With its signature fan-shaped wall of lipsticks displayed at the entrance, the Hong Kong store of Mao Geping Cosmetics at the Harbour City shopping complex in Tsim Sha Tsui appeared quiet on a recent weekday night.
That underscored a sluggish state of affairs at Mao Geping, about two months after opening its first overseas location in the city, and the broader challenges faced by Chinese beauty – dubbed C-beauty – brands seeking to expand sales outside the mainland.
The cosmetics firm was named after founder Mao Geping, China’s most famous make-up artist, who was behind numerous mainland films, television programmes and reality shows.
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“Mao Geping is finally here in Hong Kong,” trumpeted the firm’s account on the Chinese social media platform RedNote, which only had 30 followers. This post received four heart emojis.
It was a lethargic showing for the Chinese cosmetics firm more than a year after it made a blistering trading debut in Hong Kong, where it raised HK$2.34 billion (US$300 million).
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According to its prospectus, Mao Geping aimed to strengthen its “global brand presence and overseas market penetration”, using 15 per cent of its Hong Kong listing’s proceeds for that purpose. In a recent earnings call, the company told analysts that it had plans to expand into Singapore, Japan, France and the UK.