Several Chinese food and beverage brands have prematurely closed their stores in Mong Kok, underlining the difficulties they face in expanding into Hong Kong’s competitive market.
LMM Hand Crushed Lemon Tea shuttered its ground-floor store in Hang Lung Mansion last week, despite its lease running until April 2025. The 300-square-foot shop, rented for HK$70,000 per month since mid-last year, struggled to attract enough customers. In January, LMM attempted to transfer the lease for a reduced rate of HK$50,000 per month. Following LMM’s exit, the landlord has relisted the store at the original rent of HK$70,000.
Commercial property agents attribute these closures to the saturated food and beverage market in Mong Kok, where fierce competition leads to frequent tenant turnovers.
Radish Southward, a fast-food brand specializing in spicy Jiangxi cuisine, also closed its Dundas Square store just four months after opening. The brand had leased the 1,745-square-foot space for HK$250,000 per month until December 2026. The landlord is now seeking a new tenant for the location.
These shutdowns starkly contrast with the optimism earlier this year when several mainland food and beverage brands, including Mixue BingCheng, expanded into Hong Kong.
Hong Kong retailers are grappling with an economic downturn and a significant outflow of local spenders crossing the border, further exacerbating the challenges for new entrants in the market.
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