Family business | Dairy Farm buys San Miu supermarkets for MOP1.3 billion
The Dairy Farm Company has acquired the Macau-based supermarket operator, San Miu Supermarket Ltd for MOP1.3 billion patacas, a source told the Times.
The sale was announced last week by the parent company Dairy Farm International Holdings in a disclosure to the Singapore stock exchange, without details of the money involved in the transaction.
Currently, San Miu operates 15 mass-market supermarkets with an average gross store size of 9,500 sqft. The company was set up in 1990 and opened its first shop in 1998 in the populous Iao Hon district in northern Macau. From 2008 to 2013, the company enjoyed a period of great expansion as a result of the gaming and tourism boom in the region. San Miu owns two trading companies for imports, exports and wholesale and has two offices in the Zhuhai municipality. According to its website, the company also operates a 50,000 sqft warehouse, a bakery factory and an egg plant, having more than 400 employees overall.
San Miu Supermarket Ltd is wholly owned by a local Chinese family. Upon the patriarch’s death, the company – which has a share capital of only MOP500,000 – was inherited by the widow and the three siblings born of the marriage. Following a local tradition, the eldest son owns the lion’s share, which is 80 percent of the whole business, our sources revealed.
San Miu (新苗, which means “new seeding” in Chinese) is the second largest supermarket chain in Macau after Royal Group, holds a 15% share of the mass-market supermarket business, which grossed around 4 billion patacas in 2014, according to the latest statistics. San Miu will operate under the Wellcome brand, the second largest supermarket chain in Hong Kong and the leader in online grocery shopping.
“The acquisition of San Miu reinforces Dairy Farm’s retail presence in Macau, and complements its well-established convenience store and health and beauty businesses in the territory,” Dairy Farm said in the abovementioned regulatory filing to the Singapore stock exchange last Wednesday.
According to the 2013 annual report, reviewed by MDT, the pan-Asian retail giant owns in Macau 44 7-Eleven outlets, 16 Mannings’ stores and 8 Maxim’s restaurants.
Dairy Farm International Holdings, along with its associates and joint ventures, operates more than 6,100 retail outlets in Asia, including supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, health and beauty stores, home furnishing stores, and restaurants. The company, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group, has a primary listing in London and a secondary listing in Singapore. It is also incorporated in Bermuda.
Brook Yang contributed to this report.
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Congratulations to all parties here, namely Dairy Farm Group and Jardine.
This is the best piece of news that came along for a long time, I am so happy that such an enterprise is finally getting involved. Needless to say that the present one is nowhere near perfect, professional nor business-like.
The staff are rude, poorly trained, absolutely badly behaved and do not meet the standard as sales personnel.
In my mind, the sales representatives need to undergo brush-up courses, long term training for changes and listen to patrons requests and not just say “NO!” and “Don’t know.”
If I may, I would like to recommend that the in-coming management group give an opportunity by having your FULL CONTACT clearly visible on all of your printed materials, especially your e-mail addresses for feedback, and not just your website.
As you are well aware Macao is a small place, but many work [on] shifts [because of] the 24-hour casinos, [which are] the second largest employer here; The Government as I understand is the first.
I would like to see a 24x7x365 days supermarket; it is available in China and elsewhere in the major countries of the world.
Do your research studies. The enterprise mentioned here closes at mid-night, not good enough. If you are going to make changes in these areas be sure to have adequate stock supplies.
If the incoming management group is to better the daily operation and meet a quality standard expected of them, we would like the top level team to be aware of the manner in which we have been treated in the past.
I dare say, just trying to get daily necessities, such as dairy products (1L) Carton Fresh Mike – Kowloon Dairy is so difficult to come by, more so at the weekends, long weekends and Holidays in HK.
Why must this be so? Having an adequate supply of stock just makes all the sense to me.
For years now I have taken up this issue with ParknShop Customer Service Department, just to have it fall on deaf ears.
Getting back to San Mui Supermarket, the fashion in which they operate, when the Kowloon Dairy Mike (Carton Boxes) is not readier available, sorry, they don’t carry this product at all.
They have it in the small glass bottles, and a deposit is required. But when you return the bottles they don’t give you your money back, you have to purchase and deducted.
Do you mean to say if I get my Fresh Mike for my Breakfast, do I carry the empty bottles to work with me or buy the mike and get my MOP1 refund and carry the milk with me?
Come-On! Guys – how sick can it be?
Agree with that! On our experience with the San Mui [we think] staff is very rude as well. My wife was loading a bus card (macau pass) with a 1,000 note with her and the cashier told her “cannot no change”. Hello! You are a big shop though, and what […] is that answer to the customers.
Is she’s the owner of the shops?
So my wife argue with the cashier and very very angry with that rude cashier becoz the cashier grab my wife hand and removed from the macau pass reader and scratches my wife hands on her […] bracelet, luckily my wife has to work that time, if not she will call a police to report that, they have a cctv and will show up how rude the staff [was]. That’s San Mui Barra location.
I have just found out that the news is not that great after all, the take-over.
Absolutely, nothing has changed. Dairy Farm’s good buy.
We were expecting something in line with a set-up similar to The Welcome Supermarkets in Hong Kong, but, that was not to be.
Back to square one, most disappointed is an under statement to say the least.