The encyclopedia · Sales & Retail · Strategic decision · 2000–2025
Fuli Forest — Hangzhou's bakery of 25 years — went bankrupt with zero staff left
Founded in 2000, Fuli Forest was Hangzhou's birthday-cake habit. After sudden closures, fake cards and 200+ lawsuits, the court ordered liquidation.
Zhejiang Fuli Forest Food (浙江浮力森林食品) · 2025-10-22
What happened
Fuli Forest started in December 2000 as Hangzhou Xinlong Food, later renamed Zhejiang Fuli Forest Food, selling bread, pastries and round cakes. For a generation of Hangzhou residents it was the default birthday cake, and at its height it even listed on China's New Third Board.
The decline accumulated. A 2009 attempt to expand to Ningbo failed — the store took in ¥2,000 a day against ¥5,000 of operating costs — and from 2020 the chain began shutting stores without notice, in 2020, 2021 and 2023, while fake stored-value cards and knock-off delivery-platform stores ate what trust remained. Underneath ran a broken capital chain: ¥27.4875 million owed to Zheshang Bank's Hangzhou branch, and more than 200 lawsuits on record.
On October 22, 2025 the Hangzhou Qiantang District People's Court accepted a creditor's bankruptcy liquidation application; an administrator was appointed on November 3 and the company announced its own bankruptcy on December 8. By then it had zero employees and had ceased operations — a 25-year-old brand ended by a creditor's filing.
Why it happened
- The 2009 Ningbo expansion failed on ¥2,000 of daily revenue against ¥5,000 of costs — early proof the model did not travel.
- Sudden closures without notice (2020, 2021, 2023) and fake stored-value cards destroyed the repeat-visit trust a bakery lives on.
- ¥27.4875 million of bank debt and 200-plus lawsuits left the capital chain beyond repair; a creditor, not management, took the company to court.
The lesson
Sudden closures and unusable prepaid cards spend the one asset a bakery owns: the belief that it will be open tomorrow. By the time the bank debt came due, customers had already stopped assuming that.
Aftermath
The Qiantang District Court accepted the liquidation on October 22, 2025; creditors had until December 22 to declare claims. The company ends with zero employees and operations ceased, while impostor stores trading on its name on delivery platforms had already been refusing old coupons.
Sources
- Tencent News — Fuli Forest declares bankruptcy: a 25-year bakery brand bows out, 2025-12-08
- Hangzhou News — The bread brand that kept Hangzhou company for 20+ years formally enters bankruptcy liquidation, 2025-12-09
- Sina Finance — Another known bakery in bankruptcy liquidation as the industry reshuffles, 2025-12-15
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