Is Singapore's F&B industry struggling? Hawkers, entrepreneurs and insiders weigh in, Lifestyle News

AsiaOne

24-05-2025

In June 2024, former Singapore Airlines cabin crew Cherry Kiang, 29, decided to embark on a different career path by becoming a hawker.
Together with her husband, they invested approximately $30,000 in their stall at Woodlands called Kiang Kiang Taiwan Teppanyaki.
Though it's been less than a year since the business opened, the couple are already facing challenges, such as recording their first loss in February.
"Running a business is always a journey with ups and downs. I too, understand that for a business, we will have to look at the overall performance for the year instead of just one month," she told AsiaOne in an interview.
"But recording our first loss did feel like a setback on a personal level because my team and I really fought hard. As for now, I'm trying to stay positive and focused on finding solutions rather than dwelling on the challenges."
She isn't the only F&B owner who is struggling to stay afloat.
According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, 3,047 food and beverage (F&B) businesses shut down in 2024.
This is the highest in almost two decades since 2025.
Contributing to these numbers is Khoo Keat Hwee, who owned Japanese hawker stall chain Mentai-ya,
Keat Hwee invested around $30,000 into his businesses in 2020 and owned nine Mentai-ya outlets along with two cafes at its peak.
However, the business started to decline at the end of 2022.
Despite pumping in "at least $500,000" to keep the outlets afloat, his efforts were in vain and he shuttered all his stalls in April.
The 38-year-old told us in an interview three weeks prior to the closure that business had been "bleeding for two years".
He also expressed regret over not cutting his losses by letting go of the business earlier. High operational costs, lack of manpower
When it comes to challenges that come with running an F&B business, Cherry, Keat Hwee and other F&B owners whom AsiaOne spoke to all cited the same issue — high operational costs and rental.
Keat Hwee, whose businesses specialised in salmon rice bowls, lamented that consumers don't fully understand how pricey quality ingredients can be.
"Salmon and mentaiko sauce are expensive to begin with. Many customers feel that we earn a lot by selling a dish for $8.80, but in reality, our margin is very low," he revealed.
He, like many others, also lamented about the high rental costs.
"Landlords need to stop increasing rent at 'every renewal'," said a frustrated Keat Hwee.
Another big issue many F&B owners grapple with is the lack of manpower.
"Manpower is a huge issue for hawkers in National Environment Agency (NEA)-run hawker centres," shared Melvin Chew, the owner of Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck & Kway Chap at Chinatown Complex.
Cherry too, struggles with hiring and shared that it's difficult to attract locals to join the industry without affecting the cost of their food.
On top of that, hiring foreign talent comes with its own set of challenges such as strict manpower quotas and licensing requirements.
"These [factors] make it hard to build a stable team," she said.
Local actor and F&B entrepreneur Ben Yeo also pointed out that the F&B industry in Singapore is "very competitive", which makes things even more challenging.
"Singapore is very small. The population is not as big as for example, China, or even Japan or India, those powerhouses. So I find that [the F&B options] are a bit oversupplied," he told AsiaOne.
While several F&B businesses have managed to overcome the odds and stay afloat, some admitted that they've considered giving up.
One is Melvin, who took over the family business when his father passed away and currently runs it with his mother, Lim Bee Hong.
Some may find this surprising as the second-generation hawker is pretty well-known in the local food scene, especially after he founded Facebook platform Hawkers United - Dabao 2020 to support hawkers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Hawkers in the current era are not able to have better or even similar profits as what could be earned in the 1980s to 2000s. This worsened in 2020 when the pandemic and [Russia-Ukraine] war caused inflation," he elaborated.
"Hawker prices just don't do justice to the labour and time which we put in." 'It's not the whole story'
But are these the only factors that are affecting our F&B scene?
Former food editor turned brand strategist Debbie Yong told AsiaOne that it's easy to blame the usual suspects such as rising rents, high operational costs and competition from overseas brands, but it's "not the whole story".
"What we're really seeing is the fallout from the pandemic-driven 'open everything' mentality," Debbie explained.
"Everyone rushed to launch businesses, thinking they could ride the wave of excitement. But, many didn't put the thought into long-term sustainability. Businesses expanded too quickly, with too little focus on what set them apart."
This in turn creates a cycle of rapid openings and inevitable closures.
"The reason why we're seeing the number of closures only peak now is that many businesses are signed onto three-year leases," Debbie said.
"That's enough time for them to evaluate whether their business model can survive, and for some, it just didn't hold up."
Though the number of closures is high, Debbie said she doesn't really find the data surprising.
"If you've been watching the trends, it was only a matter of time before the market adjusted. After the initial rush of new openings, we're seeing the reality of over-saturation," she elaborated.
"It's cyclical — businesses expand, but they don't always think long term. We're seeing more closures than ever before, but let's not mistake that for a crisis. Part of this is a natural correction."