Laksathosa to embrace Singaporean model for revival

9 October 2015 02:30 am

Sri Lanka is to get Singaporean technical assistance for the revival of the state-owned retail chain Laksathosa, which has about 310 outlets island wide, the country’s Industry and Commerce Ministry said.
Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen has been advised by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to follow the model adopted by Singapore’s NTUC FairPrice Co-Operative, the largest supermarket chain in the city state, to revive Laksathosa.
The company is a co-operative of National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and has over 100 supermarkets in Singapore. 
The non-resident Singaporean High Commissioner to Sri Lanka S. Chandra Das, who was the Chairman of NTUC for 33 years, believes that NTUC model be a good one for Laksathosa to adopt, since it also operates as a co-operative. 
“NTUC Fairprice is Singapore’s largest retailer with multiple retail formats. I see that Laksathosa too is basically a cooperative model. I was NTUC Chairman for 33 years, therefore I can see that it’s a good model you can adopt.
We have made NTUC Fairprice shops world-class. NTUC Fairprice competes on a “patronage rebate and a 10 percent lower price than comparable popular brands” model of retail, which brought it a revenue of US $2.2 billion in 2014,” Das told Minister Bathiudeen when he made a courtesy call on the latter on October 7. 
Das urged Laksathosa to establish central logistics system like in NTUC and invited a Laksathosa study team to for a NTUC FairPrice training in Singapore.