Mid Autumn Festival food-fair sales rose 28 per cent this year for Yata Department Store, mainly because of the opening of stores in Sai Wan in February and in Tseung Kwan O in July, says CEO Susanna Wong Sze-lai.

Yata’s Tuen Mun store posted an 18 per cent sales increase, while in Tsuen Wan sales were up 12 per cent.Overall sales of all stores during the first two days of the Golden Week holiday rose by 10 per cent.

Wong Sze-lai says Yata will open a 21,000sqft (1950sqm) supermarket with medium- to premium-priced goods in Yuen Long tomorrow, marking its 10th supermarket in Hong Kong. More than 60 per cent of its grocery items are imported from Japan.

Yata is investing about HK$37 million (US$4.7 million) and hiring 70 staff for its Yuen Long store, at Yoho Mall.

Sun Hung Kai Properties owns the Japanese department store chain with all its outlets being inside the developer’s shopping malls.