Metro as a brand was founded in 1957 by its chairman, Mr. Ong Tjoe Kim.

Retail business under the stewardship of the late Mr. Ong flourished and grew to become one of Singapore’s major department store chains. Metro Holdings Limited was formed in 1973 and listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore in the same year. Metro continued to grow its retail business over the years and subsequently diversified into property development, leisure, construction business.

The group’s core businesses today are focused mainly in property and retail, with concentration on the Singapore market and key market regions of People’s Republic of China and Indonesia.

Metro Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary is the retail arm of Metro Holdings Limited. It currently operates a chain of department stores and specialty stores both in Singapore and Indonesia.

Today in Singapore, it serves its customers through a chain of five department stores, nine Monsoon Accessorize and one M2 specialty stores. Metro Paragon, its flagship store located on Orchard Road caters to the well-heeled and sophisticated missy ladies seeking indulgence in beauty, fashion and accessories. And with the opening of Metro Centrepoint, its biggest store currently in November 2014, this further elevates the brand’s dominance on Orchard Road, offering its customers one-stop shopping and 6 floors of retail therapy. It’s a shopping destination for the modern family and young urbanites. Both suburban Metro Woodlands and Metro Sengkang as well Metro City Square in the city fringe area are positioned as family-friendly stores.

Apart from department store retailing, Metro Retail has also gone into specialty retailing with the extensive retail experience and expertise it has acquired over the years. In Singapore, it manages two exclusive franchise brands – Monsoon and Accessorize, two popular high-street labels from the UK. As a fashion brand, Monsoon is known for its exciting range of up-to-date ladies’ fashion apparel with an ethnic focus. Accessorize, as an eclectic brand of accessories features a diverse range of stylish yet distinctive fashion items. The brand was born out of the imagination of the founders of Monsoon to complement its fashion apparel. It became such a hit with the customers later that the accessories would soon evolve to become an independent brand with its own unique identity and opening many exciting, standalone concept stores all over UK and beyond.

The brand has its humble beginnings as a familiar and beloved local brand, serving the Singaporeans and being very much a part of their lives since it was founded. But it soon grew and evolved over the years to an iconic Singapore brand with a strong footprint in Indonesia with the opening of several department stores since 1991. Metro Department Store in Indonesia is now one of the leading retailers focused on serving the fashion-conscious customers with exquisite tastes. To date, the group has a chain of five department stores in Jakarta, one in Bandung, one in Makassar, one in Surabaya and one in Solo. The Metro retail business in Indonesia also consists of a portfolio of internationally-renowned brands such as Accessorize, Birkenstock, Monsoon, NICI and more.

In this fast-changing world where customer engagement and loyalty is integral to its business, Metro has established a dynamic Customer Relationship Management and Loyalty Programme to serve its base of loyal customers, both in Singapore and Indonesia. Currently, it has five privilege and credit cards to cater to different segments of its customers with wide-ranging benefits to enhance their shopping and customer experience with the brand.