Food brands make early Mong Kok exit

Chinese food and beverage brands are moving out of their Mong Kok stores before their lease expires, highlighting the challenges they face when expanding into the city.

LMM Hand Crushed Lemon Tea closed its ground floor store in Hang Lung Mansion last week, though its lease runs until April 2025, according to reports.

It had rented the 300-square-foot shop for HK$70,000 a month in the middle of last year, but the store did not fare well and LMM even tried to transfer the lease to other tenants in January at an asking price of HK$50,000 per month.

Following LMM's exit, the landlord has put the store up for lease again at the same rent of HK$70,000.

Commercial property agents say Mong Kok is saturated with food and beverage restaurants, with tenants moving in and moving out frequently amid fierce market competition.

Radish Southward, a fast food brand featuring spicy Jiangxi cuisine, quietly closed its store in Dundas Square, just four months after it entered Hong Kong.

The brand had rented the 1,745-sq-ft store for HK$250,000 a month until December 2026, and the store's landlord is now seeking a new tenant.

These shutdowns are in sharp contrast to the exuberance early this year, when several mainland food and beverage brands including Mixue BingCheng spread their wings into Hong Kong.

Retailers in Hong Kong have been hard hit amid an economic downturn and an exodus of Hong Kong spenders across the border.