Maria's Bakery: a history of the rise, fall, and revival of a Hong Kong institution

A history of Maria's Bakery, a Western styled bakery, founded by Maria Lee, one of Hong Kong's most iconic entrepreneurs.

For many people who lived in Hong Kong from the 1960s onwards, Maria’s Bakery (超羣餅店) is synonymous with affordable, delicious cakes, cookies, pastries and other baked goods. As with many things in Hong Kong, it was a fusion between Chinese and Western food, ranging from sponge cakes, to egg tarts.

The story of Maria’s Cakes is intertwined with the history of its founder, Maria Lee. Her story is equally fascinating, stay tuned for her biography.

At its peak, it was larger than competitor Maxim’s Cakes and was seen as an innovative force. Traditionally, people would announce their upcoming marriage by sending out freshly baked cakes to those who mattered. Maria Lee invented and pioneered the idea that you should send out vouchers instead, simplifying the process while creating a large, lucrative revenue stream for the Bakery.

There is very little in English on the history of Maria’s Bakery, and even the Chinese version of Wikipedia has few details. I’ve done a deep dive into old news archives to see what happened, and the story is below.

Founding Years (1966-1970s)

Maria Lee Tseng Chiu-kwan (李曾超羣), also known locally as the “Queen of Cakes”, founded Maria’s Bakery on 11 December 1966. Maria Lee had learned cooking from an early age from her mother, Roxy Tsang, who was a well-known socialite and wanted to instil the principles of being a lady on Maria at a young age. Years later, Maria taught cooking locally in institutions such as the YWCA, and her students, who loved her cooking, encouraged her to open a bakery. Maria decided to do so, and drawing on a HK$100,000 loan to finance it, the housewife turned entrepreneur opened her first bakery in Prince Edward.

It became well known for their hybrid Chinese-Western baked goods, such as fresh cream cakes, Swiss rolls, cartoon character cakes, egg tarts, pineapple buns, and moon cakes. Many of these items continue to be sold today.

Although her cakes were good, at that stage she had little business experience, and it was a disaster. Maria recalled that "After six months, I lost all my money. My husband said, 'I'll repay all your debts, but don't do it again.' But I'm very stubborn so I went out and borrowed the money to start over again."

Maria went back to study business and replan her come back, and upon relaunch, the bakery saw great success.

Over the next three decades, Maria’s Bakery expanded both locally and internationally to places including Taiwan, Shanghai, New York, and Los Angeles, totalling around 100 branches at its peak in the 1990s. In later years, it also expanded into other businesses, including the opening of Chinese restaurants, cafes, catering, magazines, and even property.

Popularising the voucher system

In 1972, Maria Lee brought the concept of pre-paid cake coupons mainstream in Hong Kong. These which were vouchers sold at a discount, that could be redeemed for cakes at a later date. People in Hong Kong bought many of these and held on to them, to buy cakes, to give out as gifts, or even to resell them informally. It was also a hedge against inflation: as the cards never expired, people could keep them for years, and profit when the price of cakes went up. 

It became part of Hong Kong culture, and other companies subsequently replicated the system at scale, whether at rival bakeries, or at video rental stores such as KPS Video Express. For Maria’s Bakery, it provided liquidity to continue expansion.

Although there are claims that Maria was the first to roll out a pre-paid voucher system in Hong Kong, this was not true. Roast meat stalls had long sold coupons before festivals so people avoid long queues. In the 1950s, upscale restaurants, and teahouses were also selling vouchers which could be exchanged for pastries and snacks, such as mooncakes.

Changing Wedding Traditions

To help promote coupon sales, the Bakery promoted and introduced the concept of sending out cake vouchers with wedding invitations. At the time, the Hong Kong tradition was to send freshly baked cakes to announce upcoming marriages. It was popular because buying Western cakes was cheaper than traditional Chinese cakes: the Western ones cost HK$3, while the Chinese ones cost HK$5. For people, sending out cake coupons was logistically easier than sending freshly baked cakes, and with a Maria’s Bakery just around the corner, the coupons were easy to redeem. 

As Maria’s Bakery expanded to Taiwan in the 1970s, they also targeted the wedding market. The Bakery introduced Western styled wedding cakes to compete with the Taiwanese custom of sending traditional flat cakes containing sweet and savory fillings such as dried shredded pork, and sweetened beans. For ten years, Maria’s Bakery led wedding cake sakes in Taiwan. However, due to competition to local pastry manufacturer Kuo Yuan Ye (郭元益), the Taiwan branches eventually closed.

The Golden Years: Expansion and Innovation (1980s-1990s)

By 1993, the Bakery had 47 outlets in Hong Kong, 22 in Taiwan, with 22 franchised shops in North America (Los Angeles, New York, and Canada), recording HK$800 million in turnover. They also began expansion into Mainland China.

