“With humble beginnings as a recreational diving company, Poni Group stands as a testament to relentless growth and diversification with a strong commitment to the local community”.
Diving was not a prescribed career choice or long-time business plan. But Poni Group founder Mohd Tahsin Wong bin Abdullah’s’ entrepreneurial roots and wife Anna Aziz’s resume offer an immediate clue as to how they successfully married passion and business.
Tahsin’s parents dedicated decades growing their cold storage equipment business, which now supplies most major supermarkets and meat processing plants in the country. Their hard-earned dollars allowed Tahsin to pursue a degree in Economics from the University of Alberta in Canada.
Tahsin stumbled upon diving while backpacking across Southeast Asia during his summer breaks. He completed his first dive in Thailand and subsequently his first diving course in Brunei. He founded the University dive club and would later become the youngest director on Alberta’s Underwater Council Board.
His career as an equities trader in Canada was cut short by the global financial crisis in 2008. After a brother’s wedding and an internship in China, Tahsin reconnected with an old friend and launched Poni Divers in Seri Q-lap Mall in 2010.
Poni Divers initially catered primarily to locals for beach events and watersports when it started operating out of the Serasa Watersports Complex in 2011. Their activities included jet-skiing, parasailing and banana boats. This led to organising large outdoor events for up to 500 people at the beach, team-building activities, and the establishment of Poni Adventures.
In 2014, Poni became certified by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) to offer professional instructor courses – the first dive centre in Brunei. Tourist divers seeking extended stays and a demand for training led to the formation of Poni Homestay and Poni Tec.
Bridging the Gulf
Anna and Tahsin crossed paths in 2016, when the former was at a career crossroads. Her resume included various business development roles at luxury hotel operator Dorchester Collection, Hip and Healthy, and The Energy Kitchen. Appreciating her bigger-picture vision, Tahsin immediately invited Anna aboard to help Poni navigate the transition from a small to a medium-sized enterprise.
Anna Aziz, Chief Business Officer of Poni Group, explained: “We started receiving more inquiries about different commercial services, including search and recovery, boat chartering, underwater inspections and hull cleaning.”
To accommodate the demand, Poni Marine was launched, focusing on boat maintenance and marine-related engineering work.
The duo’s business nous landed them a contract with Hengyi industries in 2018 to ferry more than 600 Brunei staff to Pulau Muara Besar while the adjoining bridge was under construction. This meant expanding their fleet of speedboats, which they were able to do with Baiduri Bank’s assistance through hire purchase financing.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Baiduri Bank’s overdraft facilities and corporate credit cards allowed Poni to weather the financial storm.
Anna stated, “The financial support was instrumental as the company’s revenue did not align with our growth plans during that time. Without Baiduri Bank’s assistance, Poni Group would have faced significant challenges due to limited cash flow.”
Anna was the driving force behind their ISO 9001:2015 – a first for a recreational diving centre in Southeast Asia – and 45001 certifications. She also orchestrated the brand unification of Poni Divers, Poni Marine, Poni Adventures, Poni Tec and Poni Homestay under a single umbrella with the incorporation of Poni Group in 2020.
“We will also be launching Poni Foundation, which is our non-government organisation (NGO) under Poni Group that will be focusing on marine conservation, societal issues and humanitarian aid,” added Anna.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Poni Group has made significant strides in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. They trained their first local female instructor in 2017, with three more female instructors following suit since.
Since 2018, in conjunction with PADI’s Women’s Dive Day, Poni Divers has organised local events with special rates for women to encourage their participation in diving.
Poni Group’s commitment to equal opportunity extends to youth with special needs and disabilities. Ak Halim joined as an apprentice from An-Nur Harapan’s UNIKLEARN programme in 2019 and was offered a full-time position as a Facilities Assistant in 2020. He is still with Poni today, working with the Dive Gear Repair Team and assisting during team-building events.
In 2019, Poni Divers also became the first and only Rebreather Association of International Divers (RAID) adaptive diving centre in Brunei. They took Norali Yusop, who became blind at 17 years old, for his first plunge underwater during an introductory scuba dive.
Community Conservation
Poni Group have been committed conservation activists since 2011, regularly organising beach, coastal and underwater cleanups, while channeling a lot of their efforts into restorative initiatives.
They became Brunei’s coral propagation experts in 2014, when they launched the country’s first programme in partnership with the Society for Community Outreach & Training (SCOT), an initiative supported by the Ministry of Primary Resources & Tourism (MPRT).
In July this year, Poni Marine launched the first four reef balls made in Brunei as part of the Brunei Reef Ball Programme (BRBP) with support from the Department of Fisheries and the Reef Ball Foundation (RBF). Reef balls are deployed worldwide for a variety of purposes, including shoreline erosion control, beach, mangrove and estuary restoration, reef protection and as fish aggregating devices.
The BRBP is a flagship initiative under Project Looking After Underwater Treasures (LAUT) Brunei, also launched earlier this year, aiming to find sustainable artificial reef designs for long-term coral habitat restoration, in line with Wawasan Brunei 2035.
Reef Guru, a UK non-profit that advocates for coral propagation, and Reef Cloud, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform co-funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to improve coral reef monitoring, reporting and conservation, are two other partnerships which fall under the Project LAUT Brunei portfolio.
Distinguished by their business acumen and unwavering dedication to diversity, equality, and environmental preservation, Poni Group aspires to continue co-creating a sustainable future for Brunei’s coastal treasures and its communities.
