To cater to the financial needs of Singapore-based retail food and beverage and food manufacturing companies expanding overseas, DBS Bank has established a dedicated F&B coverage team to better serve these customers.

In the last 18 months, the bank has seen four in 10 of its F&B small and medium-sized enterprise customers expand overseas, with top expansion markets being Tier 2 cities in markets such as China, Indonesia and Taiwan.

This is a twofold increase over the last five years and a trend is in place, DBS said.

The bank's new SME Banking coverage team comprises 15 relationship managers and credit specialists who have close to 200 years of banking experience between them. The team is supported by two senior sector specialists from the bank's group research team.

Customers will be able to tap the bank's expertise in financial structures, cash management and foreign exchange solutions to better manage their cash flows. They can also get help in understanding rental, manpower and taxation matters in the markets they seek to expand into.

Select Group, which has a stable of brands, including Peach Garden and Hong Kong Sheng Kee Dessert, recently partnered DBS to expand into Jakarta.

"For F&B companies based in Singapore, sometimes the only way to grow our business is to explore new markets overseas which are growing faster than Singapore," said Select Group chief executive Vincent Tan.

"Our regional markets are dynamic and also benefit from fast-growing urban populations, which lead to greater purchasing power and easy access to labour."