9th September 2026 – (Hong Kong) Mainland budget tea brand Mixue Ice Cream & Tea has quit its Mong Kok ground-floor shop at CTMA Centre, handing the Sai Yeung Choi Street South unit to another mainland chain as the group shuts at least its fifth Hong Kong outlet this year.
The vacated premises are shops G03 to G04 at CTMA Centre, 1N Sai Yeung Choi Street South, with a gross area of about 824 square feet on a prime Mong Kok frontage. Mixue, which built its local name on HK$5 ice cream and HK$9 lemonade, had paid about HK$190,000 a month since 2024 — roughly HK$231 per square foot. Market chatter framed the exit as a volume crunch: at the old rent and a HK$9 lemonade price, the shop would have needed to sell more than 21,000 cups a month just to cover the basic lease, before wages and other costs.
Taking over is TamKoKo, a mainland Thai-style milk-tea brand, opening its first Hong Kong store. It is understood to be paying about HK$160,000 a month, or roughly HK$194 per square foot — about 15.8 per cent below Mixue’s deal. Hoardings are already up with signage pointing to a September opening. Founded in Suzhou in April 2025 and known for rich Thai milk teas and cheese-topped drinks, TamKoKo’s signature salted-cheese Thai milk sells for about 24 yuan (around HK$28); at that ticket price the Mong Kok shop would need to move roughly 5,714 cups a month simply to meet the new base rent.
Before Mixue arrived, the same unit spent four years on short lets to phone-accessory and fashion tenants at monthly rents of about HK$100,000 to HK$150,000. Property observers say Mixue’s thin-margin, high-volume model sits awkwardly against Hong Kong’s steep shop rents and labour costs, so outlets must move enormous volumes to “cover the rent” — a commercial climate that can leave bargain mainland brands looking ill-suited once the initial queues fade.
Mixue stormed into Hong Kong in late 2023 and had nine shops within its first year, including two Mong Kok branches only about 300 metres apart. That blitz has cooled. Counting the CTMA Centre retreat, the chain has closed at least five Hong Kong stores this year, spanning Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Yuen Long, Shek Mun in Sha Tin and Nina Mall in Tsuen Wan. Another mainland tea brand now occupies the Mong Kok street front Mixue could no longer sustain on lemonade economics alone.