Popular Holdings Limited, more commonly known as just Popular or colloquially as the Popular Bookstore, 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 bookstore chain. Aside from Singapore, it also has subsidiaries in countries such as

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(including

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and the

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. During the

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of 2011, it had a turnover of approximately S$735.9million.

Overview

The first Popular Bookstore was set up in 1936 by Chou Sing Chu in

North Bridge Road North Bridge Road () is a one-way road in Singapore, running north of the Singapore River. It starts at the junction with Crawford Street in Kallang, on the western bank of the Rochor River, and continues in a southwest direction before ending at ...

, Singapore, initially focusing on retailing Chinese books and stationery. In March 2006, Popular Holdings was the main organiser of BookFest@Singapore, the first

Chinese-language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

book fair ever held outside of China. In May 2006, Popular Holdings staged the inaugural BookFest@Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. It is a platform for established publishers to showcase their latest publications and renowned authors to meet and interact with the readers. The inaugural BookFest@Hong Kong was organized in 2008. By 2009, the annual BookFest has become a major event of the book industries in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The company was founded with the intention to publish, distribute and retail Chinese language books or books catering to the interests of

Singaporeans Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to Singaporean nationality law, citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multiracialism, multi-ethnic, multiculturalism, multi-cultural an ...

. Ever since, one of the company's goals has been to cater to the interests of a wider, more diverse clientele.

Board of directors

Popular is headed by Chou Cheng Ngok, who is the

Group chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and Executive Director of the Group. Lim Lee Ngoh heads the operations in Malaysia and Singapore, while her counterpart in Greater China is Poon Chi Wai, Ponch. Desmond Wee Guan Oei is the Non-Executive chairman and Executive Director of the Board and other directors include Lim Soon Tze, David Chia Tian Bin and Christopher Chia. Former directors include Ching Ging Oong, Poh Ping Tek, Ching Cheng Pong, Ang Tuak Liak, Vangatharaman Ramayah and Chim Choon Cheng.

Group of Companies

The Group currently carries out its publishing activities through subsidiaries operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Canada. Its bookstore operations currently have a network of over 130 Popular Bookstores in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It now has its core businesses in retail, distribution, publishing and e-learning.

Retail

Back in 1936, Popular focused on the retailing of Chinese books and stationery. It has now expanded its product offerings to include English books, Malay books, textbooks and assessment books, Gadgets & IT products, household appliances, titbits, stationery, multimedia products and many more. It currently has stores in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Bookfest

POPULAR held its first BookFest in 2006. It had started out with the objective of promoting the reading of Chinese across regions and bringing in the foremost works of Chinese literature.

Distribution and Publishing

In 1999, POPULAR Group set up a purchasing office in Taiwan to purchase Chinese books for Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. With the expansion of the business, Popular Book Company Ltd was established in 2003 as a subsidiary of POPULAR Group. POPULAR Group now exports Chinese books in Taiwan, distributes books to Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong through around 188 POPULAR outlets. Novum Organum, also a subsidiary of POPULAR, is the distributor for the Group’s house brands and focuses on the book markets in Singapore and Malaysia.

E-Learning

POPULAR made an early foray into e-Learning in Hong Kong, with the establishment of Popular e-Learning (HK) Ltd. (‘PeLH’) in 2000. It provides e-Learning software and solutions to schools in Hong Kong, South East Asia and Taiwan. In 2001, Guangzhou Cyber Progress Information Technology Limited (GCPIT) was established to support PeLH in its efforts.

Subsidiaries

The list of its subsidiaries is listed below: *Active & Independent Education Limited *Ampress Limited *Arajasa Corporation Sdn Bhd *CD Rama Limited *CD Rama Sdn Bhd *Cyber Progress Technology Limited *Educational Publishing House Limited *Educational Publishing House Pte Ltd *Educational Publishing House, Limited *Eduland Pte Ltd *EduSmart Company Limited *English Language Publishing Limited *EPH Publishing (M) Sdn Bhd *Epilogue Catering Ptd Ltd *Guangzhou Cyber Progress Information Technology Limited *Guangzhou Pan Lloyds Information Technology Development Company Limited *Harris Book Company (M) Sdn Bhd *Harris Book Company Limited *Harris Book Company Pte Ltd *Kam Pui Enterprises Limited *Kinder Education Press Limited *New Chapter Book Company Pte Ltd *Novum Organum Publishing House (M) Sdn Bhd *Novum Organum Publishing House Pte Ltd *Pan Lloyds Education Limited *Pan Lloyds Publishers Limited *Popular Book Company (Canada) Limited *Popular Book Company Limited *Popular Book Company Pte Ltd *Popular Book Co. (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd *Popular e-Learning (Beijing) Ltd *Popular e-Learning (H.K.) Limited *Popular e-Learning Holdings Pte Ltd *Popular Land Investment Pte Ltd *Popular Land Pte Ltd *Popular Modern Books Company Limited *Popular Warehouse and Distribution Pte Ltd *PopularWorld (Beijing) Limited *PopularWorld.com Pte Ltd *Prologue Publishing Pte Ltd *Seashore Publishing (M) Sdn Bhd *Smart English Company Limited

References

External links

Popular Singapore
official site (Singapore)
Popular Holdings
official site (International) {{DEFAULTSORT:Popular Holdings Book publishing companies of Singapore Publishing companies established in 1924 Retail companies established in 1924 1924 establishments in Singapore Companies formerly listed on the Singapore Exchange Singaporean brands