Three chains, three very different trajectories
Only one of the three chains is present in all six markets, and only one is clearly growing.
| Market | DON DON DONKI | LOPIA | Aeon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taiwan | 6 stores | 14 stores (October 2026) | None |
| Hong Kong | 10 stores | None | General merchandise stores, supermarkets, DAISO and Mono Mono shops |
| Macao | 2 stores | None | None |
| Thailand | 8 stores | 1 store (since February 2026) | Exited supermarkets in September 2026 |
| Malaysia | 2 stores | None | 28 malls, 34 AEON stores (February 2024) |
| Singapore | 15 stores | None | None |
DON DON DONKI figures as of 20 September 2026. LOPIA and Aeon figures from company announcements and press reports listed in the sources.
Don Quijote: the Japan brand specialist
Don Quijote’s parent, Pan Pacific International Holdings (PPIH), describes its Asian stores as Japanese brand specialty stores, selling products that are mostly made in Japan or designed for the Japanese market. Food is the core of the model: it accounted for more than 80% of sales in its Southeast Asian stores as early as 2019.
Growth came quickly, and so did the costs. In 2024, the company’s president acknowledged that its Asian stores had become too uniform, that local teams had little ability to source from local manufacturers, and that selling and administrative costs had reached 35% of sales, against 22% for the group’s discount stores in Japan. A restructuring followed, including the closure of underperforming stores, and by late 2025 PPIH said its Asian business was performing above expectations. The network is now leaner: Singapore went from 17 to 15 stores and Malaysia from 3 to 2 between June 2025 and September 2026.
For a European supplier, the key point is structural. Buying is largely centralised in Japan, and the concept is built around Japanese products.
LOPIA: the fast-rising newcomer
LOPIA chose Taiwan as its first market outside Japan in 2023. It had nine stores there by the end of 2025, seven of them inside department stores or shopping malls, and has 14 today, including the first LOPIA PREMIO, which opened in Kaohsiung in September 2026. Thailand followed on 11 February 2026, with a store of around 1,000 m² at Central Chaengwattana, and the company openly presents Taiwan as the template for its international roll-out.
The Taiwanese business is about to change shape. On 30 April 2026, Uni-President, the group behind 7-ELEVEN in Taiwan, agreed to invest around NT$2.05 billion for 51% of a new LOPIA retail company and 49% of a new food-processing company. The deal still needs competition clearance and is expected to close by the end of 2026. According to LOPIA Taiwan’s general manager, the company handling imports and manufacturing remains 51% owned by LOPIA, precisely to keep control over product quality.
Aeon: retreating, except in Malaysia
Aeon is the most established Japanese retailer in the region, but it is pulling back. In Thailand, it transferred its 30 MaxValu and MaxValu Tanjai supermarkets to Central Food Retail in September 2026, marking its exit from the country’s supermarket business. The network had peaked at around 80 stores in 2016, and the group’s investment priority in the region has shifted to Vietnam. In Hong Kong, AEON Stores reported 2025 revenue of HK$3.59 billion, down 4.1%, and a segment loss of HK$192.4 million, citing cross-border shopping in mainland China and competition from Chinese e-commerce platforms. The subsidiary relies on financial support from its parent. Aeon has no stores in Taiwan, Macao or Singapore.
Malaysia is the exception. Aeon opened its first store outside Japan there in 1985, under the Jusco banner, and in early 2024 operated 28 malls and 34 AEON stores, plus MaxValu supermarkets, AEON Wellness pharmacies and DAISO shops. In late 2025 it launched a new premium format, AEON STYLE Supermarket, at Setia EcoHill, with more than 2,000 imported food items on the shelves.
What’s in the freezer
Japanese desserts dominate the frozen aisles of all three chains. The clearest opening for European products is at LOPIA.
DON DON DONKI: Japanese sweets, and Europe seen through Japan
In Singapore, Donki’s freezers carry parfait cups imported from Japan, in flavours such as strawberry cheesecake and chocolate mint, at S$6.90 each when they launched in 2021, alongside mochi sandwiches filled with cream cheese and strawberry at around S$5. In Taiwan, the chain’s summer campaigns push Japanese frozen imports: Imuraya’s fruit-shaped sorbets and chocolate monaka, and strawberry daifuku ice cream.
