Gong Cha will return to Singapore
Fans of bubble tea chain Gong Cha were left reeling – and rushing to get their final drinks – last week, when it was announced that all 80 existing Gong Cha outlets in Singapore would be replaced by homegrown brand LiHo, but their shock might have been premature.
The parent company behind the brand, Unison Capital, said that Gong Cha will be returning to Singapore with a “bigger, better, upgraded format” in the coming months, according to The Straits Times.
“We just want to make clear to our Singapore customers that we are not leaving the market and we plan to come back pretty soon,” Kim Soomin, a partner at Unison Capital which co-owns the brand with Royal Tea Taiwan, was quoted as saying.
The company is planning to open as many shops as they can, but has not set a target for the number of outlets to open by the end of the year. RTG Holdings, the company which brought Gong Cha to Singapore in 2009, made the decision to replace existing Gong Cha outlets with its own LiHo brand after the brand was sold to Unison Capital without notifying RTG.
Rodney Tang, managing director of RTG, told Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore, “I’m glad that they are making plans to bring Gong Cha back to Singapore. The brand has a special place in the hearts of Singaporeans and I wish them all the best making it as big as we did in the last 8 years. When we decided to start LiHO, it was with the understanding that there was the possibility that someone else would be keen on the franchise rights for Gong Cha.”
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