Hip Oat Milk Hawker Shuts Stall After $80K Loss, Says GST Increase Another Reason For Closure
Artisanal oat milk joint Oatla shut its doors at its Golden Mile Food Centre outlet last month. The hawker stall opened in June last year, and had initially gained traction for selling additive-free oat milk made from scratch. His stall was sort of a hipster version of a soy milk shop, but serving drinks made with a blend of raw oat milk flavoured with fresh fruits, veggies, and a secret “Singaporean ingredient” (8days.sg suspects pandan).
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Oatla’s owner, Sam Tan, 38, tells 8days.sg that he decided to close his hawker stall due to a bunch of reasons, including the “rising costs of ingredients, a decrease in walk-in customers [after the buzz from initial media coverage dissipated], and an increase in online orders”. The millennial, who has an advanced diploma in food technology and used to work as a manager in a food production firm, laments that the final straw, however, was the impending GST increase. “A one percent increase in everything adds up to something substantial,” he explains.
Astronomical rise in cost of ingredients
He adds that his “ingredients costs rose as much as 30 percent even before 2024”, and “foresee it’ll go up close to 40 percent when 2024 comes”. Unless you’re living under a rock — you’ll know that GST rates in Singapore will rise from 8 to 9 percent come 1 January 2024.
In total, Sam shares that he has made a loss of close to $80K so far, as Oatla’s “business growth wasn’t fast enough to cover expenses”, which included $50K for equipment like an electric oat grinder. As he currently works from a small kitchen in Geylang, he is unable to use this equipment due to space constraints, and is hoping to find a bigger place with rent under $2K. This means he currently goes through a supplier to make the oat milk, though he mixes up the drink blends himself. Rest assured though, that his oat milk is still additive-free and made with the same recipe.
Oatla now operates online
In order to sustain the biz, Sam has decided to operate it online, which has helped him save around $5K in monthly expenses like stall rental. He’s open to the idea of reopening a brick-and-mortar stall in future, but says that running Oatla online has its perks, as he “can be more focused on making products, and be more free to run around”. For now, patrons can still order Oatla drinks by contacting Sam on Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp, and arrange for either delivery or collection. In future, Oatla will also be available on delivery services like Grab and Cococart. While it’s still too early to gauge if pivoting to an online business is more profitable for him, Sam says he’s “still serving regulars around the Golden Mile area” through deliveries, and finds this arrangement less stressful than running a physical shop.
He previously told us that he’d wanted to start an oat milk chain, and while the biz isn’t doing as well as planned, Sam says his “aim of promoting Oat milk to the public still stays, but [the biz] will need to survive first”.
Currently, Sam runs Oatla full-time and shares that he’s “drawing a minimum salary that’s just nice for survival”, which is “60 to 70 percent lesser” than what he earned when he was a factory manager. He’s not planning on quitting anytime soon though, and confidently tells us that “Oatla will go on, and in the worst case it’ll become a part-time job”.
New desserts & drinks, including oat milk tang yuan
Sam is in the process of expanding Oatla’s menu. Currently, his latest seasonal offering is tang yuan made with an oat milk soup base, and he also sells new mini dessert bowls like the Triple Gem ($3.50) bowl made with oat groats, red bean and peach gum, as well as overnight oats in flavours like Matcha ($4.50) and Hershey’s Dark Choco ($4.50).
Prices increased since biz started in 2022
His drinks menu has also changed a little, with slight price tweaks (prices accurate at press time). Though Sam’s been able to cut back on rental costs, he still had to increase the price of his drinks due to rising food costs, which makes up the bulk of his expenditures. He continues to offer his Signature Oat Milk (with a scoop of oat groats, nutty-tasting husked oat kernels – think of it as the oat version of brown rice) at $4 instead of $3, while his Original Oat Milk now costs $3.50 instead of $2.50. Other popular flavours include Black Sesame ($4.90) and Walnut ($5.90).
Passionfruit (left) and soursop (right) kombucha
Patrons can also try his oat-free kombucha, which starts at $5 for the Original, and costs $6.50 for flavours like Soursop, Passionfruit and Lemon.
There is no minimum order required for delivery, though customers have the option of ordering the oat milk in 1.25L packets, starting at $12 for the Original. These can last up to seven days from purchase, as Sam preps the orders fresh on the day of delivery.
Order from Oatla via WhatsApp at 8940 0417, or through direct message on Instagram or Facebook.
Photos: Oatla, Aik Chen
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