• Business

    Gong Cha shuts some S’pore outlets; website, social media accounts down

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    By Ian Cheng for The Straits Times

    Copyright tnp

    Gong Cha shuts some S'pore outlets; website, social media accounts down

    SINGAPORE – Bubble tea brand Gong Cha appears to have shut down its Singaporean social media accounts and website, with some of its shops also shuttered on Oct 2.

    Checks by The Straits Times on Oct 2 showed that Gong Cha’s Instagram and Facebook pages were unavailable. Gong Cha’s official Singapore website also appears to be offline.

    On the GrabFood and foodpanda food delivery platforms, the status of Gong Cha’s various shops were indicated as being closed or unavailable.

    However, some of its shops on GrabFood appear to have various opening times listed from Oct 6 to Dec 31.

    On its international website, the store finder function still showed its various outlets in Singapore, albeit without details on opening hours.

    The Gong Cha outlet at Bugis Junction was shut when ST visited on Oct 2, with its signage covered with red paper.

    In July, Facebook page I Love Tampines reported that Gong Cha had ceased operations at Simei MRT station, while business website Yelp lists Gong Cha’s 100 AM mall outlet as closed.

    It is still listed as a “live” company or a business that is still in operation, according to Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records as at Oct 2. Gong Cha Singapore last filed an annual report on Sept 26, 2024, for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2023.

    Attempts to contact Gong Cha Singapore via e-mail were unsuccessful, as the accounts appear to be invalid or inactive. Calls to the number registered to the business also went unanswered.

    In Britain, ST Group Food, the owner of Gong Cha’s operator GCTea Outlets 2B, said in July that it planned to liquidate its loss-making subsidiary.

    Gong Cha first entered the Singapore market in 2009 with former franchisee RTG Holdings. The company then converted its 84 Gong Cha outlets to LiHO, a new home-grown bubble tea label in June 2017.

    Before the conversion, Gong Cha outlets here were raking in about $30 million in annual revenue, making Singapore one of the top three contributors to the brand’s overall turnover at the time. In 2016, its overall turnover was reportedly more than US$70 million (S$90 million).

    The popular Taiwanese bubble tea chain then reopened in December 2016 to long queues under a new franchisee, Gong Cha Singapore, helmed by food and beverage veteran Kang Puay Seng, the former managing director and co-founder of soya bean milk F&B chain Mr Bean.

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