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Text｜Yang Yafei

Editor: Qiao Qian Yang Xuan

36Kr exclusively learned that Starbucks Vice President Li Tao has resigned and joined Bawang Chaji in the first half of this year.

Bawang Cha Ji responded to 36Kr and said, "There is no such thing."

It is understood that Li Tao was previously in charge of national store development and asset management at Starbucks. Prior to Starbucks, Li Tao's career spanned multiple fields including catering and retail. He was the development director of Yum! Restaurants (China) Co., Ltd. and Coach China Trading Co., Ltd., the vice president of Daphne (International) Holdings Co., Ltd., and the vice president of One Tea One Zuo Catering Management Co., Ltd.

"Li Tao is very experienced in the industry and has many important property resources at his disposal," a person close to Starbucks told 36Kr.

Bawang Chaji's poaching action took place at a critical time in its impact on the "Eastern Starbucks". In May this year, Bawang Chaji's founder Zhang Junjie said that the goal for 2024 is to "exceed Starbucks China in sales in China." Prior to this, Bawang Chaji's GMV in the first quarter of 2024 exceeded 5.8 billion yuan.

Li Tao's joining is just a part of Bawang Cha Ji's recent large-scale poaching campaign.36Kr learned from multiple insiders that Bawang Cha Ji has recently been recruiting a large number of people in the industry, "from headquarters to branches", mostly from Starbucks and Tims. In terms of brand marketing, it has poached people from companies such as Xiaohongshu and Huawei.

The core of intensive staffing is still to serve rapid expansion.

Since 2023, Bawang Chaji has opened more than 3,500 new stores, and it took them more than 5 years to open the first 1,000 stores. Behind the goal of exceeding 20 billion GMV this year, the management obviously has high expectations for the store scale. Just as McDonald's and KFC are considered the "Whampoa Military Academy" of Chinese restaurant chains, Starbucks is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of coffee chains, and is famous for its perfect store management system and promotion system.

There are also rumors that Bawang Cha Ji will go public in the United States this year. In addition to performance, a team of executives with impressive resumes will also make investors more aware of its management capabilities.

Despite adopting the franchise system, Bawang Cha Ji still has considerable management needs. They adopt the "1+1+9+n" franchise strong control model. The core is to separate the operating rights and ownership. The ownership belongs to the store investors, and the operating rights are given to the company, "to ensure that the user experience is consistent and the quality of the product is guaranteed." Zhang Junjie said.

The first "1" is a fully-owned local subsidiary or local office. According to 36Kr, there are currently 30 subsidiaries and offices like Bawang Cha Ji in the Chinese market alone, with the number of employees ranging from dozens to more than a hundred.

From branch management to store operations, in this frenetic environment, Bawang Tea Princess needs to achieve rapid expansion without losing control.

As a startup company, its management shortcomings have already been partially exposed. In May this year, Bawang Chaji launched a free-for-one-week event for the new Wanli Mulan product. It was originally a brand welfare offer, but according to feedback from a Bawang Chaji franchisee, the free-for-one orders need to be cleared one by one by the store before closing on the day of the order. However, due to the large number of card and coupon sources, there is no time to operate when the order is busy, resulting in the store having to bear part of the subsidy amount. All of this can be achieved automatically through a digital system.

Bawang Chaji is a phenomenal brand in the tea chain, setting new records in GMV and cup sales. It is growing rapidly and may be the only one in the current red ocean market. Its fresh milk tea, which is positioned as "tea latte", has also made people see the possibility of "Eastern Starbucks". However, the sorting out of the store operation system across the national market may be the biggest test it faces on the road to expansion.