Sogo To Move Tsim Sha Tsui Branch To Kai Tak

The Tsim Sha Tsui branch of the Sogo department store will close down on March 12 and relocate to Kai Tak later this year, its parent company Lifestyle International Holdings announced.

“Sogo Tsim Sha Tsui Store will close down its business on 12 March 2023 due to the expiry of the lease on the shop space,” Lifestyle International said in a statement.

“Although the border between mainland China and Hong Kong has recently been reopened to a limited extent, the mainland Chinese tourists are expected to make limited contribution to a recovery in the city’s retail sector in the short term.”

The department store operator reported a loss of HK$475 million for the six months ending in July last year.

The company was delisted and taken private by tycoon Thomas Lau last month in a HK$1.88 billion privatisation scheme.

Professor Ho Lok-sang, who heads the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute at Lingnan University, said while the struggling economy might have led to the closure, the situation is expected to improve very soon.

"On the mainland, the economy is pretty weak. In November, retail sales had dropped by 5.9 percent, which is worse than the drop in the previous month. But personally, I am pretty confident that this time around, with the change in policy, the mainland economy is going to recover,” Ho said.

"I had wished that the landlord in Tsim Sha Tsui would be smarter and work out some kind of interim arrangement to extend the lease for say half a year to one year on a perhaps retail-linked rent.”

Lifestyle International, for its part, said a new flagship Sogo store will open at a twin-tower complex in Kai Tak at the end of the year.

In the meantime, it said the Tsim Sha Tsui branch is holding a "closing super sale”.