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Source: Time Weekly Author: Li Xinting

Editor's note: The sports year has begun, and super events have been unveiled one after another. This is a carnival for "sports fans" and will also be an arena for commercial brands. Time Weekly will launch a series of special reports "In the Name of "Champions"," which will focus on the economy of major competitions in the sports year, and on the other hand, present the little things that companies have done for a healthy China and the pursuit of the champion spirit.

The quadrennial Olympic Games has officially opened, and the fast-moving consumer goods industry has set off a marketing frenzy. In addition to traditional dairy companies and beverage giants, the ready-made tea and coffee industry, which has been developing rapidly in the past two years, has also joined the sports marketing army.

Image source: Tuchong Creative

On July 5, Bawang Tea announced Liu Xiang as the brand's global health ambassador. Later, it officially announced that Liu Xiang, Wang Shun, Zheng Qinwen, Chen Qingchen, Jia Yifan, Liu Qingyi, and Wang Ruimiao, seven world-class athletes, would form the "Health Ambassador Group".Tea 100 WaysThe cooperating female basketball players Yang Liwei and Yang Shuyu, as well as the track and field athlete Wu Yanni invited by Nova Coffee, are all rising stars in the sports world who have considerable fan appeal and are widely discussed.

Taking advantage of the global influence of the Olympics, Bawang Cha Ji and Heytea have also launched their marketing war in Paris. Since July, the two brands have opened pop-up stores in Paris. Among them, Heytea set up its pop-up store in the 11th district with the highest population density in Paris, while Bawang Cha Ji set up its store at the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris.

Bawang Cha Ji, which expanded to Southeast Asia in 2018, announced in May this year the slogan "Let young people around the world drink Chinese tea every day", revealing its global ambitions; Heytea, which also started its overseas expansion in 2018, opened applications for business partners in overseas markets such as Japan, Singapore, and Thailand for the first time in March 2023, and currently has nearly 30 stores overseas.

As the domestic market for freshly brewed tea and coffee continues to expand, overseas markets are becoming the next battlefield for many Chinese tea and coffee brands.

Pop-up store opens in Paris

Although the overseas expansion process started early, domestic tea and coffee brands have always been cautious in their layout in Europe, which is geographically far away from China and has great differences in culture and eating habits. This time, Heytea and Bawang Chaji only set up pop-up stores in Paris.

In order to attract the greatest popularity, tea and coffee brands are very particular about site selection. The area where the HEYTEA pop-up store is located is home to many famous Parisian attractions and is frequented by many young Parisians. The Saint-Lazare train station where the BAWANG CHAFER pop-up store is located is the third busiest railway station in Europe, with a similarly dense flow of people.

In addition, Heytea invited British long-distance running champion Mo Farah to visit the store, and launched co-branded buns with local catering brands, and launched a "buy one get one free" promotion before the opening; Bawang Tea Princess focused on "giving away but not selling", giving away signature products on site, and launching Chinese interactive games such as smelling tea, pitching pots, and kicking balls.

Image source: Heytea officialWeibo

The prices of Heytea's products in the pop-up store range from 5.5 to 7.5 euros, which is in line with the local milk tea consumption level. A Heytea official told the Times Weekly reporter that more than 1,000 cups of Heytea's milk tea were sold on the first day of its opening, with sales exceeding 10,000 euros.

According to feedback from many Chinese in France, the free Bawang Cha Ji pop-up store has been attracting long queues. "There were a lot of people in the first two days of the opening. I queued up on the afternoon of the third day. One-third of the people in the queue were French. They all gave good feedback, saying that the milk tea was delicious and the surroundings were beautiful." Solar (pseudonym), a Chinese who has lived in France for 10 years, told the Times Weekly reporter.

As the birthplace of famous desserts such as macarons, soufflés, and cannellinis, France's milk tea market is also quite active. Solar told the Times Weekly reporter that in Paris, the Taiwanese milk tea brand Machimachi is very popular; in addition, Xiamen milk tea brands SEVENBUS and Yifang Taiwanese fruit tea are also very popular.

"The price of coffee in Paris is usually between 2 and 5 Euros, and milk tea is generally priced at 6 to 8 Euros. It is relatively expensive, but still very popular among young people. In addition to local Chinese, young people in France also love to drink milk tea, and they drink it with full sugar," said Solar.

But in Solar's opinion, most of the local tea brands in France are still niche and independently operated. "Many milk tea shops are opened by French people. The entry of larger chain brands into the French market should help the local tea market survive the fittest and help spread Chinese tea culture better."

Tea and coffee set off a new wave of overseas expansion

Behind the leading brands testing the waters in Paris, the domestic tea and coffee industry is ushering in a new round of overseas expansion.

The last wave of overseas expansion in the tea and coffee industry can be traced back to 2018.Nayuki's Tea, Bawang Cha Ji and Mixue Bingcheng have all started the overseas expansion process, but the subsequent progress is uneven. Among them, Heytea and Nayuki’s Tea have been slow to open stores overseas, and their store openings are basically limited to Asia.

According to official data from Heytea, as of early 2023, Heytea has more than ten overseas stores in Singapore and other places. After opening its first overseas store in Singapore in 2018, Nayuki's Tea came to Japan for layout, but its three overseas stores were all closed before 2023. But now, it has started a new round of layout.

As domestic competition intensifies and the market reaches its peak, brands have been going overseas more frequently since 2023. "In the past, only a few brands went overseas, but now almost all brands with some ability are expanding overseas markets," an employee of a leading tea brand company told the Times Weekly reporter.

Starting from 2023, Heytea will accelerate store expansion by opening up overseas business partners, and expand the distribution of overseas stores from Asia to Europe, Oceania and North America. So far, Heytea has deployed nearly 30 stores in 7 countries overseas. Nayuki's Tea will open its first store in Thailand at the end of 2023 and in July this year.

The lineup of tea and coffee brands going overseas is also expanding. Chabaidao, the "second stock of new tea drinks", and Anhui tea drink brand Tianlala chose to officially go overseas this year. As of June 13, Chabaidao had 8 overseas stores, located in South Korea, Thailand and Australia. Tianlala is targeting Indonesia and has announced the slogan of opening 300 stores.

Domestic coffee brands are also targeting overseas markets.Luckin CoffeeIt became the first coffee chain brand to go abroad, choosing Singapore as its first overseas stop. In August of the same year, Kudi opened its first overseas store in South Korea. As of December 31, 2023, Luckin Coffee has 30 stores in Singapore; Kudi has opened stores in 28 countries including Indonesia, Japan and Canada.

In order to better integrate into overseas markets, tea and coffee brands are becoming more local in terms of products and operations.

For example, Cha Baidao has 3 to 5 products on its menu in the Korean market that are unique to Korea, and has also made corresponding adjustments to the product names for the Korean market. In the Singapore market, Bawang Chaji appointed the former CEO of the well-known food delivery platform Foodpanda Singapore market as a regional executive. In Malaysia, as the local car ownership continues to grow and "car in and car out" has become a popular local dining consumption scene, Bawang Chaji opened the brand's first "Drive-Thru" store in the local area in March this year.

However, as tea and coffee brands accelerate their overseas store expansion, opening up to franchising may be inevitable in order to reduce risks and costs, especially since most of the leading tea and coffee brands in China are mainly franchised. Overseas, the franchise model and the choice of partners will also affect the expansion of the brand. According to Jiemian News, at the beginning of this year, the franchisee of Bawang Chaji in Singapore "opened a new store" with his store.

In addition, as the scale expands, the construction of supply chain and standardization is also an important foundation for whether tea and coffee brands can continue to operate in overseas markets in the long term.