Magnolia (branded as F&N Magnolia) is a brand of dairy products owned by

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

an multinational conglomorate

Fraser and Neave Fraser and Neave, Limited (F&N) is a Thai-Singaporean food and beverage and publishing and printing industries conglomerate. It is owned by Thai Chinese billionaire business magnate Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Listed in Singapore, the group's sub ...

(F&N). Aside from Singapore, the product is also sold in several other countries throughout the Asia-Pacific as well as at

Asian supermarket In non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East (e.g. East Asia, East, Southeast Asia, Southeast and South Asia ...

s in non-Asian countries.

History

Early years

The Singaporean company Cold Storage, which was then known as the Singapore Cold Storage Company, was the main manufacturer of ice in Singapore. Taking advantage of the booming ice manufacturing and refrigeration business, Cold Storage ventured into the

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

business. In 1923, a small factory was set up at the Borneo Wharf of the

Harbourfront HarbourFront is a waterfront district situated in southern Singapore. Whilst HarbourFront's boundaries are ambiguous, its location is roughly represented on the URA's Master Plan as a subzone called Maritime Square, located within the Bukit Me ...

district to manufacture ice cream under the Paradise brand.

Tropical dairy farm at Bukit Timah

In 1937, Australian Fred Heron, the managing director of Cold Storage, founded the world's first tropical dairy farm at the

Bukit Timah Bukit Timah ( ), often abbreviated as Bt Timah, is a planning area and residential estate located in the westernmost part of the Central Region of Singapore. Bukit Timah lies roughly from the Central Business District, bordering the Central ...

district of Singapore, which aimed to produce fresh pasteurised milk. This farm, then known as the Singapore Dairy Farm, was situated inside what is now the

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (abbreviation: BTNR) is a nature reserve near the geographic centre of Singapore, located on the slopes of Bukit Timah Hill, the country's highest natural peak standing at a height of approximately , and parts of ...

. It kept as many as 800 cows. Pasteurised milk produced at the farm was packaged in pyramid-shaped cartons and sold under the brand Magnolia. That same year, a deal was reached between Cold Storage and San Miguel Brewery (now

San Miguel Corporation San Miguel Corporation (), abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine multinational conglomerate with headquarters in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. The company is one of the largest and most diversified conglomerates in the Philippines. Originally fo ...

), which owned the successful

Magnolia ice cream Magnolia is a food and beverage brand owned by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and used by its various subsidiaries. The brand was commercially established by SMC (then known as San Miguel Brewery) as an ice cream brand in 1925. History The his ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

established in 1925. Cold Storage Creameries Ltd. was founded with an initial capital of $100,000, to which Cold Storage owned the majority 55% and San Miguel owned the balance 45%. San Miguel provided technology for ice cream manufacturing. The success of Cold Storage's ice cream led to a legal battle with San Miguel over the ownership of the Magnolia trademark in Singapore.

References

External links

* – Magnolia Milk Singapore
F&N Creameries
{{Singapore-company-stub Singaporean brands Ice cream brands Products introduced in 1923 1923 establishments in Singapore Companies of Singapore Brand name dairy products