintained their position as the upper crust of the bread industry, being one of the first – if not the first – to develop plastic packaging for bread. Michelle acknowledges that the older generation would probably remember the wax paper as something that represented Sunshine as a healthy and nutritious food, but Michael says that plastic was more hygienic and allowed the bread to last longer while keeping the quality.

While they acknowledged that the wax paper wrapping came to represent many older Malaysian’s memories of the brand, they won’t be bringing it back 🥲

“For wax paper, I don’t think the bread can last more than two days. Consumers nowadays may not want the product exposed while in the mini market or on the shelves.” – Michael

Unfortunately though, this was all the history they were comfortable talking about. It’s a little complicated, but when Singapore and Malaysia split in 1965, the Malaysian operations was at some point separated from the Singaporean one, sold, and became toast. Meanwhile, the Singaporean Sunshine Bread continued being a household brand, and are re-entering the Malaysian market.

“It’s gone through a lot of evolution and transaction in between. It started off as an Australian company then to Goodman Fielder then Cold Storage and now RCL… Even the current owner is uncertain who the first owner was.” – Michael

This means that any official accounts of the company’s history in Malaysia, along with any archives or photos, are likely lost forever.

Then, we found an ex-employee who could shed more light into the story

The article would have ended at this point if not for a completely random coincidence. After a vivid trip down memory lane, Writer Daddy said “Actually, why don’t you ask your uncle? He used to work for Sunshine.”

Writer Uncle said he was in charge of manufacturing for Sunshine Bread, which was a division under Cold Storage. At the time, Cold Storage was a British-owned company that, in a way, started the concept of the modern supermarket in Malaysia and Singapore; making ice, ice cream, imported meats, and fresh veggies available through the power of refrigeration – hence the name ‘Cold Storage’. At the same time they also owned other popular food brands such as Magnolia and, of course, Sunshine.

Writer Uncle confirms that Sunshine was the market leader for bread back in the day, with production plants in Penang, Melaka, and Sungai Besi. However, he couldn’t tell us why Sunshine disappeared from Malaysia in the early 90’s since he left Cold Storage in 1988, a few years after the company switched from British to Malaysian ownership.

We managed to find one post written by Azhariah Kamin with a very different version of the story that ends up with Sunshine becoming Hi-5 bread, but you might want to take this account with a pinch of yeast since we couldn’t find any other sources. Either way, Writer Uncle says that one person who’d likely know the whole story from beginning to end is a Mr. Yap, who joined Gardenia after Sunshine. However, he retired in 2015 and we weren’t able to contact him. If anyone knows Mr. Yap, please let him know we’ve been trying to reach him.

Sunshine Bread kept ONE thing the same for almost 100 years

Sunshine played a heavy hand in bread-related innovations such as plastic packaging, vitamin-fortified bread, and low sugar soft white bread. However, the one thing which Sunshine hadn’t changed since day one, even at their sunshiny new factory is in Bandar Estek, the largest halal hub in Malaysia, was their traditional recipe.

Obviously the product range is super different now, so we asked which product they’d personally recommend. Michelle recommends the Australian Oats wholemeal bread while Michael cheats by saying “all of them”. While they acknowledge that the chocolate hazelnut cream roll is a crowd favorite, this writer will die on the keyboard supporting the butter sugar cream roll.

While it’s a shame that we’ve lost a little bit more brand history from a bygone time, we can at least take the opportunity to create new ones now that Sunshine is back. Like they say, yeasterday was a memory, tomorrow a mystery, and today is a great time to try Sunshine’s Butter Sugar Cream Roll.