Hawkers, coffee shops to keep prices despite water cost hike
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — Several coffee chains here — including Toast Box and Ya Kun Kaya Toast — as well as hawkers will not be raising their food and beverage prices in the near term, despite the impending 30 per cent hike in water prices.
Ya Kun International’s chief financial officer Wong Chee Meng said the coffee chain will have to monitor the impact of the increase in water prices on its business costs before making further plans. “(But) we reckon that in the short term, we would not be making drastic increases in our product prices to stay competitive,” he added.
A Wang Cafe spokesperson said, “We maintain that no price increase is planned for the immediate future as water tariffs are one of many other components of our business operating costs.”
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced on Monday that water prices would go up by 30 per cent in two phases, in July this year and July next year.
Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association chairman Hong Poh Hin said the impending hikes will only have a slight impact on coffeeshop owners.
“(The cost of water) is only a small part of their operating costs, maybe 5 to 10 per cent? So it should not affect the coffee prices,” he said. The association represents some 400 coffee shops.
Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) executive director Loy York Jiun said in general, businesses have the right to set their own prices for their beverages and urged all businesses to have fair and transparent pricing for their beverages.
“They should only raise prices if they have good justification behind the increase,” he added.
Hawker Wong Kok Weng, 36, said prices at his salad stall in Amoy Street Food Centre will not be affected as his monthly water bill takes up less than 1 per cent of his overall business costs.
Another hawker, Tay Key Huat, 68, who runs a carrot cake and char kway teow stall in Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre, said due to his contract with NTUC Foodfare, prices at his stall will not be adjusted.
However, both hawkers said they will still try to cut back on their water usage, such as reusing the water used to wash the vegetables to clean the floor.
Separately and before Monday’s announcement on the water price hikes, at least two coffee chains have raised their coffee prices by 10 to 20 cents since late last year.
Toast Box, which had started to increase the prices of some of its products since the final quarter of last year, said the price adjustments were “progressively introduced to cushion any possible impact on our customers”.
The coffee chain, which has 72 outlets, aims to implement the price hike to all outlets by next month.
The prices of some of its products went up by 10 cents, while that of select cold beverages increased by 20 cents. A cup of kopi peng now costs S$2.50, instead of S$2.30.
But the prices of about 80 per cent of Toast Box’s products — such as its toasts and popular serving sizes of its hot beverages — have remained the same, said the spokesperson.
For Wang Cafe, which owns both Wang Cafe and Heavenly Wang coffee chains, its last price adjustment was a 10-cent increase for kopi-c last October. The prices for all other beverages remain the same.
The specific increment was part of its regular business review, said a spokesperson.
Ya Kun said there was no price increase for its products, except for its kaya jars, which were raised by 8 per cent due to costlier ingredients. The last general price revision for Ya Kun was about four years ago, between 8 and 12 per cent.
