Supermarket shortage seen in Singapore heartlands

Some estates have only one supermarket catering to 40,000 people - operators better capture the demand.

According to Maybank Kim Eng,  the number of supermarkets in the heartlands is currently low relative to the size of the population. As it is, some estates have just one supermarket catering to 40,000 people while there might be as many as 100,000 patrons in others.

Here's more from Maybank Kim Eng:

With more HDB flats ready in 2014-15 in newer estates such as Punggol, as well as more mature estates like Bukit Panjang, Bukit Batok and Toa Payoh in need of supermarkets, operators do well to act swiftly to capture the demand in the heartlands.

Singapore’s population grew at around 3.5% CAGR between 2005 and 2010, hitting a record high of 5.1m citizens. At the same time, disposable income per capita grew at 2.7% CAGR, while total store-based retailing revenues increased from SGD20.5b in 2005 to SGD24.5b in 2010, recording a CAGR of 3.6%. This trend highlights the resilience of Singapore’s retail market, where demand remained brisk even amid the global financial crisis in 2008-09.

Supermarket/hypermarket sales to grow at 2.5% CAGR. According to research firm Frost and Sullivan, Singapore’s grocery market sales – supermarkets and hypermarkets combined – are expected to grow by 4-5% in 2011-12 and slow down to 1.5-2.5% in 2014-15. The local supermarket industry currently is worth SGD4.3b.