SINGAPORE: Supermarket giant FairPrice officially
opened its fifth hypermarket on Friday - FairPrice Xtra at Changi
Business Park - with the promise to keep food prices
stable.
It will open a S$350 million hi-tech distribution
centre in 2014 aimed at increasing productivity and therefore
mitigating rising food costs.
Food prices rose by 2.8 per cent in the first five
months of this year, compared to the same period last year.
Chairman Ng Ser Miang said it's all about raising
productivity.
"The new distribution centre will increase our warehouse capacity
by 100 per cent and with the new automated storage and retrieval
system, it will increase our productivity by 25 per cent or
so.
"But this is only part of the productivity drive we are looking at,
on the supply chain side. At the same time, at the store front, we
are also introducing automated check out system," Ng shared.
FairPrice's chief executive officer Seah Kian Peng said as a social
enterprise, the supermarket chain's mission is to keep essential
items stable and affordable.
"For us, keeping prices affordable is key. We maintain a set of
every day low price items, we have constant promotions, we have
very attractive loyalty programs, we have good rebates given out,
all these put together give a very complete value for money
proposition to our customers and members alike."
Since 2006, FairPrice has seen a 20 per cent year-on-year sales
growth for its hypermarket chain.
Consumers said they're attracted to the bargains.
A shopper said: "Prices here are relatively fair, you know, like
all the NTUC outlets. So this is one complete area where you can
just complete your shopping and enjoy the FairPrice pricing at the
same time."
Mr Seah said FairPrice is looking to open its sixth hypermarket in
the western part of Singapore and also its first hypermart in
Vietnam sometime next year.
- CNA/ck/fa
