Text | Dong Chailing
The 100 billion new tea drinking track is in a stage of rapid expansion.
According to the "2022 New Tea Beverage Research Report", the total number of new tea stores in the industry at the end of 2022 was about 486,000, an increase of more than 28% over the 378,000 at the end of 2020. With the continuous growth of the number of stores, new tea brands have made more breakthroughs in quality upgrades, taste innovation and cost-effectiveness.
As the market enters a mature period, the chain rate of new tea drink brands increases year by year. Meituan data shows that the chaining rate of new tea drinks will increase to 55.2% in 2022. In the sampling survey of core business districts in many cities, the chain rate of new tea drinks exceeded 80%, and tea brands with a scale of thousands of stores and 10,000 stores were born one after another.
36Kr recently came into contact with the new Chinese tea brand "Jasmine Milk White", which was established in 2020 and focuses on floral tea drinks with jasmine tea as the tea base. Jasmine Milk White currently has nearly 70 stores, mainly in the South China market, and is expected to have 400 stores by the end of this year.
Jasmine milk white products, according to respondents
Founder Zhang Bocheng told 36Kr that jasmine tea is the largest and most commonly recognized type of ready-made tea, but there is no brand focusing on jasmine tea in the market. Jasmine Milk White seized the opportunity to subdivide the main jasmine tea category in the big tea drink market, focusing on Chinese tea and jasmine.
For the interpretation of jasmine and other floral tea bases, Jasmine Milk White is positioned as a new tea drink in the Orient, and the brand co-branded incense brand creates exclusive product aromas, through customized incense cards, fragrances, aromatherapy and other forms of fragrance, and links with customers in the form of new product gifts and member exchange, derived from taste buds to the five senses, enhancing users' perception of flowers and tea fragrances.
Jasmine milk white products, according to respondents
In terms of product line, the brand takes the oriental four white flowers led by jasmine as the product inspiration, and constantly explores the innovative presentation of floral tea base. Jasmine Milk White and Anchor have created the industry's first Jasmine Genting, as well as rare flower tea brandy, pistachio jasmine coconut, and recently launched a new floral plant-based series. At present, the product line has covered nearly 30 SKUs, of which the ultimate single product Jasmine Milk White can account for about 30% of the overall sales.
Jasmine Milk White spent nearly half a year in the early stage of research and development, selecting several different floral tea leaves for blending, adding raw materials such as fresh milk and animal cream. On the supply chain side, Jasmine Milk White connects planning, procurement, warehousing and logistics through a customized system to improve the integration and management of the supply chain, while building its own tea gardens and customizing fresh milk by leading suppliers to ensure quality and taste.
Jasmine milk white products, according to respondents
From the pricing point of view, the price of jasmine milk white is concentrated between 15-20 yuan, positioning the mid-range price band market. Zhang Bocheng believes that this price segment has a huge incremental market, and can accommodate at least 20 brands with a scale of more than 2,000 stores in the future.
Zhang Bocheng analyzed that compared with the first-echelon players with a pricing concentration of 20-30 yuan, such as Nai Xue, Heytea, Grandma's handicrafts, etc., there are also affordable brands that occupy the price band below 10 yuan, such as Michelle Ice City, which has 20,000 stores, the middle players can not only undertake the high-quality traffic of the first echelon, improve the cost performance, but also meet the needs of the sinking market for health products and experience upgrades. Jasmine Milk White aims to see this trend and hopes to become a brand with a scale of 2,000 stores in the future.
In Zhang Bocheng's view, the second half of the new tea beverage industry should return to the essence of business, that is, product power + operation power, and constantly polish management efficiency and reduce costs while developing scale.
Jasmine Milk White used to open stores in a direct operation model, and opened nearly 70 stores against the trend under the epidemic, focusing on the South China market. The brand plans to open in Shanghai and Hangzhou by May this year to open the East China market and accelerate the pace of store expansion.
In terms of site selection, Jasmine Milk White tends to open stores in mainstream shopping malls, the mainstream store type is 40~60 square meters, the investment cost of a single store is 500,000-600,000 yuan, and the average monthly turnover of a single store is 400,000-500,000 yuan.
Jasmine milk white store, picture according to interviewees
Zhang Bocheng revealed that the brand is currently open to joining. On the basis of the mature brand culture and business model, Jasmine Milk White has put overseas expansion on the agenda, and plans to open stores in the United States and Hong Kong within this year.
In terms of team, founder Zhang Bocheng is a serial entrepreneur involved in Chinese food, baking and beverages, and has more than ten years of entrepreneurial experience in the catering industry. Another founder, Su Chen, is from the field of commercial real estate, with 5 years of practical experience in the market and 3 years of experience in tea drinking; and Kobe, who used to work in a well-known financial institution in Hong Kong, engaged in investment and financing analysis and securities analysis, and his family has been deeply engaged in the catering and traditional tea industries for many years. Jasmine Milk White has completed two rounds of financing, the most recent of which occurred in 2022 and is an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan.