Author/Li Yan
Editor/Xue Xiang
Produced by One View Commercial
In March, the opening of new tea stores continued to slow down.
In March, the number of new stores opened by the 26 new tea beverage chain brands tracked by One View Commercial decreased by 426 compared with the previous month.
In terms of the overall number of stores, 26 domestic chain tea brands have opened a total of 994 new stores, and there are 114906 existing stores.
From the perspective of the brand: the number of new stores opened in March was generally less than that in February, and the largest number of newly opened stores was Mixue Bingcheng, with 282 stores.
It is worth noting that in the same period last year, more than 1,200 new stores were opened in the new tea beverage industry, and the data was also at a low point throughout the year on an annual basis. Considering the impact of the end of the fiscal year and the year-end settlement, most companies have slowed down the number of stores opened in the first quarter.
Among the new tea brands that have been tracked by Yilan Commercial for a long time, only Yihetang, Throbbing Burning Fairy Grass and Wuyin Liangpin opened more stores in March than in February, with 146, 19 and 15 new stores opened respectively.
In terms of the city coverage of new tea brands, in the first two months of the first quarter, Nai Xue's tea, which opened its first store in more than 20 cities, also slowed down in March, opening its first store in only 4 cities.
Judging from the existing stores of the brand: the first existing store is Mixue Bingcheng, and the public data shows that there are more than 36,000. In second place is Gu Ming, which has 9,000+ stores, and it should exceed 10,000 stores in the near future. In addition, Bawang Chaji is expected to exceed 4,000 stores in recent months.
315 party: a number of tea brands thundered
On the eve of "3.15" this year, a number of new tea brands thundered.
Shuyi Yao Xiancao was the first brand to be named. There is still a week to go before March 15, and an Internet celebrity freshly made drink named "Strawberry Bo Yogurt" under Shuyi Yao Xiancao has been detected by a professional organization because "the protein and fat content of this product is far lower than the nutritional content of normal prepackaged yogurt." He was publicly named by the Shanghai Municipal Consumer Rights Protection Commission.
The comparison of test results showed that the protein content was 0.53g/100g (3.286g/cup), the fat content was 1.01g/100g (6.262g/cup), and the lactose content was 0.32g/100g (2g/cup).
The sucrose content of the product was also seriously exceeded. According to the test results, there is 5.7g of sucrose per 100g of product. In other words, the 600ml drink contains a whopping 35.3g of sucrose, which is equivalent to about 7 sugar cubes.
As the "master flower dan" of Shuyi burning fairy grass, previously, the product page of this drink introduced "with rich yogurt", and the brand's official Weibo also specifically mentioned "blending mellow and rich yogurt".
On March 9, Shuyi Yao Xiancao responded, admitting that the product was actually a "yogurt-flavored drink", with only 70ml of yogurt added to the 600ml drink. When I opened the order page, I found that Shuyi Yao Xiancao had renamed the product "Strawberry Yogurt Fruit Tea".
Also named by the Consumer Protection Committee for the amount of yogurt is Mo Yogurt. On March 13, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee named Mo Yogurt "Mango Yogurt Shake", saying that the amount of yogurt used in the product is not much, but the fat content is strangely high, and questioned whether it has other additives.
On the same day, the staff of a number of jasmine yogurt stores in Shanghai and Guangzhou all said, "'Mango Yogurt Shake' is made of yogurt, mango and ice cubes together, and some milk and fructose are added, and there are no additives." On March 16, Mo Yogurt issued a statement on its official Weibo, saying that it was concerned that some users had made false remarks, causing serious harm to the brand, franchisees and employees, and said that it would file a lawsuit against relevant personnel.
On March 14, Hubei Economic Television's "3.15 Special Report" exposed that the clerks of individual stores of Yiyao Xiancao, Tea Baidao, and Gu Ming violated the regulations during operation, and frequently changed the expiration date label of ingredients, used overnight ingredients, and even tasted ingredients with their mouths to judge whether they were "broken". On the evening of March 14, the relevant staff of the headquarters of the three bubble tea shops apologized one after another, and said that the headquarters had sent staff to the stores to verify and rectify overnight.
