China-based crawfish specialty brand JuanFu has opened its first restaurant in Hong Kong with hopes this will help it launch worldwide.

Founded in Shanghai last year, the brand already has 11 outlets spanning different provinces and cities in China. Its Hong Kong outlet in Sheung Wan, Buddies Crawfish, imports crawfish directly from breeding bases in Hunan, Jiangsu and Greece.

Buddies Crawfish Hong Kong chairman Wu Hsiao says he hopes to promote the brand globally and expand to overseas markets through the opening of the Hong Kong store.

“Hong Kong is an international city with a good mix of people from different cultures and backgrounds all over the world. The large number of mainland and international visitors offers a good clientele, which also makes Hong Kong the best place for us to promote our brand globally.”

He believes that a Hong Kong base will help the brand easily enter the Chinese markets in Singapore, Taiwan, Australia and the US.

“At the moment there are limited supplies of crawfish in the Hong Kong market, so we hope to fill this gap by offering stable supplies of crawfish to the market in different ways. Further down the track we also plan to open another crawfish-themed restaurant and a crawfish fast-food store in Hong Kong, as well as distribute fresh and chilled crawfish to restaurants and supermarkets.”

Hong Kong’s F&B scene is thriving, says Invest Hong Kong associate director-general of investment promotion Dr Jimmy Chiang. “I am happy JuanFu chose Hong Kong to set up its first restaurant outside the mainland. I believe the brand will make use of the city’s business advantages to expand overseas.”

Headquartered in Beijing, JuanFu is owned by Shanghai Wan Li Network and Technology, which specialises in developing its own brands for agriculture products.