Giant step to revamp image

Dairy Farm chief executive officer for South-East Asia, food business, Chris Bush said the group’s main priority is to ensure its customers are served with a variety of products despite the disrupted supply chain during the Covid-19 pandemic.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm International’s GCH Retail (M) Sdn Bhd, which operates the Giant hypermarkets in Malaysia, has spent about RM25mil to revamp its Giant outlets by offering thousands of new products including imported ones as well as a fixed-price zone.

With a bright new look and feel in the outlets, Dairy Farm chief executive officer for South-East Asia, food business, Chris Bush said the group’s main priority is to ensure its customers are served with a variety of products despite the disrupted supply chain during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic has slowed us down to revamp the Giant stores as we wanted to ensure our stores were safe to shop in and products were available in the stores despite the stretched supply chain in the last 12 months, ” he said during a media briefing.

Giant hypermarket in Malaysia has launched more than 2,000 new products across the fresh food, groceries and household segments.

It also has a new section called “World of Food”, which consists of a selection of imported food from all over the world.

Moreover, there is a section known as “Ringgit Zone” which has priced its products fixed at RM3 per item for bargain hunters. This section is only available at selected stores.

There will also be ready-to-eat offerings at selected hypermarkets consisting of a wide range of breads and loaves, cakes and assorted buns.

Another key change would be placing Guardian health and beauty care stores in 35 Giant stores by end-April.

Giant has been in Malaysia since 1944 and the last rebranding exercise was done four decades ago.

Given the transformational programme, Chris said the group’s strategy is to provide quality products, outstanding value and exceptional service at its stores.

“The importance of rebranding is not just about a new logo. It is about a number of big changes that we have made in our stores over the last few months in preparation for the relaunch of Giant.

“There is not a square inch in the stores that has not been reviewed carefully over the last six months on how we can improve our offerings for our customers.

“We have done extensive research listening to customers and what you are seeing today is the response to that research, ” he explained.

To date, Giant has a total of 57 stores nationwide.

In the last one year, Chris said the hypermarket chain has seen strong sales of fresh food and there has been feedback from customers on Giant’s quality of products.

“The group has sourced its products directly from farms to move away from middlemen. This is to ensure that we offer competitive pricing for our products, ” he added.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic that has changed consumer behaviour, Chris said 10 small stores named Giant Mini will open this year, as the group’s strategy is to resize and develop small store formats, moving forward.

“We have closed some stores as the market has changed. We just couldn’t see those stores being successful. We have consolidated the stores and now we have a successful group of stores across Malaysia.

“Our strategy, going forward, is about having small stores. Our focus is to ensure that we select the right products for the mini shops, which will be more like a top-up shops for customers, ” he noted.

The size of the new Giant Mini would be between 1,800 and 2,000 square feet.

Under the group, small stores namely Giant Express and ShopSmart! will also be converted to Giant Mini.

Moving forward, Chris said its parent company Dairy Farm International is looking to expand its upscale businesses in Malaysia, which include Mercato and Giant Malaysia, through multiple formats comprising large and small stores.