From Jan 1 to Oct 23, there were 3,357 new retail food establishments and 2,431 closures, going by data from Acra
[SINGAPORE] Of the retail food establishments that closed this year, more than four-fifths of the newer ones – that is, those that had been registered for up to five years – had never turned a profit.
From Jan 1 to Oct 23 this year, there were 3,357 new retail food establishments and 2,431 closures, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong on Wednesday (Nov 5).
Of those that closed, 63 per cent had been registered for five years or less. Of these, 82 per cent had never recorded a profit in their annual tax declarations.
DPM Gan shared the figures in two separate written parliamentary replies to Member of Parliament Foo Cexiang (Tanjong Pagar GRC).
Some 882 of the establishments that closed, or 36.3 per cent, had been registered for under three years. Another 650 or 26.7 per cent had been registered for three or more years, but fewer than five.
The data was from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra), which does not have records of businesses’ actual period of operations. The duration of registration refers to the difference in years between an entity’s registration date and cessation date.
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Retail food establishments include restaurants, cafes, fast-food outlets, food courts, hawker centres, coffee shops and canteens, food and drinks kiosks mainly for takeaway and delivery, pubs, stalls selling cooked food and prepared drinks, and food caterers.
