Dairy Farm Singapore names media agency partner for SG market

Dairy Farm Singapore has awarded MEC Singapore its duties for media buying and planning. Marketing understands that the contract is for a period of two years covering the local Singapore market. This is one of the longest partnerships MEC has had with a client, spanning over 18 years.Popular brands under the group include the likes of Cold Storage, Giant, Market Place, 7-Eleven, Guardian.The appointment comes at a time when Dairy Farm International is seeing a transition in its management. According to its latest announcement, Graham Allan will step down as group chief executive at the end of August after five years in the role. Replacing him will be Ian McLeod, who brings over 30 years of experience in the retail sector.Meanwhile, in its half-yearly results for the six months ended 30th June 2017, the group saw continued progress on key strategic initiatives. It said “solid profit growth was achieved” in the first half despite lower sales seen in the group’s supermarkets and hypermarket operations.While the outlook for the remainder of the year is expected to remain challenging for the supermarket and hypermarket activities in Southeast Asia, the group’s other business continues to make steady progress, it said. The group’s convenience store operations performed well. Hong Kong and Macau were ahead of last year, supported in part by a modest increase in tourist numbers, but in Singapore sales were lower as a number of stores were closed for not being profitable, said the results.In the Health and Beauty Division, good sales and profit growth were achieved in Hong Kong, Macau and Indonesia. However, in Singapore and Malaysia, sales and profits were reduced as consumer confidence remained low.Meanwhile, MEC as well, is seeing a change in its structure with Desh Balakrishnan, managing director of Maxus Singapore, taking on the role of managing director of the newly combined MEC and Maxus “NewCo” agency in Singapore. Meanwhile, Allison Coley, current managing director of MEC Singapore, will stay on in MEC to ensure the smooth merger with Maxus before transitioning into a new regional role in “NewCo” .MEC will fully transition into NewCo in January 2018.