Hong Kong’s Dairy Farm International (DFI), which operates a chain of hypermarkets in Malaysia, including Giant and Cold Storage, will be exiting its grocery business in Malaysia after 24 years.
The Edge Market reported that DFI has agreed to sell its stake in the local operations – GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd to a leading Malaysian retain group led by Datuk Andrew Lim, who is also the group executive chairman of SOGO Department Store Sdn Bhd. The exact amount was not disclosed but it was reported that at least a couple of billion ringgit was involved.
DFI in an announcement also said that the local retail group will take over the existing 2,500 team members.
“By bringing these businesses together, under experienced local ownership, both customers and team members will continue to benefit from the positive changes to Giant, Cold Storage and Mercato that have taken place in recent years,” DFI said.
DFI added that the team members would also benefit from more career growth opportunities by being part of a broader retail group in Malaysia. In the meantime, Datuk Lim said that he and the new team members will add value and enhance the respective brand equities of Cold Storage, TMC, Giant and Mercato brand names in Malaysia.
Another report by New Straits Times said that the deal between DFI and Datuk Lim is expected to be completed by early March.
Despite bidding goodbye to its grocery business in Malaysia, DFI said that it will remain focused on its retail business here, and will continue to own and operate Guardian Health and Beauty stores in Malaysia. In terms of future plans, DFI said,
“We have exciting plans for the next 2 years, continuing to refresh the Guardian store format and significantly expanding its store network, and hundreds of job opportunities are expected to be available by then.”
Now that the grocery businesses under DFI have been owned by a Malaysian company, do you think the transition will bring positive changes?
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