NTUC Foodfare looking into price caps at Bukit Panjang outlet
By Feng Zengkun, The Straits Times, 13 Jun 2012
THE operator of the new hawker centre to be built in Bukit Panjang plans to keep the food there good and affordable.
NTUC Foodfare, picked by the Government last Friday to run the centre, is looking into requiring each stall to offer one low- cost dish and imposing price caps on the food sold there.
And to ensure that the centre will sell what residents want, the social enterprise will do a survey among those living in the area.
The survey will be conducted between August and the year-end, NTUC Foodfare chief executive Perry Ong said in an interview with The Straits Times on Monday.
The Bukit Panjang centre, slated to open in three years, is NTUC Foodfare's first venture into running a hawker centre; it already runs 45 foodcourts, coffee shops, food kiosks, cafes and a catering service.
The Government, which announced that it will build 10 hawker centres in the next decade, said it may run them in partnership with social enterprises to keep food prices affordable.
Seven of the 10 centres will be built in areas now under-served by such facilities, such as Pasir Ris, Yishun and Jurong West.
Mr Ong said many of NTUC Foodfare's ideas for the hawker centre are being transplanted from its network of eateries.
The group conducted demographic surveys before setting up each of its other coffee shops and foodcourts. This was how it planned the food mix in each of the outlets.
In its foodcourt in Ang Mo Kio Hub, for example, it looked for tenants willing to sell familiar fare such as herbal soup to cater to the sizeable community of older folk there.
Mr Ong said this planning ensured variety, adding: 'We have all seen hawker centres which have four seafood barbecue stalls in a row.'
The group charges its tenants lower rents in exchange for price caps on the food, and requires them to seek approval before raising prices. The result: Basic items such as kopi-o and teh-o cost 80 cents a cup at most - among the cheapest.
Each stall in its foodcourts also offers a low-cost dish, in addition to more upmarket fare for those who can afford it, so that 'the hawkers can make a profit while keeping the social objective intact', said Mr Ong.
The group is looking into other options to keep costs low for its tenants, such as bulk buying ingredients for them.
Mr Ong said NTUC Foodfare is ironing out these details with the Government.
Mr Chan Chong Beng, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said rent is a hawker's single largest cost, so lowering it may be the right step in managing food prices at the Bukit Panjang centre.
But he added that it may not attract the best hawkers if price caps are imposed. 'Some hawkers will go elsewhere and charge higher prices if they think people will pay,' he said.
Assistant Professor Walter Theseira of Nanyang Technological University's economics division said price caps are unfair to hawkers, who are generally in the middle to lower-middle class. 'A better way to address consumers' welfare is to provide them with food vouchers.'
Others questioned if NTUC Foodfare, which rents its properties, would have the stomach to hold rents down if the commercial property market heats up.
Former hawker Liang Yixin, 67, said NTUC Foodfare would also have to keep an eye on food quality, in case hawkers cut corners to maximise their profits.
'Some hawkers who sell chicken rice may cut down on the chicken and add more rice, for example,' he said.
NTUC Foodfare to run hawker centre
It's been picked to manage the new one being planned in Bukit Panjang
By Ng Kai Ling, The Straits Times, 9 Jun 2012
It's been picked to manage the new one being planned in Bukit Panjang
By Ng Kai Ling, The Straits Times, 9 Jun 2012
SOCIAL enterprise NTUC Foodfare has been appointed to run the first of 10 new hawker centres that the Government is building over the next decade.
In a statement yesterday, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said that it had taken up the Hawker Centre Public Consultation Panel's suggestion and appointed NTUC Foodfare to manage the Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre.
When Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan made the announcement last year about the new hawker centres, he said his preference was for them to be run on a not-for-profit basis, instead of by commercial operators.
Yesterday, NEA said it wants to encourage more social enterprises and cooperatives that are able to provide affordable food - through a viable not-for-profit model - to manage the other new centres that will be built in the future.
An 18-member panel appointed by the Government to study how these future hawker centres should run, also championed the idea of having a social enterprise take the lead.
NTUC Foodfare said yesterday that it will be conducting a feasibility study to ensure that its business model is sustainable and also benefits all stakeholders including its stallholders and customers.
One consideration would be to ensure that rental rates are affordable so that its stallholders can run a viable business while selling food at affordable prices.
NTUC Foodfare chief executive Perry Ong told The Straits Times: 'We will be taking a multi-pronged approach such as looking at extending help to tenants with raw material supplies to keep costs low.'
Just last week, NTUC Foodfare opened a stall in Aljunied offering a set meal of rice, an egg, vegetables, and meat or fish at just $1.99.
The group also operates a catering service, and runs 45 foodcourts, coffee shops, food kiosks and cafes across the country.
Construction work for the Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre is expected to commence in mid-2013 and complete by end-2014.
A competition will be launched next Monday for the design for the new centre.
NEA, which is organising the competition with the Singapore Institute of Architects, said that it is looking for designs that are attractive, practical, cost-effective, environmentally sustainable and can promote social bonding.
The competition is open to all Singapore-registered architects.
Overseas architects need to partner local ones to take part.
The winning design will be announced in October this year.
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