Cold Storage is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an multinational supermarket company currently owned by

DFI Retail Group DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited (formerly known as Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited) is a Hong Kong retail company with its legal base in Bermuda. A member of the Jardine Matheson Group, it is a major East Asian-Southeast Asian reta ...

. Its parent company also operates

Market Place A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from the Arabic), '' ...

stores, now branded as Cold Storage Fresh, as well as the

Giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

hypermarket brand, and has various other supermarkets around

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

including

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

and

Wellcome Wellcome () is a supermarket chain owned by British conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings via its DFI Retail Group subsidiary. The Wellcome supermarket chain is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being Parkn ...

. Founded in 1903 as the Singapore Cold Storage Company, Cold Storage was one of the first supermarkets in

to offer its merchandise online in 1997. The number of regular customers has since grown from 6,000 in 1998, to more than 15,000 in 2012. In 1992, DFI purchased the company. SGS has awarded a

HACCP Hazard analysis and critical control points, or HACCP (), is a systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe and designs mea ...

certification to Cold Storage, for its quality and integrity in food safety. As of 2022, Cold Storage operates 50 stores in Singapore, located across the country in city centre, affluent suburbs and HDB (public housing) estates.

History

Early years

Established in 1903 in Singapore, Cold Storage started as a small depot storing and selling mainly frozen meat. Cold Storage was then known as the Singapore Cold Storage Company, and was the main manufacturer of ice in Singapore. Taking advantage of the booming ice manufacturing and refrigeration business, Cold Storage ventured into the

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

business. In 1923, a small factory was set up at the Borneo Wharf of the

Harbourfront Harbourfront may refer to: * Harbourfront (Toronto), a neighbourhood in Toronto ** 509 Harbourfront, Toronto streetcar route **Harbourfront Centre, cultural organization on the waterfront of Toronto * HarbourFront (Singapore), waterfront site in Si ...

district to manufacture ice cream under the Paradise brand. In its early days, the company's primary concern was to have a quick and profitable turnover of its imported meats and range of products. Cold Storage later shifted from counter-service to self-service, introducing the supermarket to Singapore.

Tropical dairy farm

In 1937, Cold Storage founded the world's first tropical dairy farm at the

Bukit Timah Bukit Timah, often abbreviated as Bt Timah, is a planning area and residential estate located in the westernmost part of the Central Region of Singapore. Bukit Timah lies roughly from the Central Business District, bordering the Central Wa ...

district of Singapore, which aimed to produce fresh

pasteurised milk Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. Th ...

. This farm, then known as the Singapore Dairy Farm, was situated inside what is now the

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve ( abbreviation: BTNR) is a nature reserve near the geographic centre of Singapore, located on the slopes of Bukit Timah Hill, the country's highest natural peak standing at a height of approximately , and parts o ...

. It kept as many as 800 cows. Pasteurised milk produced at the farm was packaged in pyramid-shaped cartons and sold under the brand Magnolia. Cold Storage is the Singapore's oldest established supermarket operator. It was the first supermarket in Singapore to receive the CaseTrust mark introduced by the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) in 1998 which identifies companies that receive a high degree of consumer confidence. It was also the first supermarket in Singapore to receive MUIS certification for its supermarket operations at

Causeway Point Causeway Point is the seventh largest suburban shopping mall in Singapore. It is operated by Frasers Property. Causeway Point is located in the town centre of Woodlands, a town in the North of Singapore. Completed in 1998, it is located beside ...

Woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...

, thus providing

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s with the assurance of

Halal ''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with ''haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification kno ...

purchases.

Recent years

In 1992,

purchased the company, although no major changes were made to the Cold Storage brand. Cold Storage started the Fresh Food Distribution Centre in Singapore in 1999, a composite multi-temperature warehousing for fresh and

frozen food Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved grains and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows decompositi ...

distribution.

Brands

Private labels

Cold Storage supermarkets sell products from DFI's Meadows and Yu Pin King private labels.

Cold Storage Fresh and Mercató

Cold Storage Fresh (formerly Market Place, Jasons and Jasons Deli) in

, Mercató was formerly known as Jasons Food Hall and had started business in 1975. Now, It operates five stores in Singapore.

Giant

Giant, a subsidiary of Cold Storage, is one of the largest players of the retail industry in Singapore as well as in Malaysia, having over 85 branches spread throughout the country. It was founded by the Teng family in 1944. Prices at Giant are significantly cheaper than at Cold Storage.

Shop N Save

Dairy Farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that ...

Singapore acquired Shop N Save in 2003, 35 stores from QAF and Belgian retailer,

Delhaize Delhaize Group SA (, ) was a Belgian multinational retail company headquartered in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Brussels, Belgium, and operated in seven countries and on three continents. The principal activity of Delhaize Group was the operation of ...

. It was a former

discount supermarket A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down co ...

chain in Singapore, operating 50 stores located across the island in HDB estates and suburban malls. It sells a range of cheap products and fresh food. In 2013, it was merged with Giant.

Notes and references

External links

Official Website
{{Singapore supermarkets 1903 establishments in Singapore Supermarkets of Singapore Retail companies established in 1903 Singaporean brands