Photo credit: The Jelly Hearts

I was craving for Jelly Hearts one day and did a quick Google search on the Internet. The Jelly Hearts appears top in the list. I spent quite a bit of time marvelling at the cake store, browsing all 15 categories, one at a time.

Photo credit: The Jelly Hearts

Frankly speaking, I didn’t know that jelly hearts could come in so many different flavors, shapes and designs! All of them looked really tempting and were calling out to me. I decided to drag misterchewy along to check out the physical store at Downtown East! Thank goodness we are staying in the East now.

Currently, this is The Jelly Hearts’ first and only shop in Singapore. It is an unassuming and cosy cake shop that looks immaculately clean.

Other than a wide range of jelly heart products, The Jelly Hearts also sells marshmallow pops, jelly cups and chocolate oreo cookies.

I was very impressed that despite being a small and humble family business, The Jelly Hearts had been mentioned numerous times in various publications and is testimony that they have indeed won the hearts of many. I had two pieces of jelly hearts and fell in love with them! They were not cloyingly sweet and had just the right amount of cheese in it. I liked the multitude of contrasting textures among the crunchy strawberry pieces, melt-in-the-mouth full cream cheese and gelatinous jelly layer.

What surprised me was that its kitchen is quite small and I wonder how is it possible for staff to churn out large batches of jelly hearts to cope with their orders on a daily basis. Even though I know nothing about baking, I am very certain that making jelly hearts is an extremely time-consuming process!

I had the honour of meeting Mr. Darren Loh, who used to be in the future tradings industry which was highly stressful. His wife has a passion for baking and they decided to expand their online home baking business by including a retail front to cope with the rapid growth in 2011. He shared that he only had a handful of staff to help mend the store and he would be in charge of delivering the orders.

For the uninitiated, there are actually 3 layers of ingredients that make up the jelly hearts, beginning from the bottom-most layer, which is the biscuit crust made from digestive biscuits. In the past, it took 4 workers about 4 to 5 hours to make 80 biscuit layers. Darren saw this as a potential problem as his workers had their heads buried in making the biscuit crust and didn’t have time to serve other walk-in customers. It was through Darren’s willingness to seek support and assistance from NTUC’s e2i that he managed to afford to customize a machine that helps to increase productivity tremendously. Currently, it takes only one worker roughly 30 minutes to an hour to complete 80 biscuit crust layers!

Photo credit: The Jelly Hearts

As a result, Darren had the opportunity to rope in his remaining staff to help in other areas such as giving out flyers and jelly heart samples in order to attract more customers to his shop. Slowly but surely, Darren saw a steady increase in sales and passed on the extra profits made to his workers by giving them a 10% to 20% pay raise as he recognizes their hard work and also wants to motivate them further. To help his staff become better at their jobs, Darren is also keen on training his staff on a more professional level and sends them for training courses from time to time to better equip them with the necessary skills required. Darren practises a form of Progressive Wage Model which NTUC’s leader Lim Swee Say has been advocating for workers for years, because he firmly believes that when he pays his staff more based on their productivity, skills and job responsibilities, the staff are happier and serve customers better. Darren also acts as a mentor and constantly reminds his staff that customers are the real paymasters, and not to judge a customer by the amount he buys because a happy customer is a repeat customer.

Photo credit: The Jelly Hearts

As a blogger who is trying to keep herself updated on the current F&B scene, I have seen many cafes and restaurants come and go like the wind. On the surface, it is natural to speculate and pinpoint that the poor quality of food or high costs incurred to maintain the running of business could be main reasons that led to the businesses folding up. We often overlook how employees are being treated. Are they fairly paid or have they been properly trained to do a good job? I think we can all learn a thing or two from Darren. NTUC’s Progressive Wage Model ensures employers’ commitment to their employees’ career growth, better wages and increased productivity. With a better pay package and proper upgrading of skills, workers will feel that their efforts are truly appreciated by their bosses and are more inclined to remain in their jobs, and therefore, they will also be able to accumulate valuable experience in the long run to deal with the fast-paced and challenging F&B environment. When staff provide better customer service with a smile, customers are more likely to return in future.

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This blog post is a collaborative effort between missuschewy and The Labour Movement.

The Jelly Hearts
1 Pasir Ris Close
E!hub @ Downtown East
#02-111
Singapore 519599
Tel: 6583 8782

Opening Hours:
Sun to Thu
11am – 9.30pm
Fri & Sat
11am – 10pm