Expansion to the US

Maria’s Bakery first opened shops in San Francisco, before including to New York, and Los Angeles. The first New York shop opened in Lafayette Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown on Aug 17, 1985, employing 120 people. Senator John Glenn performed the opening ceremony.

In Washington state, there were four stores in Fairfax and Montgomery counties, a factory in Rockville, and product displays in Asian grocery stores.

Although the North American shops were wholly owned at first, at some point they converted to franchises.

Expansion into China

Maria’s Bakery expanded into China in 1993 with a budget of HK$30 million, opening 18 shops in Shanghai’s underground railway stations, and in Shiqi district in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province. One of the drivers for Chinese expansion were flat sales in Hong Kong, combined with high rents and competition, leading to decreased profitability. Maria Lee said that if the Chinese expansion was successful, they would consider listing the Bakery on the stock market.

By November 1994, these shops were turning over HK$900,000 per month, employing 300 people. It also sold bakery goods in supermarkets in Shanghai, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, and Guangzhou.

Around 50% of sales were made up of birthday cakes. Maria Lee expressed surprise that people were willing to pay so much for cakes, with a 0.45 kg cake costing HK$50, at a time when the average Chinese salary was HK$800 per month.

In Shanghai, this was a joint venture between Maria’s Bakery and Shanghai Foodstuff and Export Co, with Maria’s Bakery retaining a 60% stake. In Zhongshan, Maria’s Bakery owned 85%, with the local government owning the remainder. Two more shops were planned in Zhuhai, and one in Shanxiang. 

The Bakery also moved a factory from Hong Kong to Zham Heung village to supply Zhongzhan shops, partially driven by lower labour costs (up to 95%). News reports at the time described shortages of electricity and water being challenges, which required the factory and bakeries to purchase power generators to avoid business disruption.

Financial Success and Assets

During its most successful years, the Bakery offered its staff 30% of the Bakery’s HK$20 million profit as bonuses, and a 15-month salary. Even in less profitable times, the Bakery offered a two-month bonus.

It had factories in Aberdeen, and To Kwa Wan. In the 1980s it had 1,100 staff, which was reduced to 400 by 1990.

By 1998, Maria’s Bakery’s assets in Hong Kong consisted of 23 leased shops, and a wholly owned 10,000 square foot factory in To Kwa Wan (the Aberdeen site having been consolidated and closed years before), and a catering business run by Maria’s Catering. 

Cake Run: Voucher Panic

Hong Kong suffered a financial crisis between 1983-1986, caused by several connected issues, but primarily related to the uncertainty caused by the Sino-British Joint Declaration which would lead to the handover of Hong Kong back to China in 1997. This led to significant amounts of fear in the years leading up the handover. Those who would afford it emigrated to Western countries, primarily to the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. It was so bad that the Hang Seng Index fell by 38%, and property prices dropped by 31% during the period.

Somehow, around 9 May 1984, false rumours were spread alleging that Maria’s Bakery was about to collapse. As many people held Maria’s Bakery coupons, they were afraid that if true, their vouchers would become worthless. Hong Kong’s first “Cake Run” started on 17 May 1984 and lasted five days until 22 May, where hundreds of people queued at Bakery branches to try to redeem as many, if not all of their prepaid vouchers. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the total value of the vouchers was HK$10 million.

The SCMP at the time also described how “hundreds of $18 gift voucher holders, mainly housewives, feverishly withdrew cakes from Maria’s outlets on both sides of the harbour”, forcing the Bakery to call back bakers from leave, to bolster the 400 or so bakers already working to meet the sudden demand spike. Maria Lee said that “The way to cope is to supply as many cakes as possible – just like handling a bank run.”

At the end, more than a million cakes were made daily, compared to a daily average of 10,000.

Maria Lee needed to call a press conference to refute the allegations of impending collapse, and even put out advertisements in local English and Chinese newspapers. 

It was never clear what the source of the rumours were. The SCMP at the time speculated that it may have been caused by the removal of Maria’s Bakery outlets from some supermarkets, driven by the Bakery’s desire for bigger premises. Sensationalist headlines in local Chinese newspapers further fanned the flames.

These cake runs led to calls for voucher sales to be more tightly regulated, and proposed solutions included requiring companies to take out insurance in the event they collapsed, or were unable to honour their commitments. 

However, despite local media editorials, suggestions by the Hong Kong Consumer Council, and discussions in the Legislative Council, little was done. 

Although Maria’s Bakery was the first to experience coupon-driven Cake Runs, it was not the last. Other bakeries suffered Cake Runs over the next few decades, with St Honore being the recipient of one in November 1997.

Struggles, Collapse and its Aftermath (1990-1998)

Despite seemingly successful, the Bakery was struggling. From 1990, the Bakery reduced the number of shops from 60 to 20, cutting staff from 1,100 to 600, and consolidated two factories into one. Their investments in China and the United States proved to be unprofitable, leading to even more problems.

