Recently, there is news in the market that the chain tea brand "Bawang Chaji" will be listed in the United States as soon as the middle of the year, raising funds between 200 million to 300 million US dollars (equivalent to about 1.57 billion to 2.35 billion Hong Kong dollars), and Citibank and Morgan Stanley will be responsible for preparing for the listing. The reporter of "International Financial News" asked Bawang Chaji for confirmation based on this, and the relevant personnel said that there was no response for the time being.
According to the company's information, Bawang Chaji was established in 2017, and it has experienced two rounds of financing before, and the B round of financing took place in October 2021, with a financing amount of more than 300 million yuan. IN AUGUST 2023, BEIJING CHAJI CATERING MANAGEMENT CO., LTD., AN AFFILIATE OF BAWANG CHAJI, UNDERWENT INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CHANGES, AND A NEW SHAREHOLDER, CHAGEE INVESTMENT PTE. LTD. is a Singapore company, with a registered capital of approximately $1.61 million to approximately $148 million.
The reporter of "International Financial News" learned from Bawang Chaji that as of now, the number of its global stores has exceeded 4,000, including more than 100 overseas stores.
Bawang Chaji overseas store (water hibiscus/photo)
On November 17, 2017, Bawang Chaji opened its first store in Kunming, Yunnan. The rapid expansion of the brand starts in 2023. At the end of 2022, the total number of domestic stores of Bawang Chaji was less than 1,000. Last year, it added more than 2,000 new stores.
The product positioning of "Original Leaf Fresh Milk Tea" is one of the basic conditions for the rapid expansion of Bawang Tea Tea, which uses tea and milk as the main raw materials to make products, and compared with tea brands containing fruits such as Hey Tea and Tea Baidao, the supply chain operation is relatively simple; Bawang Chaji adopts a large-scale single product strategy, and the official website shows that its star product Boya Juexian has an annual sales volume of more than 100 million cups.
Some Bawang tea franchisees told reporters that since the middle of last year, Bawang tea has tightened the threshold for joining, requiring intending franchisees to have a background in the tea industry, and they need to be lottery to have the qualifications to open a store after the resume is passed. In addition, industry insiders said that the store area is also one of the criteria for Bawang Chaji to choose a location for new franchisees to open stores, and the company wants to open a big store.
In terms of overseas markets, Bawang Chaji's first overseas store landed in Malaysia in August 2019, and then entered Singapore and Thailand, and Malaysia is still the overseas city with the most stores.
In the Kuala Lumpur shopping mall, the Bawang tea is quite popular (Sun Wanqiu/photo)