March 15, #茶颜悦色放置半小时仅剩半杯#引发热议. Some media released a questionnaire entitled "Is it normal to eliminate milk tea", and more than 37,000 netizens participated in the vote, and the data showed that 78% of netizens thought it was abnormal, and 22% of netizens thought it was normal. In response to the problems encountered by netizens, the customer service of Chayan Yuese said that the tea foam will melt with time and the hot and cold of the tea. It is generally recommended to drink it now, and if you encounter a problem with eliminating the cup, you can find a store to remake it.
New tea drinks are the hottest track in the consumer industry in the past two years. According to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, as of 2023Q3, the total number of ready-made tea stores in the country is about 515,000, an increase of more than 36% in the past three years compared with 378,000 at the end of 2020. Under the background of the hot track, the head enterprises have come to the scale of 1,000 stores, with few direct stores and many franchised stores have also become a common feature of the industry.
Shanghai Auntie and Bawang Tea Queen's new store in Malaysia landed
Southeast Asia has always been the first stop for new tea brands to test their overseas business.
On March 8, the world's first "Drive-Thru" store was officially opened in Seremban, Negeri Sembilani, Malaysia. The store is located adjacent to the City Park in Furong District 2, which is the core area of local leisure life, gathering a number of well-known restaurant chain brands.
The newly opened "Drive-Thru" store is designed with a dedicated lane for cars to shuttle, which can accommodate multiple cars queuing up to order and pick up food at the same time. Drive-Thru stores are often referred to as "drive-thres" because customers can place and pay for their orders without having to leave the car, as well as pick up their food quickly at dedicated pick-up gates.
Coincidentally, in March, Auntea Jenny, a partner of Shanghai Auntie, disclosed on her Xiaohongshu account that Shanghai Auntie's first overseas store landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. According to its disclosure, Aunt Shanghai settled in Malaysia this time and customized an exclusive menu. According to the feedback of netizens, the first store of Shanghai Auntie in Malaysia is more cost-effective, with 1L fruit tea only selling for 9.9RM (about RMB 15), ice cream only selling for 1.9RM (about RMB 2.9), and flower field oolong only selling for 8.9RM (about RMB 13.5).
In addition, as of March, Tianlala has also added 6 new franchise stores in Indonesia, and the number of local franchise stores has reached 13. One View Business has learned that in Southeast Asia, there are 10 new stores in Sweet Lala that are preparing to be launched.
Zhang Xiaoqiu, the founder of Cha Yiji, also said publicly. "We opened our store in Thailand in March and our store in Malaysia in May. ”
According to the statistics of Yilan Commerce, a number of new tea brands, including Mixue Bingcheng, Hey Tea, Nai Xue's Tea, and Bawang Tea, all love Southeast Asia as their first base to explore overseas markets. As of the end of last year, the number of stores in Vietnam and Indonesia has exceeded 1,300 and 2,300.
The main reason for the brand's preference for Southeast Asia is the large market.
On the one hand, local operators are open-minded and do not exclude domestic brands. Lai Tianpeng, CEO of MOMOYO Tea Indonesia National Company, once said. "Southeast Asia has not yet reached the level of drinking milk tea for all, and the market still needs to be cultivated, and we very much welcome Chinese brands to come. ”
On the other hand, Southeast Asians generally eat sweet, and milk tea has a natural attraction for them. In Southeast Asia, locals drink milk tea with little sugar. However, at present, there is no local tea brand with more than 1,000 stores in the Southeast Asian market, and more brands with less than 100 stores. Nai Xue's tea once told the media that the climate and taste habits of Southeast Asia are very close to the Chinese market, so it is the most convenient place to try to go to sea.
Overall, the competition in the domestic market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the development space of new tea drinks is gradually saturated. More and more companies are naturally turning their attention to the Southeast Asian market, which is still in the blue ocean stage. However, even if the market potential is huge, the use of cost, manpower, and supply chain is indeed a problem that new tea brands need to overcome, and the development of the Southeast Asian market means that enterprises may need to invest a lot of costs in the supply chain layout. Therefore, the battle for new tea drinks to go to sea has just begun.