Joey Law, Stanley Cheung and Kelvin Lee Open Successful Hong Kong Snack Business

Hong Kong artistes Joey Law (羅天宇), Stanley Cheung (張景淳) and Kelvin Lee (李興華) team up to open a new restaurant focusing on Hong Kong snacks like curry fish balls, egg waggles, imitation shark fin soup and red bean ice. The business had been popular with the locals, and the three owners recently expanded and opened a new mobile store in Shenzhen.

The three owners were at Shenzhen’s Futian Sport’s Park for the store’s grand opening and all hands were on deck as they set up folding tables and chairs. The store was in the form of a food truck with a huge logo “Super Egg Puff” and bright lights were used to build the store’s trendy image. It is revealed that Joey took the lead in designing the store’s brand.

Joey shared, “Everyone has their strength. For example, Kelvin is good at negotiating and speaking with the vendors. Stanley is more focused on food and wants to learn from Master Lee (Kelvin’s father). He wanted to learn and cook at the same time. I like designing. I would give a lot of suggestions for the decoration but towards the end, we took everyone’s suggestion. It’s a team so we all make some decisions.”

The store attracted many fans, and Joey, Stanley and Kelvin were happy to interact with the fans by taking pictures and giving out their autographs. As many fans came by to show their support, fans waited on average for half an hour for service. Kelvin was surprised by the turnout and said, “After the market testing, we had an estimate of the demand. However, we didn’t have enough stock for our grand opening, so we will need to strengthen our supply.”

At the grand opening, the three owners gave themselves their own titles. Kelvin’s t-shirt said “Boss Li” and he was mainly responsible for helping customers place orders and serving customers. Stanley and Joey’s t-shirts respectively said “Store Manager Cheung” and “Waiter Law” and they were responsible for preparation and cooking. Joey joked, “The good positions were stolen so I took the lower title.”

How the Joint Venture Started

The three owners talked about opening their own restaurant shortly after they entered the entertainment industry. It wasn’t until the pandemic that Kelvin returned to Mainland China to try his hand at entrepreneurship that the three had a serious discussion to make the jump. Joey revealed that he invested nearly seven figures into the business, “After opening the first store Guangming, we opened other mobile stores. In addition to this store, there will be other physical stores in the future. Mobile stores are easier on rent but the physical stores will need to be renovated and there will be rent.”

The three owners plan to open more stores in the near future. They shared, “Many people left messages asking when we are opening in different districts. We will try to open some stores close to people’s homes. There are five or six stores in the plans. We want to use Shenzhen as our central location because it is closest and most convenient to Hong Kong. Stanley really wants to open in Shanghai because someone is talking to us about it. We are expecting to open ten stores in Shenzhen this year and it will be done by ourselves.”

While Kelvin already settled in Shenzhen, Joey and Stanley would make frequent trips between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Although it had been tiring, Joey still felt that it was worth it, “I expected it to be tiring. It’s hard to get started. It’s better now since I’m not filming for a while. It’s more tiring for Stanley because he has been flying over here everyday after work. We try to find time and if help is needed, we would come more often.”

Source: HK01