Why did this Malaysian supermarket mogul buy Singapore’s Cold Storage, Giant stores? Climate is key factor
Macrovalue co-founder Andrew Lim, who has been lurking in the shadows of Malaysia’s retail sector, has turned into a serious player in the brutal low-margin supermarket business with a cross-Causeway reach, after his purchase of the Cold Storage and Giant stores in Singapore.
Macrovalue co-founder Andrew Lim speaking to CNA during an interview on Mar 27, 2025.
This audio is generated by an AI tool.
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.”
SUMMER BAND COUNTRIES
The 69-year-old Lim said his expansion strategy in an industry wracked by disruptions posed by e-commerce stores is predicated on distinct behavioural patterns in countries with long winters compared with locations that enjoy summer all year round, such as California, Florida, Malaysia and Singapore.
Citing studies by Oxford University, urbane Lim, a lawyer-turned-businessman, noted that research has shown that e-commerce has taken off in countries with long winter seasons, such as North America, China, Japan and South Korea because home deliveries for groceries and other essentials are favoured.
“But in summer band countries, where it is summer all year round, people want to go out ... so there is a need for the lifestyle centres and brick-and-mortar supermarkets,” he said.
He added that Macrovalue will also stress superior customer service as it goes head on with rivals such as NTUC FairPrice and Sheng Siong in Singapore.
Lim added that the group’s focus will be on brand-building because of the complex mix of rational and emotional factors that come into play in the business, which he discovered after leading a management buyout in 2002 of the Sogo departmental operations in the capital Kuala Lumpur from its Japanese owners.
While the rational concerns are about pricing and the quality of goods, the emotional side of the equation is about the closeness to a particular outlet.
Lim noted that his Sogo stores are popular with lower and middle-income segments, particularly from the country’s dominant ethnic Muslim Malay community.
“It is like Hari Raya (Eid) buying, you don’t complete it unless you visit Sogo,” he said as he pointed to the noisy rumble of customers doing their last-minute shopping ahead of Eid, which falls early next week.
NO STRANGERS
DFI Retail, a retail operator in the stable of companies controlled by conglomerate Jardine Matheson, and Macrovalue are no strangers.
In 2023, DFI sold its Malaysia Cold Storage and Giant operations to Macrovalue, allowing the Malaysian concern to broaden its interest in retail and the supermarket sector beyond the Sogo retail outlets in the country.
This week’s acquisition will give Macrovalue control of 48 Cold Storage stores in Singapore, including those under CS Fresh, CS Gold and the Jason Deli brands as well as 41 Giant stores and two distribution centres in Singapore.
The Giant chain of supermarkets has been shrinking in Singapore. Eleven of its outlets – including supermarkets, hypermarkets and smaller express stores – closed in 2024.
The deal marks DFI's exit from the traditional grocery space in Singapore, as the group shifts its focus to its health and convenience arms – Guardian and 7-Eleven.
Combined with its Malaysian operations, the supermarket and retail operations under the Macrovalue group will now amount to roughly RM5 billion (US$1.1 billion) annually and give the group a cross-Causeway reach, the businessman said.
HOMECOMING
Lim cut his teeth in the retail and supermarket business in the mid-1980s when he began serving as legal advisor to the owners of GAMA Group, which owns a department store in Penang. It is widely considered to be the country’s first full-fledged retail complex and supermarket.
“After handling all the back-end suppliers’ contracts and also tenancy agreements, I learned about the business,” said Lim, who in 2000 bought into GAMA in a management buyout before carrying out a similar corporate exercise to take control of Sogo two years later.
Lim noted that the retail sector had long fascinated him because of the ever-changing demands and tastes of the consumers.
“It is always different about what the consumer wants or is attracted to and keeping up with that is a challenge that I like,” he said, adding that banks generally favour financing food and grocery enterprises because it is a staple and a cash business.
Macrovalue’s foray into Singapore isn’t all about business, Lim acknowledged.
“My mother is from Singapore, so this is like a homecoming for me,” he said.
But family will not figure in the way he runs his business, said Lim, adding that not a single family member is involved as he prefers to leave it to first-rate professionals instead.
“I think that is the way to go, because you need to glean from the general population the best people to actually run any business.”
