S$750K+ in losses later, here are the lessons this 29 Y/O hawker learnt the hard way

3 business lessons from Tommy Pang’s F&B rollercoaster

You may know Tommy Pang, 29, as the second-gen owner of hawker brand Bai Nian, who has never been shy about airing his family’s business struggles on Instagram.

His parents started the original Bai Nian Niang Dou Fu yong tau fu stall in 2013. In 2017, the family expanded into Bai Nian Food Court, an eight-stall food court at ESR BizPark @ Chai Chee, which Tommy now runs alongside his sister as a challenge set by their parents.

It bled out about S$250,000 in seven months, but the family’s business woes have not been confined to the food court. His previous venture, pork leg rice chain Shi Nian, also lost S$500,000 after expanding rapidly, while his Cantonese restaurant Dudu was forced to shut its Eunos outlet just seven months after opening.

Unlike many founders who go quiet when business goes south, Tommy has been documenting it on Instagram—from losses to the day-to-day struggles of keeping the business afloat.

Here’s what business owners can take away from them.

1.  Growth without structure can backfire

Before the food court, there was Shi Nian, which opened at Albert Centre Market in 2019 and expanded rapidly to 30 outlets in just two years through franchising.

It’s the business Tommy was reflective about in an Instagram post in Sept 2025, where he revealed Shi Nian had lost half a million dollars in just six months. The post drew comments from customers pointing to shrinking portions as part of the problem, prompting Tommy to address the quality complaints publicly.

The problem, however, went beyond rapid expansion. It came down to a lack of systems and structure.

Tommy said his intention was to bring young blood into an ageing hawker trade and give first-time operators a foothold in the business.

But partnering with people who had never run a food stall before came with a major challenge: quality control. In 2025, about 20% of Shi Nian’s outlets were franchised, while the rest were self-operated, which made it harder to maintain consistent standards across the chain.

As outlets multiplied, standards slipped. When partners were unable to catch these issues, Tommy was left absorbing the losses.

“It was a hard lesson, but ultimately, my mistake. I could’ve created a better system,” he admitted.

For anyone looking to scale through franchising or partnerships, the lesson is simple: having the capital to open more outlets is not the same as having the systems to run them. Tommy eventually shut nearly 20 stores “overnight” after expanding without “a system, structure or strategy”.

2. Don’t let one location become too big a risk

Just seven months after opening, Dudu Cantonese Cuisine—a collaboration between Tommy and popular Guangzhou restaurant Zi Zhe Shi Tang—was forced to shut its Eunos outlet after the coffee shop operator decided not to renew its lease.

The concept was a new venture for Tommy, who had partnered with the restaurant to bring its Cantonese-style dishes to Singapore. But despite the relatively new outlet, the business had already committed significant capital to the space.

It had leased three adjoining stalls until 2028 at about S$10,000 a month and spent more than S$100,000 fitting out the premises, including installing a large industrial fan because the space suited the restaurant’s kitchen needs long-term. 

However, none of that mattered soon after, when the coffee shop’s own operator decided to stop running the premises altogether, and gave all seven tenants notice on Jun 21 that they had to vacate by the end of Jul, citing rising rental costs and declining footfall.

“I was completely stunned and could not react at all,” Tommy said. The business had been open barely six months, and more than 10 employees’ jobs were suddenly at risk.

Dudu eventually relocated to an industrial unit in Marsiling, reportedly spending around S$40,000 on the move, and used the relaunch to introduce new dishes alongside the existing menu. So far, it has kept things fresh with three menu changes in the last 10 months.

There was little Tommy could have done to prevent the closure. The lease, the money already spent and the plans for the space became irrelevant once the operator decided to shut the coffee shop.

But the experience highlights a different risk in F&B: how much of your business is tied to one location that you don’t control?

Due diligence can help you avoid a bad location or an unfavourable lease, but it cannot eliminate risks outside your control. What you can control is how much capital you put into a single site, how much time you need to relocate, and whether the business can survive the disruption.

For F&B operators, the ability to move quickly may be just as important as choosing the right location in the first place.

3. When the location can’t sell itself, marketing has to

Bai Nian Food Court had lost about S$250,000 in seven months, with one of its biggest problems being the lack of customers.

Footfall at ESR BizPark, where the food court is located, never fully recovered after the pandemic pushed office workers into remote work. Even after offices reopened, fewer workers returned to the area, leaving weekday lunchtime occupancy at the food court’s 400-to-500-seat space at just 10–20%.

This was enough to scare off prospective tenants before they’d sign a lease with Bai Nian Food Court.

When a Western food stall abruptly pulled out and forfeited its deposit, the Pang family tried but failed to bring in an Indian food operator to replace it. With no time left to properly research and develop a new concept, they scrambled to open a fried chicken cutlet rice stall themselves just to fill the space in the meantime, but it was short-lived, and the unit returned to being empty again. 

The family could not control the footfall around the business park, but they could try to make the food court more visible.

So Tommy leaned into social media as a lever. He started posting more regularly to promote the food court and reach customers who might not otherwise have a reason to visit. Tommy believed that sharing the story behind the food court helps create a connection with customers and build trust.

The food court also launched a free hot drink promo running through the end of Sept with any main dish purchase—kopi, tea, or yuan yang—with a S$0.50 top-up for iced versions.

Neither move is likely to transform footfall overnight. But when a location can’t provide enough organic traffic, marketing becomes less about simply promoting what’s there and more about giving people a reason to come.

For a struggling F&B business, that could mean telling a story customers want to follow, creating an offer worth travelling for, or consistently reminding people that you exist. The point is to create demand rather than wait for footfall to return on its own.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Featured Image Credit: SG Food on Foot, Bai Nian Food Court via Instagram