There’s no such thing as a bathroom break when making ice cream by hand, says Khoh Wan Chin. Not only must time and temperature be tightly controlled, but concentration, heightened. A single-digit error when weighing ingredients can wreck the entire batch.
It may be a tricky process but the 47-year-old has perfected it. Since co-founding Creamier in 2011, she has expanded the artisanal ice cream brand from a modest outlet in Toa Payoh to six across Singapore. By using small-batch production methods, Creamier, which has its own R&D team, is able to guarantee freshness and quality. It currently has over 60 proprietary recipes in its library, with signature flavours such as sea salt gula melaka, kopi peng, sesame peanut tang yuan, and pulut hitam.
Khoh is CEO of In Great Company (IGC), which operates both Creamier and Sunday Folks. It is so named because “good food needs good company, and IGC does not want to be just good, but great”.
While Creamier serves hard ice cream, which means the product is stored in tubs and deep freeze, Sunday Folks dishes up freshly-churned ice cream from the tap. “We avoid using the term ‘soft serve’ because it is typically a cheap product that contains a lot of air and few quality ingredients,” she explains. Sunday Folks also does not use commercial factory ice cream mixes and formulates its offerings with only natural ingredients.
As captain of the ship—IGC has some 180 staff—Khoh has endured the vicissitudes of the F&B industry. The most important lesson she has learned is to remain flexible and open-minded even when it means challenging the brand’s DNA, especially since market forces like labour regulations, consumer behaviour, regulatory policies, and competition are becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable. As things stand, war-driven inflation is responsible for the recent rises in business costs.
That, and what didn’t work in the past doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work in the future. “We’d launched some innovative flavours and products that weren’t very well-received at first, but that enjoyed much warmer reception many years later,” she illustrates.
“It was perhaps due to new customer groups and market trends becoming more widely accepted. Therefore, don’t be afraid of trying new things and never give up too easily.”
Khoh Wan Chin on the importance of staying the course
Over the past two years, Creamier has experienced rapid growth under her leadership. The brand entered the supermarket retail space in 2022, selling its ice cream at NTUC Finest, and opened its first overseas outlet in Jakarta last month. In addition, it recently launched a new product category: doughnuts.
“They are another happy food that is always in our pantry. In addition to comforting classics, we aim to introduce innovative flavours like laksa doughnuts, a nod to the Peranakan heritage of our East Coast store,” says Khoh.
The secret to her company’s success, she reckons, is that it never rests on its laurels. Taking care of the other important things in life is also important. “My husband, the creative head of IGC, and I make sure to spend time with our kids and loved ones no matter how busy we are at work,” she says. “Time waits for no man. I don’t want to look back with regret on the things I should have done, but didn’t do.”
She also makes sure to enjoy the little things, like indulging in ice cream. Her go-to is Rum & Raisins. “It was my mother’s favourite, and I would lick off the bowl whenever she wasn’t looking since it contained alcohol. It was my innocent introduction to liquor and remains a personal favourite.”
Art director: Ed Harland
Videographer: Alicia Chong & Yvonne Isabelle Ling
Photographer: Mun Kong
Photographer’s assistant: Teo Ren Jie
Makeup: Aung Apichai & Keith Bryant Lee
Hair: Jenny Ng & Keith Bryant Lee
Watches: Grand Seiko
