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SINGAPORE – Food Folks @ Lau Pa Sat, a 7,000-square-foot space championing local retailers and food and beverage (F&B) concepts, is bringing new life to the popular street vendor hub of the Central Business District, which is under renovation.
Launched on Thursday (November 26) by FairPrice Group, Food Folks is home to 10 F&B brands, as well as a retail area with more than 800 food-related items from more than 120 brands. The rest of Lau Pa Sat will reopen next year.
Diners can expect a variety of modern Singaporean dishes exclusive to Food Folks. These include shrimp ramen soup at Chef Kang’s Prawn Noodle House, an offshoot of the Michelin-starred Chef Kang’s restaurant; Shi Hui Yuan’s Ultimate Herbal Combination Rice, Rated by Bib Gourmand; and S’tay The Night, featuring jackfruit satay, from the Smol cereal bowl concept.
Creme and Cone’s first permanent ice cream parlor offers freshly made Waffle Cones and Waffle Lollies, as well as new gelato flavors like Java Banana Chips and ondeh ondeh.
On the retail front, 70 percent of the brands are homegrown, while 40 percent are not commonly found in major supermarkets.
Some have ventured from their online platforms to physical space for the first time. Like the local company Edens, known for its shiitake mushroom snacks and launched online in July. It marks its Food Folks launch with a signature mala shiitake chip flavor, and more new flavors are in the works.
Co-founder Crystal Cheng, 26, says: “With our first offline presence at Food Folks, we look forward to having better access and exposure to our customers and growing our business. Much like e-commerce is common in today’s economy. , a new local brand, it is difficult to gain traffic online with little brand awareness.
“Entering the retail space is intimidating and there are great risks, especially for startups like us. Being at Food Folks will allow us to increase our supply capacity and gain experience working with distribution if we ever enter other retail outlets in Singapore.. “
Food Folks has also partnered with other Singaporean brands, Fossa Chocolate, The 1925 Brewing Co, and Artisan Bricks, which uses Lego bricks for their creations, to launch exclusive co-branded grocery and food products.
And as part of the recently announced national Made with Passion initiative to promote support for local brands, 10 of the 48 brands featured in it will be featured at Food Folks. These include Gryphon Tea Company, Janice Wong Singapore, Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh, and Brass Lion Distillery.
As part of its mission to support retail and F&B businesses, Food Folks offers marketing efforts for one year and has waived initial setup fees.
Seah Kian Peng, Group Executive Director of NTUC Enterprise and FairPrice Group says: “We understand the concerns and challenges facing food businesses amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Supporting our local food brands during this time and helping they plan their future business developments, FairPrice Group will leverage our various network and support initiatives to leverage them. “
In December, there will also be a #GiftLocal holiday campaign for people to purchase food-related gift packs to spread the holiday cheer to those in need.
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