KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian retail group Macrovalue, which firmly stamped its mark as a major player in the regional supermarket business with the acquisition of Cold Storage and Giant stores in Singapore this week, is in expansion mode.
Businessman Andrew Lim Tatt Keong, the co-owner and driving force behind the privately owned Macrovalue, said the S$125 million (US$93 million) deal with Singapore-listed DFI Retail Group, makes his company Malaysia’s third largest supermarket operator, after AEON and Lotus (formerly Tesco).
It is also in line with his group’s strategy to achieve economies of scale in a fiercely competitive environment.
“The grand plan for any food and grocery business is to aggregate until you are of critical size to take advantage of better bulk discounts and back-end deal suppliers. Just like NTUC FairPrice and the Central Group in Thailand with 50 per cent of the market share in (the) primary food and grocery business … we hope to be that party in Malaysia,’’ Lim said.
Lim also told CNA that he is not discounting opening new Cold Storage and Giant operations in Singapore in the months ahead, but stressed that as the new owner, he had no plans for a radical overhaul.
“Number one, it will be business as usual. Number two, no layoffs and number three, Lim Boon Cheong has agreed to lead the team onwards,” he said, referring to DFI Retail Group’s managing director for Food Singapore.
On Monday (Mar 24), Macrovalue said it will retain Lim Boon Cheong to “spearhead the next chapter of business transformation”.
Andrew Lim also added that the Yuu loyalty programme and in-house Meadows products at Cold Storage will continue too.
Stressing that his Macrovalue retail group’s foray into Singapore was for the long-term, Lim said: “We are committed to the supermarket industry, and we are not here to slice and dice and make a corporate deal.”
