Birds of Paradise wants to spotlight South-east Asia’s flavours beyond the region

WITHIN two years of opening, gelato boutique Birds of Paradise made it into the Michelin Guide; today, another six years later, its founding Katong outlet still attracts long queues.

The local brand is now Singapore’s only Michelin-featured ice-cream parlour, with a spot on the “selected establishments” list.

While tropical flavours are common at ice-cream joints around the island, Birds of Paradise has built its brand around a specific niche: floral and tropical flavours such as osmanthus pear and white chrysanthemum.

“Of course, there have been ice-cream flavours that have been flavoured with herbs and spices; that itself is not new,” said founder Edwin Lim.

“But the concept of our whole boutique being inspired by botanicals – that, I think, is new.”

From Katong to Jewel Changi

In the last five years, Birds of Paradise has opened four new locations, with a store now in every region of Singapore.

This was after its initial three years as just a neighbourhood ice-cream joint in Katong. While business took off within the first year thanks to a steady pool of regulars, Lim did not think of opening a second outlet until an opportunity arose in 2019.

Local clothing brand In Good Company invited Birds of Paradise to join it as one of the pioneer tenants in Changi Airport’s new Jewel mall, with both stores sharing the shop space and leasing arrangements.

“I think what sold it for us was that the tagline for Jewel was: ‘Singapore meets the world, and the world meets Singapore’, and we thought that was a great opportunity to present our brand to the world,” said Lim.

Going from a small shop to a mall connected to Singapore’s airport was a big leap, he added. The mall “has a different set of standards than operating in a privately owned building”.

“Furthermore, they are part of Changi Airport, so the ‘world-class’ standard to be met is very high,” he said. “We took it as an opportunity to learn how to improve ourselves as well.”

In the third quarter of 2022, after In Good Company left Jewel, Birds of Paradise moved to its own unit in the mall.

Growing presence

After three years of operating in Jewel, Lim also began looking for a third location in the Central Business District.

With several likely locations to choose from, the question was whether to open just one more branch, or several. Recalled Lim: “At that point, we thought that the options we had were quite good, so we took a leap.”

Birds of Paradise thus opened its third and fourth outlets respectively at Craig Road and Beach Road in 2022.

The next year, it opened two more outlets in regions where it was not already present: Mandai Wildlife West – the entrance to new attraction Bird Paradise – in the north, and Holland Village in the west.

With four new outlets in just two years, some might wonder if the business is expanding too fast, noted Lim. But he stressed that Birds of Paradise is focused on sustainable growth, though declining to reveal revenue or profit figures.

“The idea was always to grow organically with what we generate… not just financially, but also in terms of the quality of the product and of the service,” he said.

Standing with the “big boys”

Lim is open to expanding further – both locally and overseas – but is also cautious in waiting for the right opportunities.

“It is very much about finding the right partners to work with, who share the same values,” he said. “We also want to use business for doing good, and we need to find a partner or partners who are aligned with that.”

In the near term, the company plans to roll out a loyalty programme for customers in the next few months. It is also focused on improving its event offerings, such as live ice-cream stations and catering for private events.

Due to limited resources, Birds of Paradise has not focused on this area before, though it receives many enquiries for such corporate services, said Lim.

“Now that we are trying to focus on (growing this area) a bit more, we’re open to seeing what people and companies want, and then try to help them find solutions.”

As for what markets Birds of Paradise might enter, Lim was tight-lipped. In the past, the business received invitations to participate in overseas exposure trips, but did not take these up.

“Previously, it wasn’t the focus,” he said. “I think we were too early in our journey to look at going overseas.”

Now, though, he is looking to learn from other business leaders about the opportunities and challenges of expanding overseas.

After all, the original vision was for Birds of Paradise to be an ice-cream brand that can stand alongside the “big boys” – global brands such as Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs.

“There seems to be a gap for a proudly Singaporean brand to be standing there alongside these guys,” said Lim.

Birds of Paradise wants to fill this gap by showcasing South-east Asia’s flavours to the world, through gelato.