GeoAnalitikAyam gepuk opens where young, Malay-majority neighbourhoods meet fast food
We mapped 1,291 ayam gepuk outlets: every branch on the outlet lists of four chains (Pak Gembus, Top Global, Pak Gendut and Artisan), and every other brand on Google Maps, down to single stalls. We then compared the 2 km around each one with the 1,113 KFC, McDonald’s and Marrybrown outlets in the same states. Nine findings set the category apart, and the same comparison points to where it could open next.
The case study as a PDF. The nine findings, the candidate sites and a sample site dossier on 16 A4 pages, to print or forward.
What sets ayam gepuk apart
- It is a Klang Valley product.
48% of outlets are in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, against 36% of fast food. Johor, Penang and East Malaysia are under-served.
- Its neighbourhoods are much more Malay and younger than fast food’s.
Around the median outlet, 58% of adult citizens are Malay, against 40% around fast food, and 29.5% are aged 18–29, against 25.9%. Within the same state, outlets also have slightly fewer residents nearby; district income is no different.
- It goes where young Malays are many, not only where they are the majority.
The 837 localities with 1,000 or more Malay adults aged 18–29 are home to 40% of them. They hold 45% of ayam gepuk outlets, against 30% of fast food once fast food is weighted to the same states (26% unweighted). We count people here, not shares: a small locality can be all young and Malay and still have fewer customers than a large one.
- It is a shophouse business.
27 of 1,291 outlets (2.1%) are in a mall or a retail block, against 13.8% of fast food, both counted from building outlines; McDonald’s, the lowest of the three chains, has 12%. Pak Gembus, the largest chain, has none among 109.
- It leans away from office districts.120/00/03098/17/14
Comparing how many people are in an area by day and by night, 25% of outlets sit in daytime areas such as office districts, against 31% of fast food weighted to the same states; 52% sit in mixed areas with people at both meals, against 50%. Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman has 6.2 times as many people by day as by night; Pinggiran Batu Caves has 0.37.
Area type within 2 km of each outlet, by the ratio of daytime to night-time population: daytime at 1.2 or more, residential below 0.85, mixed in between. Fast food is weighted to ayam gepuk’s mix of states. Population counts from 2014–15.
- The big brands crowd each other.108/40/15102/26/12
68% of outlets have another ayam gepuk outlet within 1 km, and 224 of the 392 outlets of the ten largest brands have a rival brand that close. In Bukit Jelutong a Top Global and a Pak Gembus are 42 m apart; in Bandar Baru Bangi a Top Global and a Tok Mat are next door.
- Students line up with reviews more than with location.
Within a brand, outlets with more private-college students nearby collect 22% more Google reviews per standard deviation. Reviews stand in for sales here, and students may simply write more of them.
More Google reviews per outlet for each standard step up in the factor, within the same brand. Only factors with a significant effect are shown.
- Where an outlet sits moves its ingredient cost: RM7.45 to RM8.52 a plate at most outlets.024/19/04098/17/14
Priced from the shops and markets near each outlet, one plate’s ingredients cost RM7.45 to RM8.52 at 8 of 10 outlets; the two ends are RM6.99 at Kubang Kerian and RM9.33 at Pinggiran Batu Caves. Chicken thigh near the outlet explains most of the spread. No brand has settled in cheaper places.
Ingredient cost of one plate: a quarter-chicken thigh piece, sambal, rice, tofu and tempe, at KPDN PriceCatcher shelf prices for the week of 21 September 2026 (recipe and national cost from manamurah). Shelf prices, not what a chain pays wholesale.
- Outlets carry the same flood and landslide risk as fast food.137/16/02089/34/06
5.7% of outlets sit in a locality our climate-risk index rates High or Very High for floods and landslides, against 5.5% of fast food. Eight share one Very High locality at MITC Ayer Keroh, Melaka. One of the top 20 candidate sites, in Cameron Highlands, sits in a Very High locality.
Where it could open next
We ranked 118 KFC, McDonald’s and Marrybrown sites that have no ayam gepuk outlet within 3 km and at least 3,000 residents within 2 km by how closely that catchment resembles those of established outlets, the ones with 20 or more Google reviews. These are the five closest matches.
Figure 1. The 1,291 existing outlets (lime) and the 20 best-matching candidate sites (red). A reference such as 037/19/04 outlines that locality on the map.
Lookalike is how close the site’s catchment is to its five most similar established outlets: 80 means a closer match than 80% of established outlets have with theirs. Fit is the site’s place on the study’s model, as a percentile of existing outlets; it is n/a where the state has fewer than 10 outlets. A high lookalike far from any outlet says the neighbourhood resembles an outlet’s, not that the market is proven.
What a study for your chain adds
- Your outlets’ sales as the target: sites are ranked by what your best outlets have in common, not by resemblance to all of them.
- Drive-time catchments in place of 2 km circles.
- A cannibalisation check for every shortlisted site against your own network.
Commission a study for your chain.Clients sign in to read the full technical study behind this summary: every figure, the model and the method, plus all 118 candidate sites with their dossiers.
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