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Cold Storage

The Cold Storage Company Ltd was established on 8 June 1903 and became the earliest supermarket in Singapore. It pioneered the processing and distribution of hygienic food supplies in Malaya.

Early History
It was set up on 8 June 1903 as a storage and distribution business for frozen food and perishable products. It opened its first retail operation on 24 March 1905 at Orchard road with frozen meats, poultry and dairy products delivered from Queensland, Australia to Singapore. This first batch of cargo was stored in a 400-ton capacity refrigeration facility in a wharf at Keppel Harbour. It pioneered the processing and distribution of hygienic food supplies in Malaya.

Cold Storage did not do well initially as the servant classes would boycott it and its fresh fruit and vegetable imports could not survive the sea journey. Its business improved only in 1909 when it expanded its operations under new management and built its own custom-made retail outlet with the Johor-bound railway passing right through. 

In 1917, Cold Storage took over a building in Orchard Road which was later replaced by Centrepoint Shopping Centre.

Products
In 1923, the company manufactured the first ice-cream in Singapore under the brand name Paradise, with an ornate Bird of Paradise as logo. which was subsequently relaunched in 1937 as Magnolia. In 1930, it began baking its own bread after the company bought over the Chinese-run Royal Bakery in Geylang. The company also undertook other ventures including setting up of a pig farm and a dairy farm.

Later Developments
In 1933, it set up a grocery department with vegetables brought from near (Cameron Highlands) and far (South Aftrica). During the 1930s, Cold Storage was also a popular and fashionable congregating spot for European housewives with its ice-cream parlour and coffee lounge.

Cold Storage continued its operations throughout the Japanese Occupation. In the 1950s, the Orchard road outlet went self-service and a chain of "Western-style milk bars" was introduced in response to competition from upcoming businesses. These milk bars serving milk shakes and ice cream freezes were popular social spots in the 1970s, with the last Magnolia Milk Bar in Capitol cinema's North Bridge Road complex closed in 1988. Cold Storage outlets are now owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings, a part of Hong Kong's Jardine Matheson conglomerate, who purchased Cold Storage Holdings retail operations for S$130 million in 1992.



Author
Lim Siew Yeen



References
Brazil, D. (1991). Street smart: Singapore (pp. 116-120). Singapore: Times Books International.
(Call no: SING 959.57 BRA)

Tyers, R. K. (1993). Ray Tyers' Singapore: Then and now (p.163). Singapore: Landmark Books.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 TYE)

Fitzpatrick's Holdings to buy Cold Storage outlets for $130m. (1992, October 25). The Straits Times, p. 1.

Cold Storage Singapore. (2003). About us. Retrieved October 28, 2003, from www.coldstorage.com.sg/mall/

The information in this article is valid as at 2002 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Commerce and Industry>>Industries
Supermarkets--Singapore
Business enterprises--Singapore
Singapore--History
Business, finance and industry>>Industry>>Services>>Retail and wholesale



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