15 JANUARY 2010
Mr Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister and Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the media,
Follow Directors and colleagues,
Thank you for joining us at today’s official opening of our new FairPrice Finest store at Marine Parade Central. We are privileged and greatly honored to have with us Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong as our Guest of Honour today.
FairPrice opened its first supermarket at Marine Parade more than 30 years ago. Since then, this district has seen much progress in the living standards of its residents, very much like the rest of Singapore.
Thirty years ago, only one in four households lived in a four-room HDB flat or bigger. Today, three in four households enjoy the same living standards. Our GDP per capita has also increased five fold since.
As the people in Singapore become more affluent and well-travelled, FairPrice has to stay relevant to the community by being inclusive for all collars, ages and nationalities. At the same time, we want to stay true to our social mission of moderating the cost of living in Singapore, by making essential items affordable and available to all.
FairPrice Finest is an example of how FairPrice stays relevant and competitive. It is a fusion of a cooperative supermarket with a social mission and a progressive retailer that keeps pace with the population’s changing needs, aspirations and lifestyles.
To fulfill both the social and business needs, Finest offers the best of both worlds – 30% of the products are dedicated to a wide selection of fine foods not found in other FairPrice stores. The remaining 70% of products are staples found at all FairPrice supermarkets. Our uniform pricing policy ensures that products found across all our supermarkets and hypermarkets are priced the same, as they all use a central pricing system.
Since we opened our first Finest store in 2007, we have received very good response from our customers. Today, we have 4 Finest outlets. We will open more Finest stores when there is demand and the location is right. Even as we continue to bring the finer things in life to more customers, I would like to assure you that FairPrice’s focus remains centered on our social mission to moderate the cost of living for everyone, through our large network of supermarkets. This is something that will not change, even as we continue to innovate.
In closing, I would like to express our appreciation to our customers for bearing with us during the upgrading of this store, as well as to my colleagues behind today’s opening.
It has been my pleasure to address you, and I hope you will enjoy the experience this new Finest store has to offer.
Thank you.
