December 2023 News: According to a report released by World Coffee Portal, a research institute under the Allegra Group, the number of branded coffee stores in China has increased by 58% in the past 12 months to a record 49,691, surpassing the United States (40,062) to become the country with the most branded coffee stores in the world.
Local coffee shop brands Luckin and Cudi opened 5,059 and 6,004 new stores, respectively, with a combined net increase of more than 11,000 stores, driving this growth. Founded just six years ago, the former has become the largest branded coffee operator in China with 13,273 stores, while the latter, a new brand founded by Lu Zhengyao in August 2022, has now opened 6,061 stores, a staggering rate of expansion.
Foreign coffee brands are vying to tap into the Chinese market and want a piece of the pie. Starbucks, which opened its first store in mainland China in the late 90s, is China's second-largest branded coffee operator, with a total of 6,806 stores. "By the end of 2025, it will increase to 9,000 stores. This means that more than 1,000 stores will be opened every year in the future.
The "Canadian national brand" Tims Tianhao Coffee has 763 stores nationwide (as of the end of September), covering 56 cities, and plans to reach 2,750 stores by 2026. They are implementing Tims Express and are partnering with Sinopec EasyJet, Century 21 Real Estate, Haier Three-winged Bird, and BESTORE to increase store density and further expand their customer base through this small, flexible store type.
TRUNG NGUYÊN LEGEND, VIETNAM'S "NATIONAL COFFEE", IS ALSO AMBITIOUS, OPENING ITS FIRST OVERSEAS FLAGSHIP STORE ON NANJING WEST ROAD IN SHANGHAI ON SEPTEMBER 21 LAST YEAR, WITH AN AREA OF ABOUT 500 SQUARE METERS, POSITIONED AS A CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC COFFEE SPACE. Here, you can not only feel the history, culture and production experience of different coffee civilizations, but also taste delicacies such as locomotive noodles, Vietnamese-style lemon dumplings, paper rice rolls, and Vietnamese-style fried spring rolls.
In July this year, the Zhongyuan Legend Coffee World Expo Store opened in Huangpu Binjiang, which is its second store since entering the Chinese market, covering an area of 140 square meters. According to the plan, 1,200 stores will be opened in China by 2027.
According to public information, Zhongyuan Legend Group was founded by CHAIRMAN VU on June 16, 1996, and is the largest coffee chain group in Vietnam, with G7 Coffee, Trung Nguyen Legend, Trung Nguyen Zhongyuan Coffee and other brands, and its business covers cafes, coffee beans, ground coffee powder, hanging ear coffee, instant coffee, etc., with products in more than 80 countries and regions.
It is worth mentioning that Vietnam is the world's largest Robusta coffee grower and the second largest coffee exporter (after Brazil), with 1.66 million tonnes of coffee exported in the 2022/23 harvest season (October 2022 to September 2023), down 4.5% year-on-year, and exports up 3.4% year-on-year to a record US$4.08 billion.
Currently, Vietnam ranks sixth in the world in terms of coffee cultivation area (more than 710,000 hectares), but has the highest coffee productivity in the world and the second highest annual coffee production in the world (between 1.75 million and 1.85 million tons). The West Plains region is the main growing area, and the largest city in the region, Buon Ma Thuot, is known as the "Coffee Capital". Robusta coffee beans are the second largest native coffee varieties in the world, with a 2.5% higher caffeine concentration than other varieties.
G7 coffee uses Robusta beans as the main raw material and uses the unique NANO+ grinding technology to create a pure and rich Vietnamese coffee flavor. The brand was born in 03 and became an instant hit when it achieved excellent results in the blind test of the "Instant Coffee Festival" in Vietnam that year. Over the past 20 years, it has launched a variety of products such as G7 3-in-1 coffee with rich taste, G7 American black coffee that meets the taste of sports enthusiasts, G7 Espresso Italian black coffee with pure Italian flavor, etc., to meet the diverse needs of consumers, and has been selected as the designated coffee by many global conferences such as Asia-Europe Meeting, APEC, and World Economic Forum.
G7 Flagship StoreVietnam Imported Original Coffee Instant 3-in-1 Coffee Powder Instant 1+2 Refreshment 1600g Genuine ¥99 Buy
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China has long been an important market for Vietnam's coffee exports, importing 39,200 tons of coffee from Vietnam last year, accounting for 22.35% of the total imports. As one of the first Vietnamese companies to enter the Chinese market, Centaline Legend Group has completed its online and offline omni-channel strategy since it set up its Shanghai office in 2017. According to iiMedia Research, the size of China's coffee market will reach 1 trillion yuan in 2025. What new changes will happen to the industry in the future?