WHILE most of Singapore was asleep after counting down to the new year, a countdown of a different sort was taking place in a cake shop in the north.

Inside the shop, three bakery workers spent the early hours of 2008 putting buns into ovens.

By 7am, the shutters went up at the PrimaDeli outlet in Block 163, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, for the first time in nearly a month.

Prima's production facility in Keppel Road was also shut. After satisfying checks by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), Prima got the go-ahead on Saturday to start full operations and is back in business for the new year.

Of its 39 franchised outlets, 35 opened their doors yesterday, with the rest in the central business district closed for the New Year's Day holiday.

Overall sales for the first day were down 'only by 10 to 20 per cent', said Ms Pansy Wong, deputy general manager of Prima Food, parent company of PrimaDeli.

'It has been better than expected,' she said.

At the Ang Mo Kio outlet and elsewhere, display cabinets were once again filled with an array of cakes, from Mango Delight to Cookies & Cream.

Owner Jordan Cheang, 35, said his shop had undergone three rounds of cleaning since the closure. Its workers had also attended a compulsory one-day hygiene course.

Mr Cheang, who runs two other PrimaDeli franchises in Jurong and Lau Pa Sat, said he had lost at least $75,000 in sales from the Ang Mo Kio shop alone.

While business got off to a slow start - the morning's takings were half what it used to be - he was upbeat.

'I'm very confident that things will get back to normal soon,' he said.

As of 3pm yesterday, he had sold five cakes each at his Ang Mo Kio and Jurong outlets. Each shop usually sells eight to 10 of these mostly 1kg cakes.

At the PrimaDeli shop in Bishan Street 13, the buns were selling like hot cakes but the cream cakes were a harder sell, said shop owner Anthony Quek, 41.

Cake sales were down about 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

'I expected it to be worse but right now, we don't have enough buns for our customers,' he said.

Many, he added, had bought buns for their children for the first day of school, which is today.

Many PrimaDeli regulars were happy to see the popular homegrown bakery chain back in business.

Grandmother Lim Ah Sun, 58, who bought a swiss roll for her grandson, said she had been waiting for it to reopen.

'Yesterday, I went to see if the shop was open. My grandson likes the cakes there,' she said.

The shadow of the salmonella outbreak did not stop Ms S.Y. Loke, 50, from buying a 1kg Fruit Paradise cake at the PrimaDeli shop in Bishan.

'It's okay now since the AVA has already certified that they are all right,' the administrator said.

Franchise owners are still in talks with Prima over compensation for their losses. While Prima declined to disclose its loss in earnings, industry estimates put this at between $1 million and $2 million or even more at Christmas time.

Despite the all-clear from the AVA, some people are still hesitant. Ms Karen Huang, 28, a sales executive, said that she would wait first.

'There are so many other bread shops around. Why take the risk?'

But teacher Chua Chai Suang, who is in her 40s, takes the opposite view.

'As Singaporeans, we should give them support and encouragement. Their workers depend on them for their livelihood,' she said.

Mr Pal Singh, 61, who owns the PrimaDeli shop at Centrepoint, was just happy that the worst was over.

He said: 'I'm glad that we are open and that all our shelves are filled up.'

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