THE Prive group, which suddenly announced the closure of all its restaurants on Monday (Sep 1), had been on the market for over a year but failed to find any takers in a troubled F&B industry.
Group chairman Yuan Oeij said: “We (did) our best to ensure the continuity of our business and speak with interested parties – whether investors or partners – to explore different options.
“However, given the extremely tough climate for the F&B industry, everyone has been taking a very cautious stance.”
The Business Times understands that the group was put up for sale in March 2024 at an asking price of S$20 million. At the time, it had 12 Prive outlets and two restaurants – Empress and Prive Grill. But by the start of 2025, the business had dwindled to six Prive outlets and the two restaurants.
Oeij noted that business had started to slow down considerably since the end of 2023, “and just got worse each subsequent year”. The business was plagued by the same issues affecting the industry: manpower, high rentals and rising food costs, compounded by a drop in traffic due to increased competition, overseas travel and changing spending patterns as customers cut back on their expenditure.
“Since 2024, we have been consolidating our operations, closing the non-profitable outlets, as well as reducing overheads. However, the combination of external market challenges and rising operational costs eventually left us with no viable path forward,” he said.
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He clarified that Commonwealth Concepts (CWC) – which is taking over the Chinese restaurant Empress and Prive ACM at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) – was not buying the outlets, “but taking over the operations to ensure continuity, which allows jobs to be preserved and for prior event bookings to be fulfilled without disruption”. Oeij added that he was glad to be able to work with ACM to come to this arrangement.
The group shared the news of its closure on social media, acknowledging the difficult decision. It also announced that Empress would continue to operate as usual, and that Prive ACM would be converted to a Baker & Cook outlet, which would open on Sep 4.
Baker & Cook is just one of several F&B brands owned by CWC – a joint venture between Commonwealth Capital and Far East Organization’s Refinery Concepts. Its other brands include Marmalade Pantry, Bedrock Bar & Grill, Kinki and Pastamania.
The Prive Group was established in 2007, with its first outlet at Keppel Bay. At its peak, it operated several nightclubs such as the now-defunct Stereolab and Mink at Pan Pacific Singapore. It then went on to focus on building the Prive brand with its casual cafe food and vegan menu options.
