Navis Capital majority stake in Village Grocer

July 03, 2020

The Ong family led by Ong Kim Too, is behind the success of Village Grocer Holdings Sdn Bhd (VGH). Ong and his brothers grew up in a neighbourhood sundry shop in Gombak which his father started in the 1950s. After 4 decades, the family amassed enough savings to start a supermarket called Pasaraya OTK in 1997. Ong Kim Too was working as an engineer in Australia before returning home to Malaysia to help expand the family’s grocery business. Two more outlets were opened in Sentul and Puchong.

In 2004 an opportunity arose to start a supermarket in Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur. Ong took the challenge to go upmarket and created a new supermarket brand called Villager Grocer. Within 10 years Village Grocer had grown into a successful premium supermarket chain and it attracted the attention of PE Fund, Navis Capital Partners. In September 2014, the Ong family parted with their majority stake in Village Grocer, no doubt for a handsome amount, but continues to manage the business though holding a substantial minority stake. Navis Capital Partners was founded in 1998 to make private equity investments in buyouts, recapitalisations and financial restructurings in Asia, particularly in enterprises with a strong or developing presence in Southeast Asia, Australia and Hong Kong.

In December 2014, Village Grocer acquired Ben’s Independent Grocer (B.I.G) upscale supermarket chain. B.I.G was started in 2011 by Benjamin Yong who runs several restaurants including Plan B, Ben’s and others.

 

Read more:

  1. Options. 24 November 2018. Diana Khoo. Cover Story – Ong Kim Too, group executive chairman of The Food Purveyor. www.optionstheedge.com
  2. Village Grocer. www.villagegrocer.com
  3. The Star. 18 May 2015.  Joy Lee. The sundry shop that went upmarket. www.thestar.com.my
  4. The Nation Thailand. Malaysia’s Jaya Grocer stake sale. 25 March 2016. www.nationthailand.com
  5. The Star. 14 April 2017. Intan Farhana Zainul. Village Grocer buys B.I.G. www.thestar.com.my
  6. Mergr. 1 September 2014. Navis Capital Partners acquires The Village Grocer. www.mergr.com
  7. Navis Capital Partners. The Portfolio. Navis investments.  www.naviscapital.com
  8. The Edge Financial Daily. 13 April 2017. Joyce Goh. Navis majority owned Village Grocer buys B.I.G. supermarket chain. www.theedgemarketscom