One-week closure cost Butter Factory $250,000

IT CLOSED for a week, one of the first businesses to be hit by the Influenza A(H1N1) virus.

QUEUE: Outside The Butter Factory last night. TNP PICTURE: CHOO CHWEE HUA

And when The Butter Factory re-opened last night, the crowds were back.

The lines started forming at 9.40pm and quickly grew to about 200 people just before 10pm, the club's opening time.

They were waiting to get their temperatures checked and their hands stamped before heading to the club's rooms.

Said Hui Jun, 20, a business student at the Singapore Institute of Management: 'We had dinner at Suntec to celebrate a friend's birthday so we thought we'd walk here to continue the celebrations.'

It was also ladies' night last night.

But in the one week that it was closed, the popular nightspot estimated that it lost $250,000.

The alarm bells first went off when the Ministry of Health (MOH) contacted executive chairman of the club Tay Eu Yen two Sundays ago to inform her about the third H1N1 cluster, made up of the club's patrons.

One day later, a member of her staff also tested positive. The club then decided to close for a week.

I'The club was disinfected from 6am to 6pm last Tuesday and the MOH said we did not have to close. But we wanted to be socially responsible - hence the decision,' she said.

According to MOH's website, there are currently 43 confirmed cases in the cluster. To her knowledge, six of the club's 80 staff have tested positive as of yesterday .

Ms Tay said that the club has stepped up the number of temperature checks for staff from once every day ( before the club opens) to two or three times a night, (mainly during breaks).

They have also implemented temperature checks for all customers upon entering the club, with the help of a hand held non-contact thermometer.

Staff are also being given one 1,000mg vitamin tablet each before they start work. There are hand sanitisers within easy reach for both staff and club patrons.