Uggli Muffins Hawker Who Pivoted To Selling Crepes Back To Baking Muffins Due To Overwhelming Demand
Not wanting to sell zi char, he decided to offer ‘ugly’ muffins, naming his business Uggli Muffins. His wallet-friendly muffins, comically misshapen and overflowing from their baking trays, proved to be a hit with customers.
Fast forward 20 years to October 2023, and Anton decided he has had enough of the hawker life. As a one-man-show, his manpower woes went unresolved as he could not find people willing to work as hawker assistants. “My business has grown to a scale that is somewhat beyond the owner’s capability of management,” he tells 8days.sg.
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Muffins to crepes to… muffins again
After a futile hunt for a successor, the bachelor closed both his Toa Payoh stall and Jalan Besar standalone outlet, and travelled the world for two months. While in Paris waiting for a crepe, he had the idea to sell French-style sourdough crepes when he returned to Singapore in March 2024.
The crepes, made à la minute, were still less laborious to prepare than muffins. But it looks like Uggli Muffins is back in business, as Anton has stopped selling crepes after three months and returned to hawking muffins.
Why?
When 8days.sg ask Anton why he had gone back to selling muffins again, he replies, indirectly, that it was due to greater demand for muffins.
He explains playfully: “Every day there were so many people asking me about muffins. For every crepe I sold, there were at least five customers asking about my muffins and cookies. If I get $200 from every person who asks me about muffins, I’m pretty sure I’ll be a millionaire very soon!”
To get around the manpower crunch, he trimmed his operating hours and also bakes fewer muffins for sale. “I have someone helping me now, but we are still finding [more manpower],” he says.
Muffin menu
According to Anton, he offers a different selection of flavours every day, “depending on the availability of ingredients”. But some are classic mainstays, like Chocolate, Oreo and Cranberry. Each muffin costs $1.60 to $1.90.
He reckons that it’s not so unusual to tweak his stall concept according to how he sees fit. He quips: “I have decided to run my stall like how I travelled — just go with the wind!”
Uggli Muffins is at #02-34 Toa Payoh West Market & Food Centre, Blk 127 Toa Payoh Lor 1, S310127. Tel: 9877 9020. Open daily except Mon, 11am-2pm. www.facebook.com/UggliMuffins
Photos: Dillon Tan/ Uggli Muffins
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg.
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