Crostini closed every Hong Kong shop in one night, HK$2.8M behind on rent

Crostini was a Hong Kong western-style bakery chain run by founder Wong Kwong-fai (黃光輝) through companies including Divine Food Service Limited. For years it sold not just cakes but prepaid cake vouchers (餅卡), which customers bought in bulk for weddings and birthdays.

On the evening of September 13, 2022 the chain announced on Facebook that all shops would close after that day. Management said the business environment had been "very harsh" since 2020 because of the pandemic, that the company "regrettably could not turn things around", and that closing every shop was a "very heavy and disappointing decision".

The timing was not accidental: Hong Kong's temporary ban on evicting commercial tenants had run from May to the end of July 2022, and Crostini was the first chain to fold after it ended. In August, ten of its shops were already being pursued for rent arrears totalling HK$2,800,764 — the Tsuen Wan Plaza branch owed seven months (about HK$472,546) and the Ma On Shan Sunshine City branch about HK$538,080.

The founder said he had borrowed HK$80 million from friends trying to keep the business alive and still could not pay rent. The abrupt end stranded hundreds of prepaid-card holders: one bride had bought 201 vouchers for about HK$6,000, another customer held 80 vouchers bought for HK$2,800, and a victims' group of more than 300 people counted nearly 2,000 unredeemed vouchers among 93 members. By September 14 the Consumer Council had received ten complaints and Customs one.