Bakehouse doubles outlets, adds 50% staff as its egg tarts beat Hong Kong’s retail gloom

Name: SCMP
Telephone: +852-2680-8888

The Wan Chai-based bakery will spend about US$4 million to double its branches to 10 by the end of 2025

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Customer enjoying a pastry outside a Bakehouse store, Causeway Bay. Photo: Alexander Mak.

Cheryl Arcibal

Published: 2:00pm, 22 Sep 2024Updated: 5:53pm, 22 Sep 2024

Bakehouse is investing millions of dollars to double its Hong Kong footprint to cater to the rising demand for its sourdough egg tarts, offering a rare piece of good news amid the city’s retail and consumption slump.

The Wan Chai-based bakery will spend HK$31 million (US$3.98 million) to expand to Tung Chung and Sha Tin in the New Territories, while building out its factory in Chai Wan, doubling its branches to 10 by the end of 2025, founder Gregoire Michaud said in an interview.

“Because our brand has gained in image” through social-media platforms like Xiaohongshu, “people are inviting us” to expand the production and branches, said Michaud.

Growth at the six-year-old bakery is a counter punch to the gloom in Hong Kong’s retail industry, where one in 10 high street shops stood empty across the city at the end of the second quarter, according to data from JLL. Many shops in key retail areas such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Central remain empty as small businesses grapple with the shifting preferences of local residents and reduced tourist spending.

Gregoire Michaud, founder of The Bakehouse, in Causeway Bay on 13 September 2024. Photo: Jonathan Wong

With overall vacancy rates hovering in the double digits, Hong Kong’s shop rents have fallen by more than 70 per cent since they peaked in the third quarter of 2014, said Jeannette Chan, senior director of retail at the JLL property consultancy in Hong Kong.