Case Study: Complete Supermarket Signage for Hwa Thai Supermart, Plentong Johor Bahru
Project Overview
Hwa Thai Supermart positions itself as a one-stop wholesale and retail destination — "Pemborong dan Pembekal Barang Runcit / 一站式批发与零售" — serving both individual shoppers and trade buyers across Johor Bahru. The building spans multiple levels, with wholesale and retail operations on the ground floor, additional store space on Level 1, and the headquarters management office on Level 2.
The signage brief covered the full building — from the prominent outdoor facade signboard visible from the main road all the way through to indoor section markers, directional signage, and large-format promotional displays inside the store.
Scope of Work
- Main outdoor signboard — "HWA THAI SUPERMART" 3D LED frontlit aluminium box-up lettering in the brand’s yellow and teal colour scheme, installed across the full width of the building facade
- Indoor fabric lightbox — large-format fabric lightbox installed in the fresh produce section, displaying the "More than Fresh" visual with high-density LED module backlighting
- Indoor acrylic section signs — branded acrylic signage for in-store section identification, including the Non Halal / Tidak Halal / 非清真 zone marker
- Indoor acrylic directory signage — multi-level floor directory panel guiding shoppers and visitors to Wholesale & Store (Level G), Store (Level 1), and Headquarters Management Office (Level 2)
- Giant banner — large-format printed banner mounted on the exterior side wall, featuring the MyKasih partnership programme promotion
- Window stickers — full-colour printed vinyl stickers applied to the shopfront windows, carrying promotional and informational content
The Signage — In Detail
Main Outdoor Signboard — 3D LED Frontlit Aluminium Box-Up
The main building signboard for Hwa Thai Supermart spans the full width of the three-storey building facade — making it one of the most visible landmark signs in the Plentong area. The signboard uses large-format 3D aluminium box-up lettering in the brand’s yellow colour, frontlit with LED modules through the acrylic face panels. The bright yellow lettering against the teal building facade creates a high-contrast combination that is immediately recognisable from the road.
The production of the main lettering — each individual letter fabricated in the A&T factory at Ulu Tiram and spray-painted to the exact brand yellow before installation — is clearly visible in the factory production photo, showing the scale and volume of work involved in a large supermarket signboard project.
Indoor Fabric Lightbox — Fresh Produce Section
A large-format fabric lightbox was installed above the fresh produce counter inside the supermarket, displaying the "More than Fresh" brand visual. The lightbox uses a high-density LED module grid behind the fabric face — as visible in the installation photo — which produces even, bright backlighting across the full width of the panel. Fabric lightboxes are the preferred choice for supermarket interior displays of this scale because they handle large-format food photography accurately and maintain consistent brightness across the entire panel without hot spots.
Indoor Acrylic Section Signs
Within the store, acrylic signage was produced for section identification — including the trilingual Non Halal zone marker displayed in Bahasa Malaysia, English, and Chinese (Non Halal / Tidak Halal / 非清真). These signs are produced using acrylic sheet with UV-printed graphics and mounted directly onto the wall above the relevant product sections, making it easy for shoppers to navigate the store layout at a glance.
Indoor Acrylic Directory Signage
A branded acrylic directory panel was installed at the building’s internal circulation area, guiding shoppers and visitors to the correct floor for each zone — Wholesale & Store on Level G, Store on Level 1, and Headquarters Management Office on Level 2. The panel uses the full Hwa Thai Supermart brand identity — yellow background, teal colour blocks, the HT logo — making it consistent with the rest of the in-store visual environment.
Giant Banner
A large-format printed banner was mounted on the exterior side wall of the building, promoting Hwa Thai Supermart’s partnership with the MyKasih programme — a government-linked social assistance initiative allowing beneficiaries to redeem benefits at all Hwa Thai branches. This type of large exterior banner is a cost-effective way to communicate programme partnerships and promotions to passing traffic without modifying the main building signboard.
What This Project Demonstrates
Supermarket signage requires indoor and outdoor coordination
A supermarket signage project is fundamentally different from a single shopfront — the signage needs to work at multiple scales simultaneously. The outdoor main signboard needs to be legible from a moving vehicle on the main road. The indoor fabric lightbox needs to be bright enough to stand out in a fully lit retail environment. The section signs need to be clear at a distance of several metres across a busy store floor. A&T’s experience across all these signage types means we can manage the full scope without the owner needing to coordinate multiple suppliers.
Brand colour accuracy matters at large scale
Hwa Thai Supermart’s distinctive yellow and teal brand identity needed to be reproduced consistently across signage types that use completely different production methods — spray-painted aluminium letters for the outdoor signboard, UV-printed acrylic for the indoor signs, and fabric printing for the lightbox. Getting the colour right across all three production methods, so they all read as the same brand, requires careful colour management at the factory stage — something A&T’s in-house production team handles directly.