Tsui Wah lost HK$317M and its 22-year flagship in one year

Tsui Wah grew from a single cha chaan teng into one of Hong Kong's best-known restaurant brands, listed in 2012, with its network built around the city's busiest commercial and tourist districts — Causeway Bay, Central, Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei — on the strength of mainland visitor flows. Its Central flagship on Wellington Street had run for 22 years.

Then the demand it was built on disappeared: inbound tourism collapsed during 2019's social unrest, and the pandemic emptied the streets that followed. For the year to 31 March 2020 revenue fell 22.7 percent to HK$1.381 billion, and Tsui Wah swung from a HK$4.71 million profit to a HK$317 million loss — its first since listing — with no final dividend. Directors and senior management took 30 percent pay cuts.

The retreat was physical: nine restaurants closed in Hong Kong and four on the mainland, the 22-year Wellington Street flagship suspended operations in March 2020, and the Hong Kong network shrank from 31 to 19 stores in a year. Tsui Wah gave up Causeway Bay, Central and the Mong Kok-Yau Ma Tei corner it had paid premium rents to hold — saving nearly HK$1 million a month on two leases alone.