Open five taverns in a row, and it seems that they are eager to "break through"

On April 15, the new brand Day and Night Poetry Tea Art and Culture Bistro (hereinafter referred to as "Day and Night Poetry Wine Tea") created by Tea Yan Yuese opened five stores in a row, the brand focuses on special tea and wine, and sells alcoholic products at all times. In the eyes of industry insiders, the layout of "taverns" can enrich the product line and enhance the vitality and competitiveness of the brand.

However, some analysts believe that behind the successive opening of the five stores of Chayan Yuese, its main business has fallen into the unfavorable situation of declining brand charm and weak competition core, trying to create new growth points through side businesses. As the tea market approaches saturation and gradually sinks, 2024 will be a critical year for the life-and-death game of new tea brands.

The action is frequent, and the pace of expansion is accelerated

The new brand "Day and Night Poetry Wine Tea" maintains the consistent literary and artistic atmosphere of tea and pleasant color, with the slogan of "Day Tea and Night Wine with Poetry" outside the store, and the products of "Flowers with clenched fists", "Under the Osmanthus Tree" and "I am Sun Jingwen" are inside the store. From the perspective of product characteristics, different from traditional taverns, "Day and Night Poetry Wine Tea" mainly uses four major types of tea: black tea, green tea, oolong tea and yellow tea, connecting traditional Chinese wine, Western-style base wine and rich milk base to create a special tea wine. According to the relevant person in charge of Chayan Yuese, "By the end of 2024, 'Day and Night Poetry Wine Tea' plans to open 30 stores in Changsha. Regarding the reason for the launch of the new brand, the person in charge said that in the night wine trial of the two sub-brands of Yuanyang Coffee and Goodmo Lemon, it has received the attention and love of consumers, and saw the possibility of the tea wine market, so he decided to try this brand.

"The profit of the wine is attractive, but the business of the tavern is not easy, and I look forward to the success of the tea. Han Dong, the person in charge of a tavern in Nanjing, believes that Chayan Yuese's business experience in milk tea may be "unsuitable" when copied to the tavern. In fact, many chain brands have tried to lay out the bistro business, such as the "Hi Lao Bistro" launched by Haidilao and the "Small Noodles and Small Wine" launched by Hefu Lao Noodles, but most of them have failed.

Interestingly, "Day and Night Poetry Wine Tea" is not the first time that Cha Yan Yue Se has tried a side hustle. In August 2022, Chayan Yuese launched its sub-brand "Yuanyang Coffee" to position itself as a new Chinese coffee and tea, and in September 2023, it launched the "Goode Mo Lemon" brand, focusing on new Chinese lime tea drinks. However, judging from the follow-up operation, several side businesses of Chayan Yuese have always been in a tepid state, and they have not replicated their "legend" in the milk tea industry.

While constantly developing side businesses, the pace of expansion of Chayan Yuese in the main business is also accelerating. On April 10, Chayan Yuese officially settled in Shaoyang, Hunan, according to the relevant person in charge of Chayan Yuese, the store will soon cover all cities and prefectures in Hunan. Similarly, the number of branches in Nanjing has also increased rapidly. During the visit, the reporter found that only Jianye District has added three new stores, which are located in Hexi Wuyue Plaza, Nanjing New Town Science and Technology Park and Luyi International Plaza, of which Wuyue store has been open on April 12.

Ambush on all sides Market competition has intensified

In the past few years, Chayan Yuese has always maintained a relatively slow rate of expansion. Up to now, there are only a few stores in Wuhan, Nanjing, Chongqing and Wuxi, with about 600 stores. In comparison, there are more than 36,000 stores in the world, more than 9,000 stores in Gu Ming, and 8,000 stores in Chabaidao and Shanghai Auntie. In terms of the number of stores, Chayan Yuese is at an absolute disadvantage.

Therefore, in the eyes of the outside world, the expansion and acceleration of tea and beauty is intended to cope with more fierce industry competition. According to iResearch data, from 2023 to 2025, the market size growth rate of the new tea beverage industry will be 13.4%, 6.4%, and 5.7% respectively, which means that the tea beverage market is approaching saturation, and the brand battle will be more intense. Especially in the subdivision of new Chinese milk tea, almost all brands are competing with the tea and the beauty. Taking Bawang Chaji, which is backed by capital and supply chain empowerment, as an example, the brand has opened more than 3,000 stores, covering more than 30 provinces across the country. In January this year, the first batch of stores of Bawang Tea Ji in Changsha was officially opened, and so far, similar competing products have entered the "base camp" of tea and beauty.

In the eyes of industry insiders, in 2024, the head brand of the tea beverage industry has entered the stage of large-scale expansion, and it is the capital, but it is difficult to become the "darling" of the capital market and it is difficult to "stand out" in this cruel competition. Since its establishment, Chayan Yuese has received a total of 4 rounds of financing, and the valuation of a single store was once nearly 100 million yuan, but its last financing was in December 2021, and it has not received financing for more than two years since then. At the same time, since 2024, tea brands such as Mixue Bingcheng, Gu Ming, Cha Baidao, and Tian Lala have rushed to the Hong Kong stock market to strive for large amounts of financing, so as to win in the next market competition.

In the face of fierce competition, Chayan Yuese can no longer "sit still". Recently, a person familiar with the matter said that Chayan Yuese has selected CICC and Morgan Stanley to be responsible for its Hong Kong IPO, which is expected to be listed as soon as this year, raising hundreds of millions of dollars. In this regard, Cha Yan Yuese said that "the timetable has not yet been clarified", but did not deny the listing rumors themselves.

Brand disenchantment and customer dissatisfaction increases

At the same time that the "overlord tea girls" are surrounded on all sides, the brand charm of Chayan Yuese itself is also declining. In 2022, when the first store of Chayan Yuese opened in Nanjing, it was crowded and a cup was hard to find, with some consumers queuing for 5 hours at a high temperature of 40 °C, and scalpers raising the price by 200 yuan per cup, so that the Nanjing police official Weibo persuaded the general public not to queue up. However, time has passed, and now Chayan Yuese has more than 30 stores in Nanjing, but the long queues to buy milk tea no longer exist in most stores.

At noon on April 16, the reporter visited the tea face Yue Se Nanjing Huanyu City store, when there were about 20 customers in the store, compared with a certain milk tea brand next door that was empty, the tea face Yue Se was very lively. However, some consumers in line complained to reporters: "They deliberately created a queue so that we couldn't go anywhere after ordering milk tea." "According to the ordering rules of tea and beauty, consumers need to queue up three times, which are to order, swipe the verification code and pick up the food. There have been long-standing doubts about the ordering model, and many consumers believe that the increase in the write-off process is purely redundant, so that customers cannot leave and are forced to "penalize the station". In this regard, the store staff said, "The purpose of the verification and cup collection is to let customers get the drink faster and ensure the taste." However, this kind of "penalty station" experience makes consumers start to stay away from the tea and pleasant color, "Sometimes I still want to drink, but when I see such a long queue, I decisively choose another store." Consumer Liu Liu said.

At the same time, the service that was once regarded as one of the core competitiveness of Chayan Yuese has also attracted more consumer disgust, such as Chayan Yuese requires the clerk to broadcast a note to consumers when ordering, but consumers are unbearable. Liu Liu told reporters: "The voice of the clerk is too noisy, and it is too much time to talk about it for more than a minute, and there is no focus." On the black cat complaint platform, many consumers complained about the poor service attitude of the staff. It is worth noting that none of the complaints displayed on the Black Cat platform in the past 30 days have been replied to.

Jiangsu Economic News reporter Fan Jun