Hong Kong - An attempt to launch the United States' second-biggest doughnut chain in Hong Kong appeared to have failed Monday with the franchise going into liquidation after just two years.

Five of the seven Krispy Kreme Doughnuts outlets in the city of 6.9 million suddenly shut down Monday with only two branches, both at the airport, remaining open.

Government-run radio station RTHK reported that the chain, brought to Hong Kong by two Australian restaurateurs in 2006, had gone into liquidation with a creditors meeting scheduled for next month.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts was launched in the United States in the 1930s and expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 70s. However, its first branch outside the US was not set up until 2002.

Cosmopolitan Hong Kong has been a fertile city in the past for US food ventures with more than 200 McDonald's restaurants set up since the 1970s and, more recently, scores of Starbucks Coffee outlets. (dpa)