The San Francisco-based Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shuttered its five Taipei-area stores without notice over the last two weeks, Chinese-language media reported yesterday. The coffee retailer shuttered its remaining outlet in Taipei last week.
"On Dec. 20, we received a call from the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store manager saying their parent company ask them to suspend operations without elaborating," Alison Kao (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Core Pacific was landlord to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's mall shop. The company put up "closed for remodeling" signs at some of its locations, only to be replaced with signs reading "we are closed."
Setting up its first outlet in Taiwan in 2000, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf operated five stores in the greater Taipei area, including shops on Chunghsiao East Road, Section 4, Hsimenting, Tienmu, Core Pacific City Mall (
The chain had more than 100 outlets worldwide, mostly in the US, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Israel, United Arab Emirates and Brunei.
No phone calls were answered at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Taiwan or their regional headquarters in Singapore, yesterday.
Local Chinese-language media yesterday said that Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Taiwan has withdrawn most of its savings, leaving NT$191 in a corporate bank account.
Employees were paid salaries for November and are not expected to receive pay for December or year-end bonuses, the report said. The report also said that Coffee Bean has outstanding checks which may soon bounce.
The checks were reported by Chinese media to be valued in the millions of NT dollars.
Core Pacific is also trying to contact Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Taiwan to collect on outstanding rent and discuss contract obligations, Kao said.
"We can't afford to let the space sit idle, so Core Pacific City will consider finding new tenants to take Coffee Bean's spot," Kao said.
Core Pacific City and creditors are likely to file lawsuits against Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Taiwan for funds owed, she said.
With equipment and furniture in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Taiwan's five stores still in place, creditors may receive some compensation if the courts choose to auction off the company's assets.
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