MPH Bookstores has its roots in 1815 when William Milne, a young missionary, established a permanent mission press in Malacca. This establishment moved to Singapore in 1890 with the primary objective of printing literature.

In 1906, the organization underwent another name change to the Methodist Publishing House. In 1927, it was incorporated as Malaya Publishing House when it became a public listed company. Following the announcement of the Malaysian nation in 1963, the company changed its name to Malaysia Publishing House and new bookstores were opened in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Malacca. To the public, Malaysia Publishing House has always been known as MPH.

The late Jack Chia, acquired MPH in 1972. MPH then became known as Jack Chia-MPH Ltd. The company changed its name to MPH Ltd in March 2000 to reflect the change in its majority ownership since 1998. MPH Bookstores Sdn Bhd was 100% owned by MPH Group (S) Pte Ltd which in turn was a subsidiary of MPH Ltd, a public company listed on the stock exchange of Singapore.

On 20 December 2002, MPH Bookstores (Singapore) Pte Ltd was bought over by a Malaysian company, Jalinan Inspirasi Sdn Bhd, which is part of a large Malaysian conglomerate controlled by Malaysian businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. Jalinan Inspirasi changed its name to MPH Group (M) Sdn Bhd to reflect its core businesses and it now owns MPH Bookstores (Malaysia and Singapore), MPH Distributors (Malaysia and Singapore), MPH Library Services (Singapore), MPH Publishing (M), MPH Printing (M) and MPH Magazine (M).

MPH Bookstores is a well-established chain of bookstores. It retails books, magazines, stationery, gifts and greeting cards. The chain has three outlets located in the city and neighbourhood areas - Raffles City Shopping Centre, Robinson Road and Parkway Parade all of which cater to the office crowd and the surrounding vicinity.