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This celebrity tea brand once sold for 70 yuan per cup and people lined up to buy it, but now it no longer has any offline stores.

Photo/Thank You Tea Official Weibo

All offline stores of celebrity tea brands are closed

According to earlier data from Zhaimen Canyan, as of July 5 this year, there was only one store left in Xiexiecha nationwide, which is the Dalang store in Shenzhen. A reporter from Nandu.com checked the Meituan platform on July 15, and at that time, Xiexiecha (Dalang store in Shenzhen) was still operating normally. On July 16, a platform showed that including the above-mentioned Shenzhen store,All offline stores of Thank You Tea across the country have been closed.

The Shenzhen franchisee said that joining Thank You Tea is not cheap. Including equipment and licensing fees, it costs about 200,000 yuan. Sales were relatively good when the business opened because of a 9.9 yuan promotion. "(Later) sales were not so ideal. Now I don't know if I can sell more than a dozen cups a day."

According to a third-party platform, from 2023 to date, Thank You Tea has closed 13 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Changsha and other places. Among them, Thank You Tea is located in Shanghai Changshou Road and Huaihai Road K11.Only been in business for less than 3 months.

Screenshots from third-party platforms

As early as 2022, it was revealed that Thank You Tea had closed many offline stores and turned to smart milk tea stations.At present, many smart milk tea stations in Shanghai have also closed down.。

As of the time of this article’s publication,Thank you tea official applet can no longer be searched.The official Weibo and public account of Thank You Tea have not been updated since April 2021 and December 2022 respectively.

Ma Dong becomes a shareholder, "endorsed by many celebrities"

Thank you tea has had a star aura since the brand was founded.

On December 16, 2018, the first Thank You Tea store opened in Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Beijing, with drinks priced between 12 and 28 yuan.

Within a year of opening, Thank You Tea invited Ma Dong, Xue Zhaofeng, New Pants Band, Penicillin Band, and the debaters of "The Rap of China" to the store for tasting, which also brought a wave of traffic. In the official account,Thank you tea said that the flow of customers in its stores is so large that "it is like the rush hour of Beijing Line 10", and said the brand has"Many celebrities endorse"。

Screenshot of the official WeChat account of Thank You Tea

Tianyancha shows that Shanghai Piji Technology Co., Ltd., to which Thank You Tea belongs, was established in 2020. It wholly owns two companies, including Beijing Thank You Tea Catering Management Co., Ltd. Liao Lanxin holds about 43% of the shares and Ma Dong holds about 4% of the shares. In terms of financing, in April 2021, Shanghai Piji Technology Co., Ltd. received equity financing from Source Code Capital and 13 Capital, and the amount was not disclosed.

The highest price is nearly 70 yuan/cup, and the price has been reduced all the way

Perhaps due to the endorsement of celebrities, the price of Thank You Tea’s milk tea once rose to about 70 yuan.

In August 2019, Thank You Tea launched a limited edition milk jelly tea.Price: 68 yuan, this milk tea claimed to be "developed by a three-star Michelin pastry chef in Paris". A month later, it was officially announced that the Thank You Pack product was put on the shelves after debugging.The highest price for bread is 45 yuan.

Image source: Thank you tea official public account

However, in November 2019, Thank You Tea tweeted that in conjunction with the Thanksgiving event,The price of the pearl milk tea series has been reduced to 9.9 yuan.Perhaps under the pressure of business, Thank You Tea further reduced its price. In August 2020, the aforementioned high-priced milk tea of ​​68 yuan was launched in an e-commerce version, and the price was reduced to23 yuanIn 2022, it also announced that its Longjing milk tea will be sold at a price of4.9 yuan。

IQIYI sued him

It is worth noting that Thank You Tea was also sued by iQiyi.

Tianyancha shows that in March this year, a case involving copyright ownership and infringement disputes between Beijing iQiyi Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Piji Technology Co., Ltd. was heard in the Pudong District People's Court of Shanghai.

Screenshot of Tianyancha

It is reported that Thank You Tea was sued because one of its tea drinks was suspected by iQiyi of "touching" the TV series "Cang Lan Jue". On the social platform, some netizens posted content in 2022 showing that Thank You Tea stores had launched the "Dongfang Qingcang Special Canglan Pomegranate Fire" drink.

The left picture is a screenshot of the Shanghai High Court’s official WeChat account, and the right picture is a screenshot of the social platform.

In June this year, the Shanghai High Court announced that the actions of Shanghai P Technology Co., Ltd. constituted infringement of the reproduction rights, modification rights and authorship rights of a Beijing-based company iQiyi, and also constituted unfair competition. The People's Court ordered the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for economic losses (including reasonable expenses for rights protection).600,000 yuan and publish a statement in relevant media to eliminate the impact.

Celebrities compete to become tea and coffee brands

It is not uncommon for celebrities to cross over and open milk tea shops and coffee shops.

On April 2 this year, Miracle Coffee, a coffee brand managed by singer JJ Lin, officially announced that Miracle will soon open a new store in Guangzhou.

Natural Dai Milk Tea, where Guan Xiaotong once served as store manager and her father held shares, was founded in 2020. To date, a large number of stores have been closed. As of April 2 this year, only 13 stores of Natural Dai Milk Tea were operating normally nationwide.

Machi Machi, a brand popularized by Jay Chou, opened a store in Hangzhou in 2019. As of April 8, 2024, its stores have been reduced from 37 in 2020 to 5. In March this year, Machi Machi also became the person subject to execution, involving an amount of 950,000 yuan.

Picture/ Narrow Door Canyan

In March 2019, Zhang Jike officially launched the tea brand Monkey's Rescue, opening nearly 100 stores in 17 days. In 2024, only 6 Monkey's Rescue stores were still operating normally.

Ben Gong Tea, co-founded by Hu Haiquan, officially opened in 2015, with a peak of 638 stores. In June 2017, Hu Haiquan personally withdrew from Ben Gong Tea, and in January 2023, Guangzhou Jiangquan Investment Co., Ltd., in which Hu Haiquan holds shares, also withdrew from the ranks of Ben Gong Tea shareholders. Since then, Hu Haiquan has no equity relationship with Ben Gong Tea.

In 2014, the Million Milkshake, a restaurant invested and opened by Huang Xiaoming targeting high-end users, officially opened in Shanghai, attracting many fans to come and taste it.

After attracting franchisees, it's a mess

Some celebrity beverage brands have been sued multiple times for franchise contract disputes.

Tianyancha shows that, as of now, among the cases involved, 48.8% of the cases involving Ben Gong’s Tea were franchise contract disputes, in which Ben Gong’s Tea was basically the defendant; 29.6% of the cases involving Monkey’s Rescuers were franchise contract disputes; and Tianran Dai Milk Tea had 23 judicial cases involving franchise contract disputes.

Regarding the large-scale closure of celebrity beverage stores and their involvement in legal disputes, Tang Xin, director of the Red Catering Industry Research Institute, believes that this is mainly because the catering market itself is very competitive and the failure rate has always been high. Secondly, although celebrity stores have traffic blessing, operating catering stores still needs to return to the essence of business, and it is necessary to control costs and earn reasonable profits with competitive prices and excellent quality. Simply relying on the halo of celebrities will not last long.

Source | Nandu Wancaishe, Zhaimen Canyan, public information

SFC

Editor of this issue: Liu Xueying

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