Continuing on its acquisition trail, Dairy Farm added the 108-store Simago chain in Spain, and the 61-store Woolworths chain in New Zealand.

Five 7-Elevens were opened in Shenzhen, China and the Company established a 49% joint venture with Nestle to develop dairy products factories throughout China.

Acquisition of the 142-store Cold Storage chain in Singapore was completed.

Dairy Farm established a 50/50 joint venture with Cold Storage, Malaysia, to develop supermarkets in the country while Kwik Save acquired 117 stores from Shoprite in the UK.

In January, a 51:49 supermarket joint venture was formed in Shenzhen and Sims' 70%-owned warehousing and distribution joint venture in Guangzhou commenced operations in May.

The Company expands in Japan with a 60:40 joint venture with Seiyu to develop discount stores and opened four Wellsave stores. In Indonesia, it signed a technical assistance agreement with the Hero group to manage their 11-store Mitra supermarket chain. In India, it also signed a technical assistance agreement with RPG to assist in the development of a supermarket chain.

Expansion continues in Guangdong with a 100% co-operative agreement for 7-Eleven stores in Guangdong. In Taiwan, a 50:50 joint venture was established with Casino to develop hypermarkets.

Guardian Pharmacy joint ventures were sealed in Malaysia and India, and a technical assistance agreement was signed with Rajawali to manage their Guardian Pharmacy chain in Indonesia.

Dairy Farm consolidated its businesses with the sale of its 49% interest in Nestle Dairy Farm to Nestle and the Simago chain in Spain. It also closed down the non-performing Mannings drugstores in Taiwan and the Wellsave discount stores in Japan.

In February, Dairy Farm acquired a 32% effective interest in the 71-store PT Hero supermarket chain in Indonesia.

In March, Kwik Save merged with Somerfield and Dairy Farm sold its 11% holding for US$290 million.

In November, the Group opened the US$50 million Wellcome Fresh Food Processing Centre in Hong Kong. The 161,000 sq. ft centre was the most advanced of its kind in Asia and cemented Dairy Farm's reputation for fresh food.

In December, the first Geant hypermarket was opened in Taiwan in a joint venture with Casino.

Dairy Farm completed the sale of Oliver's Super Sandwiches to Jardine Pacific in January.

In March, Dairy Farm and Ernst & Young formed OneResource Group, a joint venture to provide a one-stop financial, accounting and related support services to Dairy Farm's Hong Kong retail businesses, including Wellcome, Mannings and 7-Eleven.

In July, Dairy Farm acquired a 50% interest in Selangor Ice Company, which increased the Company's effective holdings in Wellsave supermarket to 75% and Guardian Pharmacy to 65%.

Dairy Farm and RPG established a 49:51 joint venture to operate Foodworld supermarkets in India; and in Singapore, Cold Storage acquired eight Tops stores from the Royal Ahold-Kerry joint venture.

In December, Dairy Farm acquired a 90% interest in Giant, which operated seven hypermarkets/supermarkets in Malaysia, and purchased the remaining 30% interest in Guardian Singapore.