How to Open a Doughnut Shop in Singapore

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Official rules and fees quoted come from the SFA and SCDF pages linked below, checked on 28 September 2026. Confirm the current position with each agency and your qualified person before you sign a lease.

A doughnut shop is part bakery, part fry kitchen. You prove dough like a baker but finish every piece in hot oil, and a doughnut is at its best for only a few hours. The general steps for a bakery, including home-based baking and equipment, are in our guide on how to open a bakery in Singapore. If you also sell cakes, see our cake shop guide. This article covers what is specific to doughnuts: frying, pre-orders and wastage.

Fry-to-order or batch frying?

Model	Strengths	Watch out for
Batch frying for a display	A full, colourful counter; fast service; suits glazes and fillings	Freshness drops through the day; unsold stock at closing
Fry-to-order	Hot, fresh doughnuts; less waste; a visible show	Queues at peak; needs fryer capacity and a clear order flow
Hybrid	Batch fry filled and glazed items; fry simple sugared ones to order	Two workflows to train and schedule

Your choice shapes the kitchen. Batch frying needs proving space, a larger fryer, cooling racks and a finishing bench for glazing and filling. Fry-to-order needs a smaller menu, a fryer next to the counter and a way to call orders when ready.

Licences and where to open

SFA’s licensing page lists takeaway kiosks, restaurants and cafes as Food Shops, and stalls inside coffee shops and food courts as Food Stalls. SFA’s fees page lists the Food Shop Licence at $195 a year and the Food Stall Licence at $32 a year. SFA reviews complete applications within 7 working days, and you renovate only after approval. SFA’s requirements page says food handlers must meet the WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1 requirement at the point of application.

Mall kiosks bring footfall and impulse buys, but many malls restrict deep frying at kiosks. Shop units give you room for a proper fry station and a back kitchen. If you plan to make dough in a central kitchen and supply several outlets, SFA’s manufacturing licence page says food prepared for distribution to retailers needs a Food Processing Establishment licence; our central kitchen guide covers this. For kiosks, see our mall kiosk guide.

Frying, exhaust and fire safety

Deep frying produces grease-laden vapour, and grease in ducts is a fire risk. SCDF’s Fire Code clause 7.1.13 on kitchen exhaust sets these requirements, among others:

• The exhaust for the cooking area must be independent of systems serving other parts of the building.
• The hood and ducts must have a 500mm clearance from unprotected combustible materials, and Class F portable fire extinguishers should be provided according to SS 578.
• The exhaust must discharge directly to the outside, at least 5m from any air intake.
• Duct runs outside the kitchen must be fire-rated, and no fire damper may be fitted in a kitchen exhaust duct.

SCDF’s clause 6.5 lists wet chemical suppression for kitchen hoods among fixed automatic fire extinguishing systems, and asks qualified persons to consult SCDF before installing one. Under SCDF’s plan approval process, fire safety works need SCDF approval, with plans submitted by a qualified person. In practice, ask your landlord and your qualified person what the unit already has before you sign.

Our commercial deep fryer guide covers fryer types, filtration and oil life, and our used cooking oil guide covers disposal. Keep an oil log: when you filter, when you change, and how many doughnuts each fill produced.

Food safety for fillings and glazes

Custard, cream and fruit fillings are the higher-risk part of a doughnut. SFA’s temperature control page calls 5°C to 60°C the danger zone and says food not eaten straight away should be refrigerated at 4°C or lower. SFA’s December 2024 advisory says not to keep ready-to-eat food in that range for more than 4 hours. For filled doughnuts on display:

• Keep custard and cream fillings chilled until you pipe them.
• Fill in small batches through the day rather than all at once in the morning.
• Label trays with the time they came out, and set a clear discard time for filled items.
• Use chilled display for cream-filled lines if they will sit for long.

Doughnuts usually contain wheat, egg and milk, and fillings and toppings often add peanuts or tree nuts. SFA lists these among the 8 most common allergens. Show allergens on the menu and keep an allergen matrix. If you sell pre-packed boxes through other retailers, our packaged food labelling guide explains the label rules.

Box pre-orders for offices and parties

Box orders are the most predictable sales a doughnut shop has. They let you fry to a known number and they often come with a delivery fee or a minimum order. Set them up properly:

• Fixed boxes. Offer boxes of a set size with a few flavour mixes, plus a custom option.
• Lead times. Set a cut-off, such as the day before, so you can plan dough and proving.
• Deposits. Take payment or a deposit for large orders, and state the cancellation rule.
• Pickup slots. Spread collections so boxes are not all due at 9am.

Our pre-order and pickup guide explains time slots and cut-offs, and our corporate orders guide covers invoicing business customers. Festive seasons bring larger party orders; plan them with our festive season playbook.

Wastage at closing

Unsold doughnuts are the biggest cost a batch-frying shop can control. Measure before you try to fix it:

1. Count what is left at closing by flavour every day, and record it.
2. Compare with sales by hour. If a flavour sells out by 3pm and another is half left at 9pm, shift production.
3. Fry in waves. Replace one big morning batch with smaller batches timed to peaks.
4. Cut the menu. Fewer flavours on weekday evenings means less left over.
5. Plan for surplus. Staff meals and food donation groups are options; check each group’s acceptance rules.

Our guide to reducing food waste covers measurement, donation and the regulation that applies to larger premises. Avoid heavy end-of-day discounting as a habit: regulars learn to wait for it.

Costing a doughnut

Cost each doughnut from its recipe: dough, frying oil absorbed, glaze or sugar, filling and box or bag. Oil is easy to forget, so track it as an ingredient. Divide the cost of a fill of oil by the number of doughnuts it fried. Add a wastage allowance based on your closing counts, not a guess. Our recipe costing template shows the method, and our guide to menu pricing covers setting prices for singles and boxes.

POS setup for a doughnut shop

A doughnut shop needs fast counter service, pre-orders and good data on what is left. With ChaChaCha’s bakery POS, powered by AppsPOS:

• Fast counter sales. Singles, boxes and mixes set up as items and custom modifiers.
• Pre-orders. QR ordering with pre-order (order, pay, collect) and an online ordering page for box orders. Lalamove can deliver your own online orders.
• Reports. Sales by item and by hour show which flavours to fry more or less of; see POS reports.
• Recipe costing. Recipe-level stock deduction and recipe costing per item, so flour, oil and fillings come off stock as you sell.
• Queue. A queue system with SMS notifications suits fry-to-order at peak.
• Payments. PayNow, PayLah!, NETS, Visa/Mastercard and GrabPay.

Pricing is quote-based. AppsPOS is approved under the EDGE Grant; see our grant guide.

Doughnut shop opening checklist

1. Model chosen: batch, fry-to-order or hybrid.
2. Unit checked for frying, exhaust and fire suppression with the landlord and a qualified person.
3. SFA layout approved; food handlers trained.
4. Filling handling and discard times written down; allergen matrix done.
5. Box sizes, cut-offs, deposits and pickup slots set.
6. Closing counts recorded by flavour from day one.
7. POS set up with boxes, pre-orders and hourly reports.

Want to see which flavours sell by the hour and take box orders online? Talk to us for a demo and a quote.