Hong Kong protests, pandemic, squeezed profits: closure of La Rotisserie, French roast chicken chain, ends three-year struggle to survive

The restaurant chain announced this week it would close on January 7. Two of its co-founders blame three years of struggle and an inability to grow fast enough

The 2019 street protests, Covid-19 and delivery firms’ squeeze on profits were factors, they said; investors also didn’t want to put money in a Western business

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A French roast chicken set from La Rotisserie. The chain is closing all its branches in Hong Kong after nine years. Photo: La Rotisserie

Published: 10:00am, 7 Jan 2022Updated: 10:18am, 8 Jan 2022

The 2019 protests in Hong Kong, pandemic social-distancing restrictions, and delivery app charges that squeezed profits are behind the closure of La Rotisserie, say two of the co-founders of the French roast chicken chain.

La Rotisserie announced on January 6 that its six outlets in the city would close on January 7.

The chain was started in November 2012 by Marie Ranc, Aurelien Malik Benbernou and Jerome Carlier, three French nationals who felt there was a gap in the market for moderately priced roast chicken – a staple family-style dish in their home country. Its newest outlet, in Lee Garden in Causeway Bay, opened in July 2021.

Speaking to the Post, Ranc and Carlier said they had exhausted all means to keep the business going in the last three years, and were left with no choice but to close.

Marie Ranc and Jerome Carlier, co-founders of La Rotisserie. Photo: SCMP/Enoch Yiu

“The last two to three years were very tough for us, we had no other options,” Carlier said. “In Hong Kong to be a sustainable business you need to reach a critical size of 10 to 20 shops. We tried to grow to make the business profitable, but we couldn’t grow that big, it wasn’t sustainable for a group like us.”