One detail stands out for European producers. Donki’s November dessert campaign in Taiwan featured a Hokkaido caramel crème brûlée and a Basque cake: European classics, sold with a Japanese origin story. The format is clearly familiar to shoppers: European-style desserts presented through a Japanese product and origin story. What the chain buys, though, is the Japanese version.
LOPIA: an Italian tiramisu among the favourites
At LOPIA in Taiwan, one of the most talked-about desserts is a frozen tiramisu imported from Italy, sold at around NT$333 for a large box and praised for its moist texture and noticeable liqueur. LOPIA’s own-brand “Hokkaido” cheesecake, sold chilled at NT$199 and frequently reported as selling out later in the day, is made in Taiwan to the Japanese recipe. Strawberry parfaits and sandwiches that proved popular at the Thai store have since been introduced in Taiwan.
The next step is more telling still. LOPIA PREMIO, a new upmarket format, opened its first store at the Hanshin department store in Kaohsiung in September 2026. When it was announced in March, the format was presented as selling gift fruit, premium sushi, branded wagyu, chef-made dishes and desserts from well-known Japanese pastry chefs, but also frozen desserts imported directly from Europe, together with wine and sake for special occasions.
Aeon: own brands and Asian imports
In Hong Kong, Aeon’s product strategy rests on its own brands, led by TOPVALU, whose sales rose by more than 21% in 2025, on more direct imports from Japan and Southeast Asia, and on themed fairs built around Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese food. Europe is not a sourcing priority. In Malaysia, the new AEON STYLE Supermarket has an “Asian Food” section with a wide range of frozen products from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Premium European frozen desserts do appear, Ferrero’s Nutella ice cream for example, but only case by case.
The picture is consistent across the region: European desserts are rare in these chains, but LOPIA’s Italian tiramisu shows they can find a place.
How they sell Japan
All three chains sell Japan, but each sells a different idea of it.
DON DON DONKI sells an experience. The stores are built for browsing, and local touches are mostly about atmosphere and novelty. Its first Taiwanese store launched with Japanese apples and live shellfish as exclusive services; the second, in Taipei, was decorated with torii gates, masks and daruma dolls, with a checkout area styled after Tokyo’s Yamanote line. In Singapore, stores have their own themes, from aviation at Jewel Changi, which also has a halal corner, to a safari at Northpoint and an arcade at Jurong Point. In Macao, the chain launched with products sold nowhere else, including instant noodles and crisps developed with Nissin.
LOPIA sells freshness and value, with a lot of theatre. Meat is the company’s DNA: in Japan it accounts for around 30% of revenue and 80% of profit. Uni-President’s chairman summed up the model as few categories, but a very deep range within each. In Taiwan, LOPIA positions itself as a “food theme park”. Store managers set their own prices and displays, and the range goes deep enough to carry more than ten kinds of natto, against two or three in a typical local supermarket. Its Taiwanese social media accounts write in Taiwanese and lean on Taiwan-Japan friendship, and its Japanese general manager spent months answering customers personally on Threads, in Chinese. In store, handwritten signs and dense displays encourage impulse buying, and openings come with eye-catching offers such as buy-one-get-one-free wagyu and NT$20 salmon sushi.
Aeon sells accessible quality, through its own brands. In Malaysia, the company wants to stand out with products nobody else sells: TOPVALU accounted for 5 to 6% of its food sales in 2024, with a target of 20%. It also hosts country-themed operations. In 2024, AEON Malaysia stores ran a TAIWAN SELECT promotion with around 160 products from 45 Taiwanese companies, highlighting halal-certified items to reach Malay shoppers. In Hong Kong, Aeon launched a WeChat mini programme in 2025 to attract shoppers from mainland China.
What shoppers want
Consumers in the region still want indulgence, but less sweet, closer to local tastes, and with a texture worth paying for.
