History Corner
The Hong Kong Department Store Chronicles

The Story of Da Da and Klasse Grand

Two unrelated companies, racing to open branches across Hong Kong's brand-new housing estates in the early 1980s β€” and collapsing within a year of each other.

πŸ”Š Tap an amber chip to hear the Cantonese pronunciation (Jyutping romanisation included).

1. Two Very Different Beginnings

Da Da (倧倧公司) was a homegrown venture, founded in 1974 by Yeung Fu-sang with a flagship on Nathan Road in Mong Kok, built its reputation on aggressive Sunday discount sales, and grew alongside sister brands under similarly plain names β€” Yan Yan, Tai Yuen, and Tai Yan.

Klasse Grand (ε‰εˆ©εΈ‚) arrived from somewhere else entirely: Singapore's Emporium Holdings, a retail conglomerate owned by the Lim family that ran more than 60 department stores and supermarkets across Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei at its peak. Its first Hong Kong branch, a modest three floors, opened in Sha Tin's Wo Che Estate on 10 January 1980.

2. Racing Into the New Towns

Both companies expanded at a pace that now looks almost reckless. Da Da grew to seven branches (plus its sister brands) by the early 1980s, chasing shoppers with its signature 20%-off Sunday promotions. Klasse Grand moved even faster: within the same year as its Sha Tin opening, 1980, it opened branches simultaneously in Kwun Tong, Kwai Chung, and Aberdeen, followed by a Mong Kok branch that September and another in Tsuen Wan.

It didn't stop there. In 1981, Klasse Grand added a six-floor flagship in Causeway Bay, later opened in Kowloon Bay's Telford Garden, and in 1984 moved into the brand-new Taikoo Shing Centre. Neither company was chasing a single flagship the way earlier stores in this series had β€” both were betting on being everywhere Hong Kong's new public housing estates were being built.

The Klasse Department Store storefront at Aberdeen Centre, decorated with red banners and opening-day flower wreaths
Klasse Grand, Aberdeen Centre: The storefront dressed in red banners and lined with congratulatory flower wreaths for its opening β€” one of three Klasse Grand branches that opened simultaneously on 26 July 1980.
Crowds gathered under umbrellas outside the Da Da store on Nathan Road for its official grand opening
Da Da, Nathan Road: Crowds gather under umbrellas for Da Da's official grand opening, "all departments open" β€” the kind of turnout that made rapid expansion look like an obviously good bet at the time.

3. The Same Year, Different Companies, Same Ending

The expansion that made both companies visible everywhere also made them fragile everywhere. Da Da went into receivership under HSBC in 1985 and was liquidated in 1986. Klasse Grand collapsed the same year β€” its Hong Kong operations shut down in June 1986 amid mounting lawsuits from suppliers, landlords, and unpaid staff, with Hong Kong's Insolvency Fund ultimately stepping in to cover employee wages. Its Singapore parent, Emporium Holdings, was placed under judicial management the following year, undone by a wider Southeast Asian economic downturn that its Hong Kong branches had no way to escape.

4. What the Boom Left Behind

Unlike Wing On's Des Voeux Road building or Sogo's Hennessy Road tower, neither Da Da nor Klasse Grand left behind a landmark. What they left behind instead is scattered across community memory β€” older Hongkongers on local forums still swap half-certain recollections of a "Klasse Grand" that felt like a cross between a department store and a supermarket, tucked into a housing estate they grew up in.

The housing estates themselves β€” Wo Che, Telford Garden, Taikoo Shing β€” are all still there today, still anchoring their neighbourhoods. It's only the department stores that once filled their shopping centres that vanished, a reminder that in retail, growing everywhere at once is not the same as growing safely.