Food and Drink
Shopping in bread boutiques
Gady Cheung Kim-lan, operation manager of BreadTalk in Hong Kong, said the company attracted customers with its innovative recipes and the products baked on site in the shops' "see-through" kitchens.
"The cleanliness and tidiness of kitchens can encourage customers to keep coming back," Cheung said.
Gillian Lau Nga-chi, the company's marketing executive, added that they would introduce new kinds of products regularly to retain the customers.
"Each bakery produces 60 to 70 kinds of bread a day," Lau said. "The research and development department at the headquarters in Singapore will be responsible for designing and testing the new products. The quality of bread will be checked regularly and no large variations in texture and taste will be allowed."
Traditional kinds of local bread
including luncheon meat buns and sausage
rolls are also sold to suit the local taste, she
said.
George Lee Chi-chung, manager of Panash Limited, a Japanese bakery, said one of his company's best-selling products was Hokkaido bread, which was famous for its soft texture and excellent taste. Bread with cheese is also a favourite with customers, Lee said.
"Over 100 kinds of products would be sold each day including all the tarts, muffins and sandwiches," he said, adding that the company had a monthly turnover of about HK$1 million.
Panash has opened its seventh outlet in the city, which is a shop with ravishing design at the Telford Plaza in Kowloon Bay. The new branch is decorated with French windows and an arched door at the front while interior walls are painted like white bricks.
"We hope to attract different customers with the new store design and more shops will be decorated similarly in the future," Lee said.
At Das Gute, a local German-style bread boutique with five shops in the city, gimmicky bread items such as wooden milk bread and green tea with red bean pontikege, which is a mouthfulsized bun made of glutinous rice flour, are popular.
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1. Panash cream cheese
2. Chocolate bear
3. Wooden milk bread
4. Green tea with red bean pontikege