The Icing Room, which is part of the BreadTalk Group, has explained the circumstances surrounding a staff member at its outlet at Nex shopping centre who was reported to have purchased a competitor’s cake and added frosting to it, and sold the cake as its own.
The company said it had conducted an investigation into the complaint immediately after it surfaced online in a Facebook user’s post.
The user had said that the staff was seen using a cake from BreadTalk’s competitor, Bengawan Solo, and added frosting to the cake which presumably would be sold as a product of Icing Room.
“As i was wondering why there was a box from their competitor, the staff proceeded to take out the kueh lapis cake and starting spreading frosting over it,” the Facebook user said.
Icing Room, however, explains that there is a misunderstanding of what had actually happened.
“We wish to clarify that this was an external cake purchase brought in by a staff member who had requested a co-worker to decorate the cake for personal consumption,” the bakery chain said in a post on the Kaki News Network Facebook page which had reported the incident. “This was clearly not a commercial transaction made with an external customer.”
The Icing Room’s explanation was welcomed by the Facebook user who also posted her response on the KNN Facebook page.
“Thank you for the clarification that it was for personal consumption,” said the user, whose online handle is “Sand Sand”. “I have since removed the post of mine since my query is already answered by your clarification. I would also like to emphasize that I did not mention the cost at all and definitely did not even say that icing room was selling it for double the cost, as you can plainly see from the original post. That part was added in by Kaki News Network on their part and certainly not by me or suggested by me. This definitely is not the truth.”
The Icing Room asked for customers’ understanding in the matter and would like to thank them for their feedback.
On Monday, a person named “Kev” posted a photograph showing a BreadTalk employee filling up plastic bottles with Yeo’s brand soya bean milk which were then labelled “freshly prepared”.
“This ‘freshly prepared’ soya bean milk from BreadTalk always tasted very familiar, but somehow I couldn’t figure out why until now. You see for yourself why,” he said. “This BreadTalk staff is just pouring Yeo’s soya bean milk into bottles of ‘freshly prepared’ soya bean sold by BreadTalk.”
The bakery later clarified and apologised for the incident on its Facebook page later.
“We have heard our customers’ feedback about our bottled soya bean milk,” the bakery said. “We would like to apologise for any misaligned presentation or wrong impressions created, and clarify that it is never our intention to mislead.”
A spokesman told the press that the bakery will resume selling the drink out of labelled drink dispensers instead “to prevent misunderstanding.”
“As a global bakery chain, we source for quality ingredients and products from established and reputable third party suppliers around the world, including from renowned local brands to enrich the variety of products sold at our stores,” BreadTalk said.
