Challenging times for F&B? BreadTalk just keeps growing

The home-grown group, now run by the second-generation family, prefers growth at a digestible pace.

- Ravi Velloor Senior Columnist

The famed architect Louis Kahn, designer of iconic structures such as California's Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Yale Center for British Art in Connecticut and the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, once said that “even a brick wants to be something”.

Mr Jonathan Quek, group chief executive of BreadTalk Group (BTG), who once fancied a career in architecture, would agree. Food is as much about passion and feeling as it is about nourishment - just as buildings are more than the places where you live or work.

And for the cognoscenti, materials have their own inherent dignity and aspirations.

BreadTalk, Mr Quek says, was so named because his family wanted the food - bread, particularly - to create a feeling in those who eat it. “There's always a story behind each piece of bread that we come up with,” he adds.

“We believe that there is life in bread. As dough rises, it gives form and personality to each piece of bread, so our breads talk to you - that is BreadTalk... One new product recently launched is called 'Cornfession' - a play on corn and confession. We want you to look at the bread and smile to yourself!”

I “cornfess” to endorsing those sentiments and being a bit of a fan myself. A few days ago, as these words were being written, I went down to the local Toast Box - a BreadTalk brand - and ordered my favourite teatime snack: a bo luo bun washed down with a honey lemon drink.

The bun, as expected, had that unique combination of crispness and softness, the small slice of unadulterated butter aromatic to the nose and rich on the tongue. BreadTalk uses only high-quality Japanese wheat flour, and New Zealand butter for the most part. The higher costs involved in using such atas ingredients - Indonesian or Chinese flour would be much cheaper - it compensates for with efficiencies along the supply chain.