[SINGAPORE] Supermarket and retail operator DFI Retail, which owns Cold Storage and Giant in Singapore, said on Mar 24 that it will sell its food business in the city-state to Malaysian retail group Macrovalue.
DFI will sell all 48 Cold Storage and 41 Giant outlets, as well as two distribution centres to Macrovalue for S$125 million.
Scott Price, group chief executive of DFI Retail Group, said that Macrovalue is “ideally positioned” to drive the next phase of growth for the Singapore food business – due to its expanded scale and procurement power across Malaysia and Singapore.
“(It is) uniquely equipped to unlock these efficiencies and deliver greater value to customers – achieving outcomes that would have been more challenging to accomplish for retailers with a presence only in Singapore,” he said in the Mar 24 statement.
What does Macrovalue do, and who are its two owners, Andrew Lim and Gary Yap?
What is Macrovalue?
Founded in 2022, Macrovalue is a special-purpose vehicle equally owned by Malaysian businessmen and entrepreneurs Lim and Yap.
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In 2023, Macrovalue acquired Malaysia-based GCH Retail Group, the operator of Cold Storage, Giant and Mercato in the country.
After taking over Giant in Malaysia, Macrovalue refreshed the concept to offer a different product mix and better price points, repositioning the hypermarket concept as Giant Malls, according to an article by The Edge Malaysia. It had pledged to initiate changes at the stores to improve profit margins and revenue per square foot.
Macrovalue has a total of 54 stores in Malaysia: 38 Giant outlets, two Cold Storage outlets, 11 Mercato outlets, and three TMC stores.
In the Mar 24 statement, Lim and Yap noted that preserving the heritage of the 121-year-old Cold Storage brand is at the heart of their vision.
Lim added: “Our priority is to enhance customer trust of these valued brands. We will ensure the continuity of local management and operational teams to continuously improve the quality of service for our valued customers.”
Macrovalue wants to open more shophouse-based stores going forward, according to the The Edge Malaysia article. In Malaysia, foreign-owned grocers must obtain a licence to operate, but locally owned retailers have less-stringent expansion rules. So there would be no limit on the number of Giant Mini stores that Macrovalue can open, according to the article. Giant Mini is a smaller-store concept that is similar to more modest grocery stores or minimarts.
Who are Lim and Yap?
The pair are leaders in the retail and supermarket industry.
Lim, who is 69 this year, was born and raised in Penang, and has two children, according to The Edge Malaysia. But he has a Singapore connection – his parents got married in the city-state.
He earned his law degree at University College Cardiff, Wales, in the UK, and began his legal career by practising in his late father’s legal firm.
Before heading to the UK to study law, he worked for one of Penang’s oldest newspapers – the original Straits Echo – as a junior reporter and then a sub-editor, according to The Edge Malaysia.
“This was in 1977, 1978, and then I left for England to study law. My family are all barristers. I was a lawyer for 20 solid years,” he told The Edge Malaysia.
While practising law, Lim developed a keen interest in the retail industry. His father was also a board member in Gama, a local supermarket popular for its array of imported goods from China.
Lim then ventured into retail by buying into the Gama group in 2000.
In 2002, he spearheaded the management buyout of Sogo Kuala Lumpur, a struggling department store at the time, and transformed it into a profitable and thriving retail business.
His legal background “proved invaluable” amid the transition into retail, according to Macrovalue.
Active even at a senior age, he scaled Mount Kinabalu when he was 65.
Yap, who is 67 this year, began his venture into retail in 1980 working at a supermarket called Yu Yi. After the 1987 economic downturn, he spotted an opportunity in retail and launched his own supermarket in 1988 that had a focus on competitive prices.
In 1994, Yap diversified into design-and-build contracting in order to develop tailored supermarket and hypermarket spaces.
By 1996, he started offering specialised construction and design services for major retail chains. In 2000, he ventured into real estate development, building a hypermarket designed for lease.
After decades of retail, engineering and construction experience, he founded RDS Marketing Malaysia, which specialises in retail design and fit-out.
“His ability to diversify across various sectors – retail, construction, real estate, and now supermarket retail – has made him a prominent figure in Malaysia’s business landscape,” said Macrovalue in a statement.