Less sugar, more local flavour. According to Cargill’s research on indulgence in Southeast Asia, 65% of consumers prefer local flavours and lower sugar in their desserts, and 69% say health attributes matter, with low sugar the most influential. Two-thirds care about country of origin, but 65% are also willing to pay more for local Asian ingredients. The same study found that 79% would pay a premium for a distinctive texture, and that one pastry consumer in three looks for a health benefit such as less sugar, less fat or a shorter ingredient list. This echoes what we saw in our macaron article: recipes that work in Asia are rarely the catalogue version.
The appetite for Japan is maturing. In Thailand, the number of Japanese restaurants fell by 2.2% in 2025 to 5,781, the first decline since JETRO began its survey in 2007. The only segments still growing were ramen and cafés, while matcha, Japanese desserts and café culture remain visible parts of Japan’s appeal in Thailand. On its own, a Japanese label may no longer be enough to stand out.
Cheese, strawberry and matcha are familiar territory. At Don Quijote’s 2025 Hit Product Awards in Japan, BAKE’s Creamy Cheese baked chocolates ranked first among bulk purchases by overseas visitors, and were a top seller with visitors from five of the seven Asian countries surveyed. LOPIA’s best-known dessert in Taiwan is a cheesecake, and its strawberry desserts crossed from Thailand to Taiwan.
Sharing formats have a market. Costco Taiwan sells frozen desserts such as cream puffs, tiramisu and taiyaki in large packs designed for gatherings, a useful benchmark for European suppliers considering family-size retail formats.
Halal is a key question in Malaysia. For products sold as halal in Malaysia, imports must meet Malaysian halal requirements or be certified by a foreign halal body recognised by JAKIM, Malaysia’s Islamic development department, which recognised 84 such bodies in 46 countries in 2022. Halal also matters commercially: AEON Malaysia highlighted halal-certified items in its TAIWAN SELECT promotion to reach Malay shoppers. For desserts containing gelatine or other animal-derived ingredients, the status needs to be checked product by product before any listing discussion.
What this means for European frozen dessert producers
These chains are worth the effort, but not all in the same way, and not with the same product.
- LOPIA currently looks like the most open door. It already sells an imported Italian tiramisu as one of its best-known desserts, and its PREMIO format was announced with room for frozen desserts imported from Europe. With LOPIA keeping a majority of the import and manufacturing company after the Uni-President deal, it should retain a strong say over sourcing, although post-deal decision-making remains to be seen.
- Don Quijote may be best approached through Japan. Buying is largely centralised there and the concept is built on Japanese products, so the most realistic routes may be European recipes produced or distributed in Japan, or products carried by the group’s existing Japanese suppliers. The crème brûlée and Basque cake show that European formats are already familiar to its shoppers.
- Aeon Malaysia rewards preparation. Halal certification is likely to be the first question. Country-themed operations such as TAIWAN SELECT also show a format that a group of European producers, or a national trade body, could build on.
- Thaw-and-serve fits what is on the shelf. Every popular example we found, from tiramisu and cheesecake to parfaits and mochi ice cream, is eaten without an oven, so tiramisu, cheesecakes, entremets and desserts in glasses are a natural fit for these chains.
- Two price logics coexist. One is the large, shareable value product, the NT$333 tiramisu or a Costco pack. The other is the premium or gift item that formats like LOPIA PREMIO are built for. It pays to decide which one a product is before setting a price.
- Adapt the recipe, not the identity. Consumer research points to demand for local flavours, lower sugar and distinctive textures, so European suppliers should be ready to adapt recipes while keeping a clear origin story, which is what makes the product worth importing in the first place.
- Know who imports, and who decides. Each chain buys differently: direct import for LOPIA, centralised buying in Japan for Don Quijote and, for many retailers in the region, a local importer. Clarifying the importer of record and the commercial terms early, including payment terms, saves time later.
Japanese chains will not become the main route to market for every European dessert. But they are worth watching closely: they have taught a large number of Asian shoppers to buy imported food, and at least one of them has announced European frozen desserts for its upmarket format.
At Gourmet Selection, with offices in Taipei, Tokyo and Shenzhen, we work every day between European producers and Asian buyers, and this kind of market reading is part of that work. If you make frozen desserts or pastries and are wondering how they would fit in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore, we would be glad to talk it through.
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