Guoquan, the Chinese home-dining retailer behind one of the country’s largest store networks, is preparing to open its first outlet outside Mainland China — a debut in Hong Kong that marks the opening move in a wider overseas push.
The company expects to open its first Hong Kong store in Wan Chai later this year, bringing its “community central kitchen” concept to a new market.
“marking its first venture outside Mainland China,” the company said of the move.
For a brand that has so far grown entirely at home, Hong Kong is a logical bridgehead: close enough to manage from the mainland, but international enough to test how the format travels.
Guoquan is not a small experiment going abroad. As of the first quarter of 2026, it ran 11,758 stores nationwide, including more than 3,100 outlets in township-level markets — a footprint built largely through franchised operators rather than company-owned units.
Since the second half of 2025, Guoquan has converted smaller shops into larger “community central kitchen” formats of roughly 80 to 100 square metres. The revamped stores stretch well beyond the company’s original hotpot and barbecue ingredients into breakfast items, ready-to-eat and light meals, and alcoholic drinks, while 24-hour unmanned outlets keep products available around the clock.
Guoquan’s move is a reminder that some of the most aggressive franchise expansion stories now start in China and look outward, not the other way around. A brand with nearly 12,000 mostly franchised stores carries supply-chain muscle that few Western entrants can match on day one, and Hong Kong gives it a controlled environment to refine pricing, menu and store economics before any larger Southeast Asia push. It fits a broader pattern of regional brands scaling across borders — the same momentum visible in Southeast Asia’s store-growth race. For investors mapping where the next wave of concepts will come from, China’s home-dining and prepared-food operators belong on the shortlist of brands worth watching in Asia, alongside the established restaurant formats already crossing the region.
What makes Guoquan’s move notable for franchise investors is how it grew in the first place. The bulk of its nearly 12,000 outlets are run by independent franchisees rather than the company itself — a capital-light model that let it blanket China at speed. Exporting that system depends on rebuilding the supply chain and central-kitchen logistics that make the economics work, which is exactly why a single, controlled Hong Kong launch comes before any multi-market rollout.
If the format proves it can travel, the bigger question is whether Guoquan starts licensing country rights to local partners across Southeast Asia — the route most Chinese F&B brands now take when they expand abroad. For operators in the region, a proven, franchise-ready concept with this much scale behind it is worth tracking early, before the rights get expensive.
Source: Inside Retail Asia — Guoquan eyes Hong Kong in first step of overseas expansion