Although Maria Lee and her business partner, Fung Lau Shun-kwan, injected HK$93 million into the company to prevent its closure, this would prove to be insufficient to save the Bakery. An unidentified buyer had offered to purchase Maria’s Bakery, but pulled out as they were unable to seek loans due to the economic downturn.

The bakery collapsed on 29 April 1998, caused by region-wide economic collapse during the Asian economic crisis, high rents, overly aggressive expansion, and poor investments.

By the time it collapsed, liquidator Ernst & Young (EY) reported that Maria’s Bakery had only HK$30,000 in cash, and estimated that the Bakery was around HK$100 million in debt. Maria’s Catering, a related business, suffered HK$7.5 million in losses. It had fixed assets worth HK$600,000, and HK$28 million in cash reserves.

Staff were informed individually by telephone that the Bakery had collapsed. A total of 267 former staff applied to the Labour Department for ex-gratia payments from the insolvency fund, which took at least six weeks before pay out. At the time, bakers earned approximately HK$10,000 per month, while section heads earned about HK$20,000.

A landlord later launched legal action, alleging that a Maria’s Bakery shop in Wing On Mansion, Tsuen Wan, failed to pay rent. The monthly rent was HK$58,000, and the landlord was claiming HK$232,000 was in arrears.

Unredeemable Cake Vouchers

Customers were subsequently left HK$5 million out of pocket holding pre-paid vouchers they could not redeem. This also led to Cake Runs on other bakeries the day after Maria’s closed, as customers feared that other bakeries may also go under.

To build goodwill, competing bakeries St Honore Cake Shop, and Arome Bakeries allowed customers with Maria’s Bakery vouchers to redeem them at their stores. Customers were required to pay HK$20 to redeem each voucher. Approximately 540,000 vouchers were redeemed, 1,980 by Amore Bakeries, and the rest by St Honore. St Honore reported they needed to produce 40% more cakes to meet demand. Customers could also buy one St Honore’s voucher at a 57% discount for each Maria’s Bakery voucher exchanged.

Following its liquidation, at least 1,294 complaints were received by the Consumer Council. Each person was owned an average of HK$1,875 worth of cakes.

Vouchers and the domino effect

The closure of Maria’s Bakery led to a crisis of confidence in the coupon system in general, which was one of the reasons for the collapse of video rental store KPS Video Express a few months later. KPS also employed a similar coupon system, and rumours swirled that they would be unable to fulfil their obligations, which proved to be true: KPS announced a “Coupon Burn” campaign, which encouraged people to spend their coupons in ways which offered them lower-than-promised value, after which they would move to a cash-only system. KPS’s inability to fulfil their coupon obligations with the original terms led to liquidity problems, and was one of the reasons it eventually went under.

Understanding the macroeconomic environment

The Asian economic crisis was a watershed moment for Asia, and was a terrible time for everyone in the region. Like the 1929 Wall Street Crash, many people lost everything as they had borrowed bank money to invest on the stock market. Suicides were reported daily. Individuals would jump from high rise buildings, and burning charcoal stoves in sealed rooms were depressingly common at the time. People had no money to spend on anything but the bare essentials, with cakes being something they cut out of their budgets.

Hong Kong’s landlords, like in many cities, kept rents high and increased them whenever they had the chance. It is common, and remains so today, that a successful shop would have their rents increased to the point they were unable to continue trading.  These issues led to shrinking margins for Maria’s Bakery.

Part of the collapse was caused by the bakery’s diversification into property investment in the 1990s. In partnership with co-founder Fung Lau Shun-kwun, it invested millions of US dollars into commercial property in New York, which Maria Lee described as “a total failure”. This included an office building, and the opening of Hotel Maria, a 227-room luxury hotel, both located in New York’s Chinatown.

Revival and Reinvention (1999 to Today)

Just over a year later in June 1999, food conglomerate Hop Hing Holdings purchased Maria’s Bakery as part of a diversification strategy, and reemployed around one-third of the 400 employees. Staff were provided about 80% of their owed retirement benefits, while other staff found employment in other bakeries.

Despite being 70 at the time of the Bakery’s collapse, Maria Lee chose not to file bankruptcy, but instead returned to work to pay off all her obligations to creditors. Interviews throughout the years indicated that she felt strongly about this, and believed she needed to honour her commitments. She said that "To me, it would have been like cheating if I had declared bankruptcy. I wouldn't have been able to live with dignity." She eventually paid back all her debts, totalling HK$43 million, by 2008.

In 2003, the owners of Maria’s Bakery filed an injunction to prevent two former employees to register the name in mainland China. There were no further publicly available details on how this legal action played out.

Maria’s Bakery continues to operate in Hong Kong today, but with 6 stores across the territory as of 2025 – a clear decrease compared to its heyday. Their cakes and other baked goods are still delicious, and represents some of the best you can get in Hong Kong.

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Photos

Maria's Bakery Shopfront

Egg Tarts

Bread

Character Cakes