Type Public Revenue S$450,317,000 (2009) Founded 1924, Singapore | Traded as SGX: P29 Headquarters Singapore Parent organization World Holdings Pte Ltd. | |
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Industry Retail & distribution, publishing, e-Learning & property development Key people Chou Cheng Ngok (Chairman) Profiles | ||
Popular Holdings (Traditional Chinese: 大眾書局; Simplified Chinese: 大众书局), commonly called Popular, is a Singapore-based company that publishes, distributes, and retails books for the local education market. It has subsidiaries in countries such as Canada, the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, United Kingdom and Taiwan. In the financial year 2011, it had a turnover of S$522.4 million.
Contents
The first Popular Bookstore was set up in 1936 by Chou Sing Chu in North Bridge Road, focusing on retailing Chinese books and stationery. In March 2006, Popular Holdings was the main organiser of BookFest@Singapore, the first Chinese-language book fair ever held outside of China. In May 2006, Popular Holdings staged the inaugural BookFest@Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. It is a platform for established publishers to showcase their latest publications and renowned authors to meet and interact with the readers. The inaugural BookFest@Hong Kong was organized in 2008. By 2009, the annual BookFest has become a major event of the book industries in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Board of directors
Popular is headed by Chou Cheng Ngok, who is the Executive Chairman and Managing Director of the Group. Other important directors include Ponch Poon, Lim Lee Ngoh, Vangatharaman Ramayah and Lim Soon Tze.
Group of Companies
The Group currently carries out its publishing activities through subsidiaries operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Canada. Its bookstore operations currently have a network of over 130 Popular Bookstores in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It now has its core businesses in retail, distribution, publishing and e-learning.
Subsidiaries
The list of its subsidiaries is listed below: