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Tag: Singapore

  • OCBC Bank first in Singapore to enable instant digital card issuance and provisioning on Apple Pay

    OCBC Bank first in Singapore to enable instant digital card issuance and provisioning on Apple Pay

    OCBC Bank customers have a new, speedy way of resolving a common issue when shopping or dining: Not having the right credit card to enjoy the best discount, rebate or reward.

    Since last month, OCBC Bank became the first bank to enable customers to transact at merchants that accept Apple Pay within minutes of applying for a new VISA credit or debit card. Any OCBC Bank customer – even if you do not yet own an OCBC Bank card – can apply for a card online and have your application approved almost immediately. There is no need to then wait for the physical plastic to arrive in your mailbox: The card can be accessed and provisioned (that is, added to) Apple Pay instantly via the OCBC Mobile Banking app.

    VISA cards make up almost 80 per cent of the OCBC Bank cards currently provisioned to Apple Pay. Instant provisioning of cards for use with Apple Pay has been enabled for OCBC Bank VISA credit cards – including the 365, FRANK, Voyage, Robinsons Group, Plus! VISA and NTUC Plus! cards – as well as the Yes! debit card.

    Mr Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank’s Head of E-Business Singapore, said: “This is the new digital – instant, embedded and frictionless access to banking products and services. Our customers can now receive their new card digitally and provision it to their Apple Wallet to start paying with it straight away – all from within our mobile banking app and within a few minutes. We believe this is a huge level-up in customer experience and will further accelerate our digital card applications and cashless payments market leadership drive.”

    Leader in payments and digital banking

    OCBC Bank is one of the top credit card issuers in Singapore and the market leader in contactless payments; one in every two VISA contactless transactions, including Apple Pay, is made with an OCBC Bank card. Monthly mobile wallet payments have doubled since 2016, while the number of credit cards provisioned to mobile wallets has increased sevenfold. 60 per cent of OCBC Bank cards provisioned to mobile wallets are on Apple Pay. Mobile wallet usage is especially popular for lifestyle transactions including groceries, transport such as private hire cars, food deliveries and fast food.

    Mr Vincent Tan, OCBC Bank’s Head of Credit Cards, said: “When we first introduced mobile payments to our customers in 2016, the future of payments looked exciting then – and it has definitely proven itself to be so. One in every two VISA contactless transactions is made with an OCBC Bank card so we have clear leadership in the mobile and contactless payment space. More OCBC customers, even those who are not currently our cardholders, can now benefit from our suite of credit cards within minutes of applying for one. With our instant digital card issuance, they can immediately provision their new cards to Apple Pay via our mobile banking app, and start to enjoy our cards’ rewards and rebates.”

    OCBC Bank has constantly worked towards making banking seamless and embedded in our customers’ natural behaviour and interactions. OCBC Bank led the way in Singapore in launching voice-powered conversational banking for retail customers in February 2018, which allows customers to ask Siri to check their bank balances, credit card overview and make e-payments. It was the first bank in Singapore to introduce biometric authentication to access bank account details with OCBC OneTouch in March 2015, and OCBC OneLook in November 2017 on the OCBC Mobile Banking app, leveraging fingerprint and facial recognition technology. OCBC Bank then offered customers the convenience of banking on their wrist, launching its mobile banking app for Apple Watch in March 2016. In November 2016, OCBC Bank enhanced its OCBC Pay Anyone e-payments service by enabling customers to send money via OCBC Pay Anyone directly within Apple’s iMessage on iPhones, and via any app on Android devices using the OCBC Keyboard in August 2017.

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  • Singapore retail sales buoyed by Lunar New Year

    Singapore retail sales buoyed by Lunar New Year

    Singapore retail sales – excluding motor vehicles – rose 14 per cent in February, reflecting the changed timing of Lunar New Year observation.

    Compared with January, they rose 1 per cent.SG Feb retail sales

    Statistics Singapore estimated the total value of retail sales in February – including motor vehicles – at S$3.7 billion. Online sales accounted for 3.9 per cent of total retail sales.

    Food retailers (excluding supermarkets) recorded the biggest increase by category – up 61.2 per cent as people prepared for celebrating the New Year. Apparel sales rose 42.4 per cent. Sales at supermarkets and department stores rose by an average of 25 per cent.

    Meanwhile, sales of food and beverages at cafes and restaurants rose 4.9 per cent year-on-year.

    SG Feb retail sales FB

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  • Singapore among top five destinations for IoT attacks

    Singapore among top five destinations for IoT attacks

    Singapore is in the top five destinations globally for IoT attacks, the latest installment of F5 Networks’ The Hunt for IoT series shows.

    The report, The Growth and Evolution of Thingbots Ensures Chaos, suggests the island nation has a sizable and vulnerable IoT deployment.

    The other destinations in the top five are United States, Spain, Italy, and Hungary. However, the top 5 destinations collectively only received 27% of China’s attacks; the other 73% were globally dispersed to countries that didn’t even account for more than 1% of the total attack volume.

    With 8.4 billion devices currently in use, and over 30 billion devices projected to be deployed by 2020, unprotected devices are a goldmine for hackers, as they find new ways to exploit numerous protocols beyond telnet (an underlying TCP/IP protocol for accessing remote computers) to ensure they capture as many vulnerable IoT devices as possible.

    Thingbots are botnets compromising of infected IoT devices which are typically unmanaged, providing a low likelihood of being discovered by their owner and remediated.

    Thingbots are capable of globally destructive attacks, and the worrying fact is that the security industry has only started discovering them with increasing frequency. Massive, well known thingbots such as Mirai and Persirai have been wreaking havoc around the world, and show no signs of slowing down.

    A new variant of the notorious Mirai malware is exploiting kit with ARC processors. Dubbed the Okiru, is the first capable of infecting devices powered by ARC CPUs which is responsible for running a variety of internet-connected products including cars, mobiles, TVs, cameras and more.

    In fact, despite broad awareness of their existence and threat, it is reported that Persirai infected IP cameras still exist all across Asia with the heaviest concentrations in Thailand, China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia. There is even a website that collects the streaming footage from over 73,000 hacked IP cameras worldwide. These live feeds range from parking lots and store surveillance to the bedrooms of unknown individuals.

    While China, the US and Russia are clearly the top three attacking countries, the report suggests that because vulnerable IoT devices are deployed globally without bias, there is no standout IoT attack destination.

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  • Singapore Airlines planning new first-class offering that will set industry standard

    Singapore Airlines planning new first-class offering that will set industry standard

    Singapore Airlines is developing a first-class offering for its new Boeing 777-9 planes that the carrier’s chief promises will set an industry standard.

    The planes, 20 of which SIA has ordered, are due for delivery from the 2021/22 financial year.

    The new first-class offering is currently in the conceptualisation stage. Said the airline’s chief executive Goh Choon Phong: “We believe when we launch it, we will set an industry standard.”

    The Boeing 777-9 will replace SIA’s 777-300ER planes.

    Mr Goh said: “(SIA will) be going out to our consumers and customers to get better ideas about what it is they really want in the next quantum leap of service and product.”

    The plans are part of the airline’s strategy to woo customers with new seats and features, among other service and product enhancements.

    It launched new cabin products for the Airbus 380 late last year. New cabin products for Boeing’s latest Dreamliner variant, the 787-10, will debut on Wednesday (March 28), with the arrival of the plane in Singapore. SIA is the first airline to operate this model.

    Mr Goh was in the United States to collect the first of SIA’s order of 49 B787-10 planes on Sunday from the airplane maker’s Dreamliner production facility.

    Speaking to reporters in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday, Mr Goh also revealed that SIA is eyeing a third route on which to deploy a new ultra-long-range (ULR) aircraft it will receive in the second half of this year.

    This is in addition to the relaunch of non-stop flights to New York and Los Angeles with this new aircraft.

    When asked about plans for the new Airbus 350-900ULR – which SIA will be the first airline to operate – Mr Goh said there is potentially one more destination that the carrier has “firm plans” for. However, he declined to reveal what the destination could be.

    With the Airbus 350-900ULR – which SIA has ordered seven units of – the carrier will resume the 19-hour flights to New York and 14-hour trips to Los Angeles that it scrapped in 2013.

    The flights were started in 2004, but the 2008 financial crisis, coupled with rising fuel prices, made the routes unsustainable.

    United Airlines launched a Singapore-Los Angeles service last October, but SIA is undeterred.

    “We think that Los Angeles is a good market, and our customers continue to tell us that they would like to have direct flights to Los Angeles… It’s part of competition, we are not afraid of it,” Mr Goh said.

    During a wide-ranging interview on the SIA group’s strategy and market positioning, Mr Goh said the coming financial year will see significantly more growth for parent carrier SIA.

    From 2011 till 2015/2016, SIA was not growing a lot, because of the transition period when planes were retrofitted with premium economy products, leading to a reduction in seat count for aircraft, said Mr Goh.

    “At the same time, we were waiting for aircraft with the right capabilities, like fuel efficiency, for us to grow in a commercially viable manner.

    “So when the A-350s and 787s were available, that’s how you see that we are beginning to again get back to the growth phase for the parent carrier.”

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  • AWS launches Aurora via Singapore cloud region

    AWS launches Aurora via Singapore cloud region

    Amazon Web Services has announced the availability of Amazon Aurora in the AWS Asia Pacific (Singapore) region.

    Amazon Aurora is a MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible database engine for the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) that aims to combine the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases with the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases.

    Amazon Aurora provides up to five times better performance than the typical MySQL and is three times faster than standard PostgreSQL databases. Customers pay a simple hourly charge for each Amazon Aurora database instance they use and Amazon Aurora can automatically scale storage capacity with no downtime or performance degradation.

    “Historically, customers have had to choose between performance and price when evaluating database solutions. Our customers have consistently told us that they wished for an easier way to get the performance of commercial databases, at the price of open source engines,” said Nick Walton, Managing Director, ASEAN, AWS.

    “Amazon Aurora is a database engine that gives customers the best of both worlds – the performance and availability of the highest-grade commercial databases at a cost more commonly associated with open source.”

    Amazon Aurora automatically replicates data across multiple Availability Zones and continuously backs up data to Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which is designed for 99.999999999% durability without performance impact.

    Amazon Aurora is designed to offer greater than 99.99% availability, and to automatically detect and recover from most database failures in less than 60 seconds, without crash recovery or the need to rebuild database caches. Amazon Aurora continually monitors instance health and if there is a failure, it will automatically failover to a read replica without loss of data.

  • Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express restaurants starting in Singapore

    Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express restaurants starting in Singapore

    Co-branded Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express restaurants will be rolled out across Singapore over the next three years, the first by this Christmas.

    Fat Brands, the US parent of the two quick-service restaurant brands, has signed a franchise deal with Deelish Brands to develop the chain, but has not yet revealed how many stores will be opened. Changi Airport’s Jewel shopping centre is highly likely to be among the first few destinations.

    “Entering the Singapore market has been a goal of ours for a very long time,” said Andy Wiederhorn, CEO of Fat Brands. “We had to be deliberate in our strategy to join this colourful and rapidly-growing nation and have finally found the perfect partner in Deelish Brands.

    “The beauty of Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express restaurants is they bring approachable American fare that everyone can enjoy, together – and we’re excited to bring this to Singapore.”

    Wiederhorn says the Singapore launch of Fatburger and Buffalo’s Express restaurants will build on his company’s previous success in Asia.

    The two brands will offer a menu including boneless wings, made-to-order burgers, milkshakes and fries. The stores offer what he describes as an “authentic Americana ambiance” through customer service and engaging decor.

    Fatburger is a 70-year old fast-casual restaurant serving large, juicy, burgers, custom-made to order.

    Buffalo’s Express, founded in 2012 in Los Angeles, is a fast-casual chain known for its chicken wings, wing sauces, fries, sides, wraps, salads and desserts.

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  • Creyate eyes Singapore after Japanese success

    Creyate eyes Singapore after Japanese success

    Indian custom-clothing brand Creyate plans to open stores in Singapore, the US, UK and Dubai after a successful foray into Japan.

    Owned by Arvind Internet, the company recently opened its first luxury store in the Indian city of Bengaluru and is considering ramping up its expansion through a franchise model. It has 13 stores operating in its home market already.

    Described as an emerging brand, Creyate customises apparel products to people who buy online or in-store. Online, they can submit measurements and select designs in advance of picking up the products in store – or having them delivered.

    In Japan,Creyate already has 50 stores-in-stores specialising in denim.

    Arvind Internet COO Tejinder Singh told reporters the company wants to double its retail network within 18 months.

    “With our omni-channel approach, we may cap it at two stores per city, so we are looking to explore Tier-II cities, as well. It is an inventory-light model, which suits the all stakeholders at a macro level,” said Singh.

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  • Shake Shack Singapore likely to launch at Changi

    Shake Shack Singapore likely to launch at Changi

    A Shake Shack Singapore store is reportedly planned for the Jewel Changi Airport shopping centre.

    Singapore food blog 8 Days, quoting an “industry source” says the chic American gourmet burger chain is in the final stages of preparation to launch in Singapore. Elsewhere in Asia, the brand is preparing to open in Hong Kong, where it has appointed local licensee Maxim’s Caterers, a division of Dairy Farm International, which also owns the Starbucks license for Hong Kong and Singapore.

    However 8 Days is tipping the Shake Shack Singapore eatery to be run by Korean food and beverage company SPC Group, which operates Paris Baguette and has the Korean rights to Shake Shack.

    The burger chain’s founder Danny Meyer was in Singapore to address a Restaurant Association of Singapore event and while “coy” about plans for Singapore, he reportedly told 8 Days he wants to see the brand launched in the city state.

    “It’s a possibility,” he told 8 Days. “My guys have visited Singapore thrice for site trips and they loved it here. It’s all about finding a good licensee.”

    Jewel Changi Airport is a shopping centre to be managed by CapitaLand, attached to the airport’s Terminal 1 and scheduled to open early next year.

    No confirmation was forthcoming from Changi Airport or SPC.

    Shake Shack, which started out as a food cart in New York City, now has more than 170 outlets internationally.

    Besides burgers, it is known for milkshakes, ice cream and other staple US dishes, but with more focus on flavour and serving size than is traditional in US fast-food restaurants.

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  • Chatime to open first Singapore store this year

    Chatime to open first Singapore store this year

    Malaysia’s Will Group is planning to open first Chatime Singapore outlet this year.

    The first two stores will be opened inside shopping malls, with a third scheduled for Jewel Changi Airport next year.

    The group is also negotiating to take over the Singapore master franchise for the tea brand from current franchisor La Kaffa International.

    Chatime also plans to expand into the Middle East, with outlets in Mecca and Medina this year, under a sub-franchise arrangement.

    Chatime Malaysia has obtained the halal food certification for its menu, paving its way for business expansion.

    Will Group has set a RM100 million (S$33.6 million) budget to open 150 outlets in Malaysia and internationally.

    Will Group became master franchisee for Chatime in Malaysia following a dispute between La Kaffa and ex-master franchisee Loob Holding.

  • Singaporeans interested in biometric authentication

    Singaporeans interested in biometric authentication

    Singaporeans are interested the use of biometric methods to verify identity (97%) and make payments (96%), while recognizing that biometrics are faster, easier and more secure than traditional passwords, according to a recent Visa survey on biometric authentication for payments.

    The survey titled “Biometrics in Payments: Singapore” was conducted by AYTM Market Research late last year. Respondents consisted of 500 adult consumers in Singapore who used at least one credit card, debit card and/or mobile payment method.

    According to the survey, more than half of the respondents have already used at least one form of biometric authentication including fingerprint recognition (88%), facial recognition (56%), iris scanning (50%) and voice recognition (49%). Among the range of biometric solutions, consumers were most familiar with fingerprint recognition, with 51% of them using it regularly.

    Survey results showed one in five Singaporeans currently use fingerprint authentication or facial recognition from their respective banks or mobile phone providers. For those who have not used biometric authentication, 91% stated that they would be likely to use fingerprint or facial recognition authentication from their banks in future.

    More than half (55%) of the respondents agree that the use of biometrics eliminates the need to remember and key in multiple passwords, and PINs, for their respective accounts. Forty one per cent said that biometric authentication is more secure compared to passwords and PINs as they can better confirm individual identities.

    Singaporeans believe that fingerprint recognition is the most desired biometric authentication, followed by eye scanning and facial recognition for both online payment and in-store purchases. For online payment authentication, Singaporeans are keen to use it for large purchases (more than $100) and small purchases (under $100), and transfer of funds to family. The preference is similar for in-store purchases, including using biometric authentication to pay for a meal at the bar or restaurant and buy tickets for transportation.

    Mandy Lamb, Group Country Manager, Regional Southeast Asia for Visa, said, “Singaporeans are early adopters of technology and many of them already have experience with biometrics authentication. With the proliferation of biometric authentication solutions used by mobile providers and banks, Singaporeans recognize the value these new technologies bring to their everyday lives. As the country continues its Smart Nation journey, we believe more people will start to adopt biometric authentication.”

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  • M1 joins StarHub in electricity play

    M1 joins StarHub in electricity play

    Singapore’s M1 has joined StarHub in looking to carve out a share of Singapore’s new open electricity market.

    M1 has announced a collaboration with Keppel Electric, a participating electricity retailer in Singapore’s Jurong open electricity market (OEM) soft launch, to offer electricity bundled with telecoms services.

    New and re-contracting mobile customers are being offered the ability to sign up for discount electricity plans at the M1 Shop In Jurong, as well as either S$80 off the price of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ or six months worth of extra data allocations.

    “We are delighted to partner Keppel Electric to offer our customers greater value and flexibility in the liberalized energy market,” M1 chief marketing officer P. Subramaniam said.

    “We look forward to working closely with Keppel Electric to provide new service development and product bundling for its provision of its electricity offerings in this town and nationwide in time to come.”

    Earlier this month StarHub announced a joint initiative with renewable energy startup Sunseap to enter Singapore’s open electricity market to offer joint electricity plans, collaborating on areas including sales, customer service and billing.

    Singapore plans to liberalize the nation’s electricity market to allow customers to seamlessly switch electricity retailers with no disruption to supply. The new open market  has been soft-launched in Jurong and will be rolled out city-wide later this year.

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  • Shake Shack Rumoured To Be Opening At Jewel Changi Airport

    Shake Shack Rumoured To Be Opening At Jewel Changi Airport

    A Shake Shack Singapore store is reportedly planned for the Jewel Changi Airport shopping centre.

    Singapore food blog 8 Days, quoting an “industry source” says the chic American gourmet burger chain is in the final stages of preparation to launch in Singapore. Elsewhere in Asia, the brand is preparing to open in Hong Kong, where it has appointed local licensee Maxim’s Caterers, a division of Dairy Farm International, which also owns the Starbucks license for Hong Kong and Singapore.

    However 8 Days is tipping the Shake Shack Singapore eatery to be run by Korean food and beverage company SPC Group, which operates Paris Baguette and has the Korean rights to Shake Shack.

    The burger chain’s founder Danny Meyer was in Singapore to address a Restaurant Association of Singapore event and while “coy” about plans for Singapore, he reportedly told 8 Days he wants to see the brand launched in the city state.

    “It’s a possibility,” he told 8 Days. “My guys have visited Singapore thrice for site trips and they loved it here. It’s all about finding a good licensee.”

    Jewel Changi Airport is a shopping centre to be managed by CapitaLand, attached to the airport’s Terminal 1 and scheduled to open early next year.

    No confirmation was forthcoming from Changi Airport or SPC.

    Shake Shack, which started out as a food cart in New York City, now has more than 170 outlets internationally.

    Besides burgers, it is known for milkshakes, ice cream and other staple US dishes, but with more focus on flavour and serving size than is traditional in US fast-food restaurants.

  • Singapore will be next destination for Creyate

    Singapore will be next destination for Creyate

    Indian custom-clothing brand Creyate plans to open stores in Singapore, the US, UK and Dubai after a successful foray into Japan.

    Owned by Arvind Internet, the company recently opened its first luxury store in the Indian city of Bengaluru and is considering ramping up its expansion through a franchise model. It has 13 stores operating in its home market already.

    Described as an emerging brand, Creyate customises apparel products to people who buy online or in-store. Online, they can submit measurements and select designs in advance of picking up the products in store – or having them delivered.

    In Japan,Creyate already has 50 stores-in-stores specialising in denim.

    Arvind Internet COO Tejinder Singh said that the company wants to double its retail network within 18 months.

    “With our omni-channel approach, we may cap it at two stores per city, so we are looking to explore Tier-II cities, as well. It is an inventory-light model, which suits the all stakeholders at a macro level,” said Singh.

