Supermarket chain, NTUC Fairprice, has introduced a slew of
initiatives totalling $15 million, to help Singaporeans ride
through the recession.
For consumers, the five percent discount on 500 housebrand items
will be extended till the end of December this year so that they
will continue to enjoy affordable daily essentials.
In addition, NTUC Fairprice has introduced a new range of
"Yellow Dot" basic items that are up to 25 percent cheaper than
comparable top national brands.
These items are the lowest priced in their respective product
categories.
Director of Integrated Purchasing of NTUC Fairprice
Co-operative, Tng Ah Yiam gave the assurance that though these
products are priced low, they meet food safety requirements.
"First thing first, actually we look at the factory facility to
make sure that they have the proper certification to meet the food
safety criteria. Second thing is that we also taste the product, we
did the tasting to compare the product versus the national brand to
ensure that that product itself, the taste, quality itself meets
the local consumer requirements.”
For the first time, NTUC Fairprice is setting aside up to two
million dollars this year to help SME suppliers manage their
cashflows.
Chairman of NTUC Fairprice, Mr Ng Ser Miang elaborates.
"For our suppliers, especially those small and medium
enterprise, we will support them to improve their cashflow by
giving them earlier payments for example from 60 days to 30 days
and we believe this will benefit about 100 SMEs and will cost about
two million (dollars) to Fairprise in terms of opportunity costs or
in terms of interest and to the Union, we will increase our support
to the Labour Movement by more than 50 percent of contribution from
4 over million to 6 over million."
Mr Ng adds that NTUC Fairprice has no retrenchment plans but
will instead spend about half a million dollars this year to train
5,000 frontline customer service staff.
There will also be three new NTUC Fairprice supermarkets opening
across the island this year.
To help the needy and underpriviledged, the Fairprice Foundation
will contribute at least 20 percent more this year compared to the
6.7 million donated in 2008.
--938Live