After the Hong Kong congee chain Ocean Empire Food Shop suddenly announced the closure of all its stores, another chain TAIPAN Bread & Cakes, whose Mongkok branch has been pointed out by the landlord as defaulting on rent payment since January this year, has filed a writ to the High Court to recover more than HK$400,000 in arrears and to hand over the shop premises to the owner.
The petition states that the landlord signed a 3-year lease with TAIPAN in November 2024 at a monthly rent of about HK$95,000. However, TAIPAN has defaulted on rent payment since January this year, and the landlord has issued solicitor's letters twice to recover the rent, which is now in arrears of about HK$402,000 together with the rates and interest, the present petition has been filed to the High Court and the defendant is requested to hand over the shop.
On the other hand, TAIPAN was reported to have defaulted on payment of wages and one month's Mandatory Provident Fund contributions for 220 employees, involving a total of about HK$430,000. Subsequently, TAIPAN responded that there was "a slight delay in payment of wages" due to "an error in the internal operation of the system" and emphasized that it did not have any operational problems.
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