Interface News Reporter | Lou Yibei
Interface News Editor | Xu Yue
Drove to the Honey Snow Ice City in Hong Kong, China, showing the lethality of ultra-low prices.
Mixue Bingcheng opened its first store in Mong Kok, Hong Kong on December 18, and based on Hong Kong media and social platform information, it attracted a large queue on the opening day, and the queue situation continues to this day.
The low price, which is cheaper than all similar teas, is the core weapon of the Snow King. The pricing of HK$5 ice cream and HK$9 lemonade has no rival in Hong Kong. In addition to such large items that attract traffic, the bubble tea of Mixue Bingcheng is 16 Hong Kong dollars, and the most expensive Yangzhi manna is sold for 20 Hong Kong dollars. On the whole, the price of Mixue Bingcheng in Hong Kong is nearly double that of the mainland as a whole, that is, the price is about 10 yuan, but in Hong Kong, where a cup of milk tea is often sold for more than HK$32, Mixue Bingcheng is still quite cost-effective.
As in the mainland market, Snow King has a large student base. Many people on Xiaohongshu photographed Hong Kong middle school students taking the subway with Honey Snow Bingcheng bubble milk tea, and Hong Kong media even reported that 24 filial parents queued for half an hour just because they were entrusted by their daughter to buy 9 Hong Kong dollars of lemonade.
But Snow King also has to be tested by Hong Kong's ultra-high fixed costs.
Mong Kok is at a premium, and the same is true for the rent in the central plaza of the bank, where the first store of Mixue Bingcheng is located. Hong Kong media reported that a shop with an area of about 412 square feet (about 38.3 square meters) in the same market had a rent of HK$200,000 in October. If the rent situation of Mixue Bingcheng is similar, it means that just paying the rent, at 10 Hong Kong dollars a cup, you need to shake 20,000 cups of milk tea every month to pay the rent.
And that's not even counting Hong Kong's higher manpower costs.
In addition, according to the Hong Kong recruitment poster previously released by Mixue Bingcheng, the monthly salary of its store manager/bartender is in the range of 15,000-22,000 Hong Kong dollars, and the part-time store clerk is 50-60 Hong Kong dollars/hour.
Judging from the cost situation of Mixue Bingcheng, it has opened stores in areas such as Hong Kong with high shop rents and high wages, and the profit margin of a single store is very limited.
But once the scale effect is formed, it may be a different story.
Not long ago, in October, Mixue Bingcheng announced that it would increase the number of stores in Japan to 1,000 in the next five years, and it also announced that the price of new products launched in the Japanese market after the market may be reduced. In the local area, the price of Mixue Bingcheng products is equivalent to 60% of the price of similar products of local tribute tea, such as 100 yen (about 4.87 yuan) for black tea and 360 yen (about 17.54 yuan) for bubble tea.
"Similar to the Chinese market, we use our own pricing model to calculate the final selling price based on the store rent and labor costs of our stores in Japan. Mixue Bingcheng once told Jiemian News. Previously, in an inquiry to netizens about Japanese pricing, the Mixue Bingcheng account replied on social platforms: "What bad intentions can the Snow King have, he just wants to take them away." ”
Since the beginning of 2023, a large number of mainland coffee and tea brands have set up shop in Hong Kong.
From March to April, lemon tea brands "Lemon Meng", "Lin Xiang Lemon Hand-made Lemon Tea" and "Tea Save the Planet" opened stores in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and other places one after another. At present, there are 5 stores in Hong Kong, 3 of which are new, Lin Xiangning has a total of 8 stores, of which 3 are recently opened, and Tea Save Planet has 3 stores, of which 2 have recently opened.
In addition, although Heytea, which entered Hong Kong as early as 2018, has experienced a long period of contraction and dormancy, it also opened two new stores in Tsuen Wan and Mong Kok in September and October, and the total number of stores is currently 4.
In the past five years, Chinese mainland's innovation in tea and coffee has reached a stage where it can be "rolled" to Hong Kong.
Hand-made lemon tea is still a novelty in Hong Kong, and in the past, Taiwanese milk tea was mostly a popular tea drink in Hong Kong. The older "Tianren Tea" has 58 stores, but in terms of products, it sells a combination of simple ingredients and tea, such as ancient winter melon tea and honey black tea, while the more popular "Eat Tea 3000" originated from Taiwan, China, and currently has 9 stores, and its price is similar to the current Hey Tea, mostly around 33 Hong Kong dollars, but its products are still Taiwanese style, rather than Hey Tea, which uses a lot of fresh fruit.
This also explains that after the full resumption of customs clearance between Hong Kong and the mainland, a large number of Hong Kong people have become a popular phenomenon to go north to consume, and they queue up in front of the Bawang tea lady and check in with jasmine yogurt.
But there are also brands that show a different price in Hong Kong.
In January this year, the coffee chain Manner Coffee officially opened its first store in the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay, but because the brand name has been registered, Manner is called Maners Coffee in Hong Kong, but the brand has only maintained this store so far.
On the mainland, Manner is known for its cost-effectiveness, but on the Hong Kong version of the Dianping website OpenRice, some consumers say that the brand is only slightly cheaper than Starbucks by HK$2-5.
After moving to Hong Kong, Manner may have been forced to raise prices by the high cost. When the first store opened, Manner's American style was HK$20 and the latte was HK$35, but by October, the prices of these two products had quietly changed to HK$30 and HK$40. The price range of hand-poured coffee products to enhance the brand tone is HK$60-70. Even in Hong Kong, it's not cheap.
Setting up a store in Hong Kong may not be a cost-effective thing.
A senior tea drinker told Jiemian News that since the opening of Hong Kong, the performance of its brand stores in Shenzhen has been much better than that of Hong Kong, partly because Hong Kong people are keen to go north to consume, and the purchase frequency of locals in Hong Kong has not increased significantly after the switch.
As Hong Kong's Christmas holiday approaches, Wong Ka-wo, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades, said that it has become the new normal for people to go north for consumption, and the industry has expected a large number of people to leave Hong Kong during the long holiday, and the business volume is expected to drop by 10% year-on-year in December.
Despite all the difficulties, entering Hong Kong still has a lot of significance for mainland coffee and tea brands. For brands, opening stores in Hong Kong is also an important part of their overseas strategy. Due to Hong Kong's high degree of internationalization, mainland brands can adapt and adjust in terms of culture, consumption Xi and even fire security.
Perhaps because of this, the number of mainland coffee and tea brands is still increasing. For example, Mo Yogurt opened its first store in K11 Musea in Tsim Sha Tsui in November, and even if a cup of yogurt is sold for HK$40, there is an endless stream of people who go to check in; Cudi Coffee officially opened in Hong Kong Island at the end of October, and Cudi Coffee, which continues the route of issuing coupons, can start from HK$10 for coffee after coupons. It will take time to verify whether mainland brands will be able to gain a foothold in Hong Kong.