The story of POPULAR begins, naturally, with books. In 1924, the founder of POPULAR Group, Mr Chou Sing Chu left the shores of China and came to Singapore. He established the Cheng Hing Company which specialised in picture and comic books. This was the early start of what is now the present POPULAR Group. In Southeast Asia, away from the heart of Chinese culture, POPULAR took on the responsibility and persevered, and after almost a century of hard work and dedication, it has successfully nurtured and spread the riches of the Chinese culture. Now, the POPULAR Group has branched into other areas like retail, e-learning and publishing, becoming a prestigious cultural brand. POPULAR now has a total of 156 retail outlets in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Popular Holdings was incorporated in Singapore on 5 October 1996 as a private company under the name of Popular Holdings Pte Ltd. In May 1997, the Company was listed on the main board of The Singapore Exchange and changed its name to Popular Holdings Limited accordingly.