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BreadTalk gets fresh with new concept store

SINGAPORE — Following several embarrassing blunders that have hurt its reputation and bottom line, homegrown bakery and food court operator BreadTalk is on a mission to improve its product and service offerings with the launch of a concept store in VivoCity.

BreadTalk chairman and founder George Quek. TODAY file photo

BreadTalk chairman and founder George Quek. TODAY file photo

SINGAPORE — Following several embarrassing blunders that have hurt its reputation and bottom line, homegrown bakery and food court operator BreadTalk is on a mission to improve its product and service offerings with the launch of a concept store in VivoCity.

BreadTalk yesterday unveiled more than 50 new breads and cakes specially designed by masterchefs at the new outlet, which also showcases its digital push using e-scheduling and e-production systems to improve productivity and reduce wastage.

Digital screens outside the outlet are synchronised with the kitchen and will inform passers-by when a new batch of freshly baked bread is ready. BreadTalk is also building a notification system that will let office workers nearby receive prompts — by registering their mobile devices with the store — when their favourite buns are hot out of the oven. These initiatives will be progressively rolled out to its other 44 outlets in Singapore, and will also be implemented internationally in China, Thailand and Indonesia.

BreadTalk hopes this will help drive a recovery in its baking business, which languished in the third quarter and contributed to the 60 per cent drop in group profit from the corresponding period a year earlier to S$1.6 million. It is also an attempt to improve its brand image that has taken repeated hits from poor business practices.

Just yesterday, a consumer named Louis Peh wrote to The Straits Times, saying he bought a pack of Hokkaido Dome bread from BreadTalk’s Tampines Mall outlet that had a “Best before” sticker with an earlier expiry date pasted over with a new one. He questioned BreadTalk’s assurances of “highest ethical standards” after the company was tainted by two scandals earlier this year.

In March, when the country was mourning the death of founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew, BreadTalk launched a bun called “Lee bu kai ni” which played a pun on his surname in a Mandarin phrase that means “can’t leave you”. While sale proceeds from the buns, priced at S$2, were to be donated to the Community Chest, consumers were outraged, calling the move tasteless and disrespectful. The company immediately pulled the product and apologised.

In August, BreadTalk was caught reselling packaged soya bean milk from Yeo’s as freshly prepared, triggering a furore and attracting a warning from the Consumers Association of Singapore for misleading consumers. The company called it a “management oversight” and said it was never its intention to mislead.

On yesterday’s complaint, Mr Tan Aik Peng, divisional CEO, Bakery Division for BreadTalk, said the company found that the product had not expired after it conducted an investigation. “The likelihood is that the staff had actually tagged a wrong date and corrected it with a right date … We will enhance our staff training to prevent this kind of confusion from happening,” he said.

BreadTalk chairman George Quek said: “With the new concept, which we have prepared for about a year plus, we hope that this will bring about customers’ trust and confidence in us.”

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