History Ling & Sons

An autonomous member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aruba is one of the safest and most popular island destinations in the Caribbean. Its capital city, Oranjestad, is home to Ling & Sons IGA Super Center.

The Ling family's roots in the retail-food business go back more than 50 years, when Mr. Chao Yang Ling left his native China to work at a friend's store in Suriname, South America. In 1936 he traveled to Aruba and opened his first store together with two partners in the then-booming ESSO-refinery town of San Nicolas. After WWII, Mr. Ling expanded his business by opening his first grocery store on his own.

In the late 1960s, Ling adopted the contemporary self-service concept at his grocery store with the help of his oldest son, Jimin Ling, who had worked for Safeway in Hawaii. This new model developed over the years into Ling & Sons IGA Super Center, earning great respect among the Aruban community for its innovation and leadership in the retail-food business.

In 2002, Ling & Sons Supermarket joined the Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA). In 2003, in order to meet the demands of the growing local population and the increasing number of tourists visiting the Island, the Ling family almost tripled the size of its store from 12,000 to 32,000 square feet.

Today, the second Ling generation owns and operates the super center. Clifton Ling is the Director while his wife Ingrid Ling and his sister Yolanda Ling are part of the Management Team.