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  • NTUC Fairprice launches revamped online shopping platform and new high-tech order fulfilment system

    NTUC Fairprice launches revamped online shopping platform and new high-tech order fulfilment system

    NTUC FairPrice has relaunched its e-commerce platform, renaming it FairPrice On.

    A revamped mobile app and online portal provide a user-interface the grocery describes as “more robust and intuitive” and an automated storage and retrieval system that increases order fulfilment efficiency by four times.

    NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng, says the company was one of the first supermarkets to launch online shopping more than a decade ago “and today we take another leap forward to enhance our online customer experience with FairPrice On”.

    A new logo and brand identity was also  launched today. “The new identity for FairPrice On was developed to capture the spirit of thoughtfulness, innovation and familiarity through the use of vivid colours, clarity and casual everyday language,” said the grocer.

    Behind the online interface of FairPrice On is a high-tech distribution centre at FairPrice Hub in Joo Koon, and the company’s new online fulfilment system, AutoStore, an automated goods-to-man storage and retrieval system that uses robotics to provide high-density storage, optimise manpower and boost productivity. AutoStore is able to handle up to 3000 orders per day and is four times faster compared to radio frequency-assisted picking, with the ability to fulfil 220 order-lines every per hour. The high-density storage system consists of over 20,000 bins spread over multiple layers, occupying a space over one and a half times the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

    Each bin can be configured to hold any quantity of products depending on size and weight, with the ability to hold multiple types of products within the same bin to provide greater flexibility and scalability. Order fulfilment is managed through a computerised system with robots retrieving the items needed and shifting bins around to maximise space. The system is also scalable to accommodate for future growth of FairPrice On.

    “In line with Singapore’s Retail Industry Transformation Map, we continue to innovate and harness technology to boost productivity and customer service while adapting to constant shifts in the e-commerce industry,” says Peng.

    Customer engagement focus

    FairPrice says that apart from operational efficiency, FairPrice On features a revamped online portal and mobile app to provide a more robust and intuitive shopping experience for customers. For example, the online customer journey from searching and selecting products to choosing a delivery slot and making payment has been streamlined to make it faster and easier for shoppers.

    FairPrice On offers more than 13,000 products ranging from groceries and fresh produce to personal care and electronics. Over 400,000 subscribers are registered on FairPrice On. To cater to varied customer needs, FairPrice On also uses data analytics to send targeted personalised promotions based on their profile, interests and consumption habits. Free home delivery is offered with spending of more than $59, or free collection from 71 click-and-collect locations on orders of more than $29. Exchanges or refunds may be made at 138 brick-and-mortar FairPrice stores located island-wide.

  • DFS Celebrates Success of Seventh World-Class Masters of Wines and Spirits In Singapore

    DFS Celebrates Success of Seventh World-Class Masters of Wines and Spirits In Singapore

    DFS Group (DFS), the world’s leading luxury travel retailer, successfully hosted its seventh annual Masters of Wines and Spirits event on Saturday March 24 and Sunday March 25 at The Warehouse Hotel on the banks of the Singapore River.

    The highly anticipated event, held in partnership with Changi Airport Group, was staged for the first time over two days, bringing together almost 800 local and international guests who explored a variety of unique tasting experiences from the world of whiskies, wines and Cognacs. The historic atmosphere of the meticulously renovated venue, a former trading warehouse, was a perfect backdrop for the event, with each of the hotel’s rooms playing a part in the theme – “Bespoke. Speak Easy. Secret Society.”

    Guests were given the opportunity to meet leading spirit brand ambassadors through a unique and interactive panel, hosted by DFS Group’s Director of Spirits Frederik Vanden Bulcke and featuring experts from John Dewar & Sons, Bunnahabhain, Bruichladdich and The Kyoto Distillery. Two “Classes with the Masters” were also hosted by The Balvenie Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE, and Rufus Beazley from Chateau Latour Asia Pacific.

    In another first for DFS, this year will see the Masters of Wines and Spirits collection transported beyond Singapore for the enjoyment of customers in Hong Kong and Macau.

