For who?

• Merchant Associations (MAs)
  
  
• Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who are members of MAs. Your business qualifies as a SME if:
  
  
  • 30% - 100% of shareholding is local
  • your fixed assets are worth S$0 - S$15M*
  • you have 0 - 200 employees (for non-manufacturing companies)*

*Computed on a group basis. Where 20% - 100% of your shares are owned by other companies, the total value of your fixed assets and employees is calculated three levels up. Where your company owns 51% - 100% of another company (subsidiary), your subsidiary's fixed assets and employees will also be added to the computation.

For what?

• To subsidise the costs of projects led by MAs which improve or upgrade their neighbourhood’s retail environment.
  
  
• The project must lead to:
  
  
  • 20% increase in retail traffic in 3 years
  • 20% increase in sales revenue in 3 years
  • MAs becoming self-sustaining in the long run

How much?

Merchant Associations

• MAs can get up to 70% of the qualifying costs for heartland retail projects.
  
  
• Qualifying costs includes:
  
  
  • manpower costs (e.g. salary of project members)
  • equipment and materials (e.g. software and machinery)
  • professional fees (e.g. consultancy fees)

SME Members Of MAs

• SME members of MAs participating in the project can get up to 70% of qualifying costs, subject to a maximum of S$10,000.
  
  
• Qualifying costs include costs incurred to:
  
  
• re-layout the shop (space planning)
• buy inventory management systems
• buy point-of-sales (POS) systems
• improve visual merchandising
• train staff (e.g. visual merchandising skills)

Things to note

• Only MAs can apply. SME members of MAs who want to benefit from this grant should approach their MAs.
  
  
• MAs must garner 51% - 100% support from members for the project before applying for the grant.
  
  
• MAs also need to get the support of a Member of Parliament (MP) for their project.

For more info

Heartland Retail Programme
SPRING Singapore