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Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint has long been known for its roast meats: fatty char siew, crispy roast pork, and roast duck. However, that was not why they made headlines in 2012.
Instead, it was because the original owners, Ha Wai Kay and Betty Kong, wanted to sell their recipe and venue for $ 3.5 million.
They made the covers again in 2014, this time because they managed to find a buyer and sold their business for $ 4 million to electronics firm Aztech Group, whose president took just 10 minutes to seal the deal. At the time of the deal, it was reported that 10 Kay Lee restaurants would be launched over the next two years.
However, a recent review on their website shows that the brand now only has one store, the original store at 125 Upper Paya Lebar Road. There was still another outlet earlier this year at 116 Bukit Merah View, but a call to the main hotline confirmed that it has since been closed.
Aztech Group declined to comment for this story.
[[nid:345259]]One of Kay Lee’s largest establishments was in Suntec City and was the first to open under Aztech’s management, and could seat 100 guests in the comfort of air conditioning. The brand continued to roll out more stores, but all, including Suntec, have since closed.
This turn of events is unexpected given the plans Aztech had shared with The Straits Times for how it would properly plan everything from operations and marketing to sales and acquisitions in 2014. This included hiring food scientists to learn and document Kay Lee’s secret recipes. and seasoned industry veteran Sam Ng, who has overseen Chinese restaurant operations at leading Singapore hotels.
Since acquiring Kay Lee, Aztech Group has delisted from the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2017.
Former owners Ha and Kong were also convicted in 2016 and sentenced to four weeks in jail each for tax evasion. They were also fined $ 164,751.45 per person.