     

    “Each year, our talented merchants at DFS bring together the world’s most sought-after wines and spirits and their brand ambassadors, in an event dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of the finest products. As with past events, the Masters collection will be available for purchase first at Changi International Airport. This year, we are also very excited to bring this incredible collection to our customers in Hong Kong and Macau later in 2018, with some fabulous events and activations that are sure to surprise and delight,” said Brooke Supernaw, DFS Group’s Senior Vice President Wines, Spirits, Tobacco, Food and Gifts.

    Along with leading whiskies, wines and Cognacs, including the Louis XIII Le Jeroboam with T.T. Trunks Paris, the Jean-Paul Camus 1945 Private Reserve, the Harlan Estate Double Magnum 100 Point Trifecta and the Pavillon Blanc du Chateau Margaux 2010 Double Magnum, an extended collection of 54 premium products available in the Masters series includes the Octomore 8.2 by Bruichladdich, the DFS exclusive Rare Cask Reserve Araid 18 Years Old 0.7L by William Grant & Sons, the Cask-aged Kyoto Dry Gin 2nd Edition by Ki Noh Bi, the Carigellachie 24yo Small Batch Exceptional Cask by Craigellachie, the Dalmore Luceo, the DFS exclusive Highland Park Single Cask Series 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky and the Single Cask #1476 Mizunara Heads by Malt Chichibu.

    The Octomore 8.2, meaning “The big eight” in Scots Gaelic, by Bruichladdich, is an enigmatic spirit and a cult classic amongst whisky aficionados. Its release was a landmark moment for head distiller Adam Hannett. The DFS exclusive Rare Cask Reserve Àraid 18 Years Old 0.7L by William Grant & Sons, meaning “unique” in Scots Gaelic, is an exclusive bottling of a blended scotch from the distillery’s Rare Cask Reserves collection. The blend comprises malt and grain from whiskys accumulated by the Grant family over the past 50 years and have been expertly brought together by Master Blender Brian Kinsman.

    The Cask-aged Kyoto Dry Gin 2nd Edition by Ki Noh Bi is the first of its kind; a Japanese gin created, blended and bottled at Ki Noh Bi’s dedicated artisanal distillery in Kyoto using local ingredients and inspired by the history and culture of the ancient Japanese city. This DFS exclusive limited edition of Ki Noh Bi gin is aged in casks that previously held Japanese Single Malt whisky and labeled using mask images from the Kamiasobi Noh Troupe.

    The Craigellachie 24yo Small Batch Exceptional Cask by Craigellachie is a part of the John Dewar & Sons Fine Scotch Whisky Emporium and showcases the rare release of some of the finest and most delectable single cask and single malt expressions. Handpicked by Dewar’s Master Blender and Malt Master Stephanie MacLeod, the Exceptional Cask series features a collection of extraordinary single cask bottlings, double-cask and small batch releases. Selected for their finesse and remarkable qualities, the Craigellachie 24Year Old limited release is one of a kind, providing the opportunity to try something truly unique.

    The Dalmore Luceo is part of a selection of releases finished in different types of Sherry casks. The Luceo was finished in “first fill” Apostoles Sherry casks, resulting in decadent waves of sweetness.

    The DFS exclusive Highland Park Single Cask Series 15 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky comes from one of the most remote Scotch whisky distilleries in the world. For more than 217 years, the distillery has combined old tradition with the very best craftsmanship to achieve perfection. Products from Highland Park use only top layer peat, that helps contribute to its honey-infused flavor. The Single Cask #1476 Mizunara Heads by Malt Chichibu has a strong, earthy aroma, yet maintains a sweet fragrance similar to rich brown sugar. This exceptional malt trails off in a long, profound finish with hints of prune and dried fig.

    The 2018 Masters of Wines and Spirits Collection will be available for purchase at Singapore’s Changi Airport
    from March 25, and later in the year at T Galleria by DFS in Hong Kong and Macau DFS Masters of Wines and Spirits is part of the DFS Masters Series, a signature program of exhibitions that also includes the highly anticipated Tenth Masters of Time set to take place in Macau this December. The Masters Series is a showcase of the pinnacle of DFS’ leadership and innovation in curating and creating exceptional experiences across its five pillars of luxury: Wines and Spirits, Beauty and Fragrances, Watches and Jewelry, Fashion and Accessories, and Food and Gifts.

     

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