Dairy Farm buys Singapore stores

Dairy Farm group's Singapore supermarket chain - Cold Storage - has agreed to acquire seven Tops stores in a bid to strengthen its operations and to increase efficiency.

Cold Storage would acquire seven of the 15 Tops stores from Royal Ahold-Kerry, a joint venture controlled by the world's sixth-biggest supermarket owner, Royal Ahold, and the Kuok Group.

Ahold also offloaded its mainland operations to its local partner.

The joint-venture operations in the mainland had annual sales of US$48 million, Ahold said.

Sales from the stores are expected to bolster Cold Storage's revenue by 30 per cent.

Thereafter, they would be re-launched as Cold Storage Supermarkets, except the Tanglin Market Place store, which would retain its name and format.