F&B, retail trade businesses counting on more anchor events to boost growth in 2025

SINGAPORE: When American superstar Taylor Swift played six sold-out concerts in Singapore in March, she fulfilled not just the wildest dreams of fans – but also some local businesses.

But that growth in revenue soon changed course.

The country’s food and beverage sector shrank in the next two consecutive quarters due to declines in the sales volumes of restaurants, fast food outlets and cafes.

For firms like The Black Hole Group, this was a reversal in fortunes.

Amid rising costs and manpower constraints, the lifestyle brand collective – which owns Muslim-friendly restaurants and cafes like Tipo Pasta Bar, The Great Mischief, and Working Title – was forced to close two outlets.

Its CEO Mustaffa Kamal recounted that at the start of the year, people were “out and about” and spending money.

“We experienced a slight increase in our revenue (of approximately) between 10 to 20 per cent across the different restaurants,” he added.

As the months passed, the company had to consolidate.

“We studied (our) brands that were doing well and not so well. The ones that were not so well – we decided to put (them) on hold, (or) end the chapter and redeploy our resources to where we felt would bring us more returns,” said Mr Mustaffa.

This reflected the bumpy ride that the F&B and retail trade sectors have been on this year, and the trend is projected to continue in 2025.  

Firms said that while large-scale anchor events and concerts – like Swift’s Eras Tour – can help create more buzz, more can be done to develop homegrown activities to attract visitors.

DECLINE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE

For next year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said it expects the retail trade and F&B industries to continue contracting as more Singaporeans travel overseas.

Instead, growth is expected to come from manufacturing and trade-related services sectors.

“Some of the sectors that could continue to see positive performance will be the modern services sectors,” said Mr Jeff Ng, head of Asia Macro Strategy at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

“This could include the finance and insurance sector, the business services sector, as well as the information and communications sector. These are likely to benefit from the continued emergence of AI,” he added.

Mr Ng said Singapore’s economy should continue growing at a “healthy pace” of close to 3 per cent next year, albeit softening slightly from MTI’s projected around 3.5 per cent for this year. 

He cautioned “huge uncertainties” prevail, including geopolitical conflicts that constantly threaten supply chains, and incoming United States president Donald Trump, whose policies could put America in a trade war with the rest of the world.

Dr Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation, also said Trump has been disregarding international rules, such as his efforts to impose tariffs on all imports.

Nevertheless, she said Asia has “tremendous potential” for economic growth.

“Despite all of the difficulties that we have in Asia with changes in governments … there is still more growth taking place in Asia than anywhere else,” added Dr Elms.

BREAKOUT ACTIVITIES

There is optimism that major events already on the 2025 calendar – including the World Aquatics Championships and Taiwanese rock band Mayday’s two-night concert – could continue to jolt international visitor arrivals and tourism spending.

Event operator Unearthed Productions says that aside from the events themselves, businesses benefit significantly from breakout activities that happen on the sidelines. 

The Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix, for instance, is one such extravaganza that allows for countless businesses to organise smaller activities to happen concurrently, said founder and chief experience officer Adam Piperdy. 

He noted that such massive MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) happenings, especially those that happen repeatedly such as F1,  “really allow everybody to play a part, to rally around the event and create micro events around it”.

Mr Piperdy pointed to cryptocurrency event TOKEN2039, that was held in Singapore in September. While Unearthed Productions was not involved in it, the firm organised side networking events for those who attended and other micro events.

“I'm always looking out for opportunities like that to rally around for concerts and short-term events,” he said.

“They are only once in a while. That doesn't allow us much time to plan our business around them.”

Mr Piperdy said more could be done to develop homegrown events into international ones. 

“I do feel that more opportunities can be given to local SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) and local startups to create our own brand of events,” he added.

“We've always been franchising events from overseas. But what if we could have a Singapore-branded event and everybody rallies around that?”