Closure of Bakery in Potong Pasiar Due to ‘High Utility Bills’ Has Led to Even More Questions

Have you heard of the bakery, Proofer before?

Famous for its individually sliced pizzas and various buns and cakes, it has more than ten branches islandwide, and you’d probably have walked past it before. 

Well, now the number of branches has decreased by one. 

Proofer Bakery Closed its Potong Pasir Branch Without Warning

Usually, before a store closes, it would give some notice or even hold a clearance sale. 

But in the case of this Proofer outlet, the store at The Poiz Centre in Potong Pasir was closed mysteriously without providing any warning. 

One day it’s here; the next day, poof, it’s gone. 

The shop owner posted a notice on the gate, saying that the bakery’s lease had been terminated and the mall had taken back the storefront.

Now, this would be okay if the business was terrible.

But, the thing that left people scratching their heads was that the bakery had a pretty good business, one that would never warrant such an out-of-the-blue closure. 

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Proofer’s Problems

An insider told Shin Min Daily News that the sudden closure of the bakery was because the mall management and the bakery owner could not strike a reasonable price on the rent and utility bills, causing the owner to pull out. 

Shin Min Daily News then reached out to a Proofer spokesperson, who said there had long been disagreements over the high utility bills. Since the dispute could not be resolved, the bakery closed the branch.

As for the staff working there, they have all been reassigned to other locations, and no one has lost their job

The bakery is actively hiring for other locations. 

A spokesperson of The Poiz Centre said that the reason behind the increased bills was that the shop had outstanding payments that they failed to make.

Also, an inspection of the store revealed that there were electrical sources switched on even outside of operating hours.

All the proof against Proofer.

Besides the utility bills issue, Proofer also has another problem: wage settlement.

A spokesperson for the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) has revealed that it has received three cases of salary recovery from Proofer Bakery employees this year. 

Two of them resolved their problems, while the last withdrew the complaint. 

On Proofer’s side, a spokesperson said that those who approached TADM were all former employees, and the incident that happened earlier this year due to a technical problem has been resolved.

Finally, Proofer has had some complications with its health and safety management. In October last year, its central kitchen was shut down due to the presence of cockroaches and rats, both dead and alive. 

Yucks. 

Fortunately, Proofer now prepares its food in its individual branches and no longer operates the central kitchen. 

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Featured Image: Zaobao