Sixth Floor Oyster Cake to shutter amid 'declining sales', unable to sustain operations

After five years of selling traditional oyster cakes, Sixth Floor Oyster Cake will be shuttering permanently. 

The news was announced in an Instagram post on Sept 15, with their last day of operations on Sept 28.

"Over the past months, we have faced declining sales. While we tried our best with cost-cutting measures—reducing headcount and negotiating with suppliers—these steps were not enough to sustain operations. With fewer staff, we also recognise that our service quality suffered, and for that, we sincerely apologise," they shared. 
 

"Rather than allow further erosion of the brand we have built with love and care, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors." 

They also thanked those who have tried, supported and loved their food, adding that the encouragement they received from their customers had "meant the world to [them]".

However, Sixth Floor Oyster Cake shared that they have not given up just yet. 

"All good things must come to an end, but we hope this is not The End for Sixth Floor. With time and the right capacity, we hope to return and restart the journey again," they said. 

Sixth Floor Oyster Cake started out as a home-based business in June 2020 and they sold their well-loved oyster cakes online during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

They completely stopped operating as a home-based business and opened a physical store at Northshore Plaza in October 2021. 

Over the years, they opened two more outlets at Century Square and Northpoint City. 

In response to AsiaOne's queries, the owner of Sixth Floor Oyster Cake shared that their Century Square and Northpoint had already closed last year and their Northshore outlet was the last to shutter.

"We closed the Century Square outlet due to poor sales and Northpoint due to its lease ending over in 2024. Northshore is our only remaining outlet. But due to the challenges of newer, nearby shopping areas opening, the sales of the outlet has dropped to unsustainable levels. Hence the decision to close," he explained.

"We do not have plans to go back to [being] home based as I would like to take a break from the operations." 

However, the owner added that after posting about the closure, the business has received an outpouring of support messages from their friends, neighbours and customers, some of whom have offered to collaborate with Sixth Floor Oyster Cake so that they can keep the business alive.

"While we have decided to take a break from running the business, we will look into some of these messages and will see if there are any opportunities to partner with others to continue offering our oyster cakes," the owner shared.

In March 2024, Sixth Floor Oyster Cake had already shared that they were facing some struggles in an Instagram post. 

They said that their sales had dropped significantly since the middle of 2023 and they had been operating at a loss for the better part of eight months, causing "lots of sleepless nights". 

They believed that the reason for the drop in sales was due to several factors out of their control such as the "bleak economic environment, higher interest rates, the wars in Ukraine and Palestine, and the highest ever Singapore Dollar to Malaysian Ringgit exchange rate". 

"When people start budgeting, reduce spending, the first casualty are businesses like us that sell snacks," they had said. 

To try and stay afloat, the brand had tried to sell ban mian besides their oyster cakes. 

"We figured, yes people can cut out snacks, but surely everyone still needs staple meals right? So there we go, digging into our ah ma's recipe book for something that is both a decent meal, and one we can use to save our business," they had shared. 

However, the business continued to struggle to stay afloat. 

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melissateo@asiaone.com