Kickstarting a New Growth Engine
In line with this, we made an acquisition of an 80% stake in leading, reputable food distributor C.K.H. Food Trading Pte Ltd (“C.K.H.”) and 123 Mart Pte. Ltd. for a total consideration of S$3.3 million towards the end of 2021. This acquisition facilitates the extension of the Group’s distribution channels as C.K.H. supplies over 200 food products to close to 1,500 food and beverage establishments and channels in Singapore. Cross-selling opportunities aside, PSC is also able to combine resources in logistics and transportation and reap operational synergies.
PSC has the potential to grow into a regional FMCG group and one of the key growth strategies is to broaden our consumer product range. Following months of sourcing, we have secured distribution rights for several products. In November 2021, Tipex Pte Ltd (“Tipex”) was appointed the exclusive distributor of the homegrown, award-winning Kit Cat range of wholesome and natural cat food products for supermarkets, hypermarkets, chain stores, minimarts and traditional stores in Singapore. Earlier this year, Topseller Pte Ltd (“Topseller”) began distribution for Monori seafood snacks, a popular range of snacks made from shrimp and salmon from a leading global seafood producer. Under our existing Fortune brand, we soft-launched a new range of chilled soya beancurd desserts in early 2022, which will be made available across all supermarkets, hypermarkets, minimarts and convenience stores in the second quarter of 2022.
Our team is also working on launching a range of premium frozen seafood, which is a new product segment for the Group. With work-from-home arrangements becoming a norm, we see this as a strong and growing product segment as many consumers seek convenience and easy-to-prepare meals. Our seafood products are sourced from various reputable suppliers so as to bolster ourability to bring variety, quality and cost competitiveness to consumers. Our existing brands continued to maintain their market leadership in their respective segments through catering to shifting needs and regular brand engagements. Under Topseller, which is a strong distributor and brand developer of popular consumer essentials, Royal Umbrella launched healthier rice options in late 2020 to cater to health-conscious consumers. Our popular Beautex brand won the Top Brand Excellence Award and the People’s Choice Award in the Fairprice Excellence Awards. SOCMA, which distributes products such as confectionery, snacks, grocery items and beverages to over 20,000 distribution points in Malaysia and Brunei, was appointed as a distributor of RiceUp in July 2021, the first-ever brand of popped brown rice chips in Malaysia. Lastly, Fortune, a leading brand specialising in soya bean-based products, enjoyed strong sales growth and attained category leadership for packaged beancurd in Singapore, by being the No. 1 Tofu Brand by volume sales*.
*Based on data reported by NielsenIQ Retail Index Service for Packaged Beancurd category from Dec ‘20-Nov ‘21, for Total Singapore (© 2021 Nielsen Consumer LLC).