F&B chains take a beating from COVID-19

COVID-19 hit most of all F&B chains

Numerous stores that had closed for the Lunar New Year holiday have yet to reopen. One of these called Tokyo Deli announced to have closed the store on Nguy Nhu Kon Tum Street due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past year, since the first pandemic outbreak, this Japanese restaurant has closed two of its five shops in Hanoi. It closed the first one last June, located on Giang Vo Street.

The Japanese-style Daruma chain under the management of Golden Gate, one of the leading restaurant chain operators in Vietnam, has also had a hard year and had to close three of its six locations in Hanoi. In addition to the one closed at the end of 2019, the two others closed in the first year of COVID-19 are on Giang Vo and Dich Vong Hau street.

Another food and beverage (F&B) brand that was invested VND100 billion($4.35 million) by "Shark" Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, chairman of education firm Egroup, Soya Garden keeps closing locations in Hanoi. While the company announced reopening on February 17, Soya Garden at Hapulico (Vu Trong Phung Street) has remains closed while the one on Giang Van Minh Street opened few days after Tet only to take the signboard off an put the store up for lease.

From the initial expectations in 2019 of launching 50 stores and expand to the US and South Korea to develop 500 stores, Soya Garden's fanpage now only shows eight locations.

"COVID-19 has caused issues for numerous players in the F&B business," said Hoang Tung, CEO of Pizza Home. "Closing some shops could be necessary to restructuring the chains and find better locations."

COVID19 has shown that large and beautiful premises can sometimes be a burden. Pizza Home has closed 12 stores last year while also opening a few new ones. "While we've closed more shops than we reopened, our overall performance is getting better," said Tung.