Singapore food products have traditionally not been easily found in supermarkets in Asia as companies face high entry costs and difficulty in products registration, said IE Singapore in a media release.
The agency said that Southeast Asia’s rising middle class had raised demand for more variety and quality of food but on their own Singapore food manufacturers lacked networks and financial resources to promote their products.
IE Singapore said the working-in-partnership (WIP) programme offered economies of scale, cost savings and fast-track entry into markets.
Tan Li Lin, IE Singapore group director for customer services, said: “The coming together of Singapore food manufacturers under the WIP programme allows for collective Singapore branding.
“This helps to drive sales for our companies. We will be applying this concept to other Southeast Asia markets and Asia, as well as expanding beyond the food sector to benefit more SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises].”
There are now two participating supermarkets in Southeast Asia in the WIP programme – Central Food Group in Thailand and City Mart in Myanmar, the biggest supermarket chains in the respective countries. Coming up is a partnership in Rustans in Philippines, with plans to have the fourth partner on board by end 2016.
Following the promotional activities in the supermarkets, many companies have succeeded in securing permanent listings, said IE Singapore.
SMF deputy president Sunny Koh said: “With the WIP programme, we eliminate importers/distributors in the procurement chain, thus reducing overall cost. The extra margins are returned to the companies, thus improving their retail price and benefiting the consumers.
With rising competition from e-commerce, being able to cut the price gap between the physical retail shop and e-shop is key for success overseas.”

The company said the store at The Scott Garden in Old Klang Road reflected the current 7-Eleven convenience store format, which was being rolled out across Malaysia via a programme of store refurbishments and new stores since late 2013.

“At our listing in 2014, we discussed our expansion plans and our intention to increase our number of new stores by 600 over the next three years from 2014 to 2016.
“We are very pleased to have reached this historic milestone of 2000 stores but it’ll be business as usual as we have no intention of stopping here and will continue with our rapid store expansion,” 7-Eleven Malaysia chief executive Gary Brown said in a statement.
“We are also pleased to be able to showcase here today our latest product and service innovations which sets us apart from other convenience stores in Malaysia with a strong emphasis on best in class fresh food and beverage such as our well-received RM2 Fresh to Go hot beverages,” he added.
In the statement, 7-Eleven said during the opening ceremony there was a tour and brief on the current innovation of the stores.
It noted that the current generation 7-Eleven convenience stores was to encourage customers to see 7-Eleven as a lifestyle concept, where they can enjoy the range of products on offer by spending time at the store, similar to a neighborhood cafe.
In addition to this, 7-Eleven Malaysia has increased its range of product and services to customers by providing touch-and-go reload services, bill payment for utility providers, online purchases payment through MOLPay, point-of-sales activated gift cards and parcel locker services in partnership with BoxIt.
“It is important to us to continue to innovate on not only our product offering, but to also play more of a role in the daily lives of our customers. By offering these services, we can offer a whole new level of convenience in Malaysia and we continue to be the leader for the convenience sector.
“We are enthusiastic about the future and will continue to deliver the best possible product, services and promotional offerings at our stores based on what our consumers want,” Brown said.

The government requires all trustee banks involved in the programme to have at least one of three services – trustee, custody or investor accounts (RDN).
In the preliminary official bank list issued by the finance ministry, BTN was not included as it had yet to have one of the facilities.
“We have just sealed an agreement with Danareksa Investment Management and the RDN service will be available in early August,” BTN president director Maryono said on Wednesday in Jakarta. The bank is preparing asset-backed securities to absorb repatriated funds in the tax amnesty programme.
The investment instrument is targeted to absorb 10 billion rupiah (Bt26.8 million)(US$762 million).
“Our property developer customers are interested in issuing real estate investment trusts (REITs).
“Maybe the amount is not very big, but Danareksa and we are ready to securitise them,” he said.
Developers often raise funds from REITs by securitising assets that generate recurring income, such as malls, hotels, hospitals and offices.
Maryono said the lender had several customers that developed property with recurring incomes.