2021 has seen its fair share of unique challenges, from when groups of eight people are allowed to meet for meals, to reintroducing enhanced safe management measures, keeping to group sizes of two during heightened alert periods, and controlling the community spread of COVID-19. Businesses and society continue to adjust itself in the face of evolving changes brought forth to us while living in an endemic COVID-19.
As we remain focused on safeguarding the wellbeing of our tenants, shoppers and staff, we continue to stay on the course of strengthening our retail platform. Here’s a look at Frasers Property Retail’s top moments of 2021.
Frasers Centrepoint Trust – Portfolio Reconstitution
In 2021, Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) divested three non-core assets, Bedok Point, Anchorpoint, and YewTee Point, as part of our strategy to optimise FCT’s performance after completing the acquisition of the remaining stake in AsiaRetail Fund from Frasers Property Ltd in October 2020. Supported by strong residential catchments within close proximity to dominant suburban malls and underpinned by recurring shopper traffic as most people continue to work from home, the malls’ performance has remained resilient with focus in providing essential services. With a well-diversified portfolio, FCT is named as one of the ten best performing trust of the last 10 years.
Launch of Frasers eStore – Omnichannel retailing
As part of Frasers Property Retail’s digitalisation initiatives, the Frasers eStore was launched in January 2021, offering a seamless store-to-door experience for tenants and shoppers via the Frasers Experience (FRx) app. With Frasers eStore, our tenants are able to leverage on our omnichannel platform to have an additional alternative retailing channel to enhance their outreach to close to 900,000 FRx members. Our shoppers now have greater flexibility and convenience to shop and browse across 13 malls1 that Frasers Property Retail manages. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of online sales and changes in shoppers' behaviours and we will continue to invest in innovative solutions as we partner with our tenants to emerge stronger and be more adaptable towards building a more resilient retail landscape.
The Frasers eStore has created a truly omnichannel retail experience for both shoppers and tenants.
Embarked on performance-based cleaning contract
From April 2021, five malls of Frasers Property Retail embarked on a tech-enabled cleaning approach that incorporated the Internet-of-Things (IoT) into optimising cleaning operations and empowering our cleaners. This includes the installation of sensors, feedback panels, and other smart technologies, adding a layer of intelligence to our processes and streamlining our workflow, creating a better shopping experience for the community.
Feedback panels placed near washroom entrances provides real-time feedback to cleaners on the cleanliness of the washroom.
Sensors placed on toilet roll dispensers, bins, etc., will provide the cleaners with real-time data on the state of the washrooms, allowing them to perform their tasks more efficiently and promptly. Our operations team can now access the data collected through the system via a mobile application, giving them a real-time overview of the on-ground situation and allowing them to make further tweaks and improvements to optimise cleaning operations.
Moreover, the contract uses a unique model that offers an innovative and sustainable solution that addresses the manpower shortage facing the current cleaning labour force, allowing us to tap into greater operational synergies to manage the workforce better and serve our shoppers.
Part of Singapore’s first brownfield Distributed District Cooling Network
On 19 August 2021, FCT participated in a group signing ceremony of the Letter of Intent (LoI) with Temasek and SP Group to affirm our interest in two of our properties, Century Square and Tampines 1, to be part of the first Brownfield Distributed District Cooling (DDC) network in the Tampines Central Area.
From left: Richard Ng, CEO of Frasers Centrepoint Trust, and Low Chee Wah, CEO of Frasers Property Retail, pictured together with Minister Masagos Zulkifli during the Letter of Intent signing ceremony for Singapore’s first Brownfield Distributed District Cooling network.
Photo credit: SP Group and Temasek Group
Since August 2020, the team has worked with Temasek Group and SP Group to conduct a feasibility study on adopting a cooling system in Tampines Central. The study suggests that the adoption of the DDC could provide benefits that include a reduction in energy consumption and carbon emissions as well as cost savings from equipment replacement and maintenance expenses.
We are pleased to be part of this LoI exploration and this is another step towards Frasers Property’s commitment to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050.
Attained the Community Initiative Award – Sustainability at ACES Awards 2021
At this year’s Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards (ACES), Frasers Property Retail received the Community Initiative Award - Sustainability. This award is conferred upon organisations that lead programmes and initiatives that contribute significantly to the development of the communities. In addition, organisations that demonstrate a culture of care and greater societal and environmental awareness, especially amidst these challenging times, are deeply regarded and favourably scored in this year’s ACES Awards.
On 19 November 2021, Frasers Property Retail received the Community Initiative Award – Sustainability at the virtual Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards (ACES) 2021.
Part of our efforts included uplifting the community through distributing food bundles to beneficiaries under the Food Bank Singapore, sending care packs to front line staff, and announcing our commitment to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050, amongst other initiatives.
Achieved 5 Stars in GRESB ranking
This year, both Frasers Property Singapore and Frasers Centrepoint Trust attained a 5-Star ranking in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), with Frasers Property Singapore being acknowledged as the Regional Sector Leader for Asia Diversified - Office/Retail category for GRESB 2021. GRESB assesses and benchmarks the sustainability performance in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) aspects of Real Estate firms around the world.
As part of our sustainability journey, we have set out to implement various sustainability initiatives such as reducing our carbon footprint in our operations, administering tenants’ satisfaction survey, carrying out data assurance, running ESG programmes as well as setting our sustainability roadmap amongst others. Not only do we monitor, directly reduce and offset carbon emissions from owned or controlled sources, we are also examining emissions generated indirectly as a result of business.
This reflects our deep commitment towards achieving our sustainability goals, such as having climate-resilient portfolio adaptation and mitigation plans by 2024 and achieving net-zero carbon by 2050.
Supporting the community
In support of the community’s wellbeing, Frasers Property Retail has collaborated with the Ministry of Health to provide a space for a Mobile Vaccination site at Hougang Mall to support the national inoculation program. The Mobile Vaccination team was deployed from 17 to 19 September and 10 October.
With our network of malls located in key transportation nodes and near large residential catchment, we also worked with Temasek Foundation to facilitate the distribution of their free StayWell Mouth Gargle at our malls under part of Temasek Foundation’s Stay Prepared Initiative to enhance community protection and reduce the spread of illness.
In line with the Singapore government gearing up to step up its testing efforts to make COVID-19 testing more convenient for our communities, we have partnered with Ministry of Health to set up private Quick Test Centres (p-QTCs) at five of our malls. The public can conveniently visit the p-QTC at Changi City Point, Robertson Walk, Waterway Point, White Sands, or Yishun Town Square should they need to get a supervised self-swab test.
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As we move towards 2022, Frasers Property Retail will continue strengthening our retail platform to create safe and inclusive spaces for the community.
1The 13 malls comprise Bedok Point, Causeway Point, Century Square, Changi City Point, Eastpoint Mall, Hougang Mall, Northpoint City North and South Wing, Tampines 1, The Centrepoint, Tiong Bahru Plaza, Waterway Point, and White Sands.