Teck Hin Fishball Noodle to close after 45 years due to high costs, owners dipped into savings to stay afloat

After four decades of being in the local food scene, Teck Hin Fishball Noodles will be closing. 

The stall, which is situated at Bukit Timah Food Centre, announced the news in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Dec 5) morning. 

Their last day will be on Dec 6. 

The elderly couple who run the stall shared that instead of having a brick-and-mortar stall, they plan on going the homebased route, which their daughter, Eugenia, will help to manage. 

"We are in a planning stage with regards to the home-based group buy sale. Do give us some time to work out the logistics," they urged customers in the Facebook post. 

Inflation and a drop in sales 

Before moving to their current location at Bukit Timah Food Centre, the stall used to be situated at a coffee shop next to Clementi Bus Interchange.

While at Bukit Timah Food Centre, they initially occupied one stall for about two years until the stall owner refused to rent the space to them anymore.

Then, they moved to their current stall space and have been there for another one-and-a-half years, Eugenia told AsiaOne.

And ever since they moved, she shared that business deteriorated, especially in the past six to eight months.

"They have been losing money each month," she said.

"With increasing overhead and the fear of losing customers, they don't dare to increase the selling price. It is now no longer viable to sustain the business due to rental and raw material cost for the fishballs."

On top of that, they were paying $3,000 each month for rent.

To stay afloat, the couple even had to dip into their savings and take up several loans.

As for now, the family is searching for a low-cost start-up to work on as the losses incurred had eaten into their ability to start a new stall.

Eugenia also told us that the family will be keeping a lookout for suitable areas to set up a new stall and sustainable rental fees.

Bukit Timah Food Centre to be demolished soon 

Teck Hin Fishball Noodle's closure also happened to come a little after it was announced that Bukit Timah Food Centre will be demolished to make way for an integrated project. 

This will happen in the second half of 2024 and the project is slated to be competed in the second half of 2029. 

The new facility will be a five-storey building measuring about 29,000 sq m.

It will house a market and food centre, and have two floors of underground parking. 

Other amenities include an indoor sports hall, senior and children care facilities, children's education centres and a community library. 

The hawkers in the food centre, including the folks who own Teck Hin Fishball Noodle, were originally supposed to move over to a temporary facility earlier in June.

But the entire project was delayed because of the pandemic. 

So now, the existing market and food centre will continue to operate until the second half of next year before the vendors will relocate to a temporary market and food centre across the road. 

This temporary facility cost around $5 million and at the time of writing, it is reported that there will be about 80 stalls housed there. 

ALSO READ: Singapore burger hawker chain Ashes Burnnit shutters New York outlet after 1 year 

melissateo@asiaone.com