On April 23, Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chabaidao") was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the stock code of 2555. HK, raising nearly HK$2.6 billion, setting a record for the largest initial public offering (IPO) of Hong Kong stocks in 2024. Its founders, Wang Xiaokun and Liu Weihong, have a wealth of 14.5 billion yuan when they first appear on the Hurun Report in 2023.
Tea Baidao drink according to Red Star News Wang Xiao
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the duo will be valued at US$2.7 billion (19.563 billion yuan) after the IPO.
Chinese milk tea has attracted the attention of the world. There are reports that this small cup of milk tea in the hands of young Chinese people has set off a wave of wealth creation in the market.
Internationalization is gaining momentum
The Southeast Asian market has become a new growth pole
Today, Chinese tea brands are setting sail and setting up stores overseas, which are warmly loved by local consumers. These stores not only provide high-quality tea products, but also become a new window for international consumers to understand China's tea culture.
Especially in Southeast Asia, Chinese milk tea brands are favored by local young consumers. The internationalization of Chinese tea is accelerating, and it is gradually becoming an important force in the global beverage market.
Honey Snow Ice City milk tea in a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand According to Visual China
The habit of drinking tea is popular in more than 160 countries and regions, and nearly half of the world's population consumes more than 3 billion cups of tea every day.
Heytea opened its first overseas store in Singapore in 2018 and opened stores in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and other places last year. In December last year, Heytea officially opened its branch on Broadway in New York, and sold more than 2,500 cups on the first day of opening.
In 2018, Mixue Bingcheng opened its first overseas store in Hanoi, Vietnam, and now has nearly 4,000 stores overseas.
In 2023, Nayuki's tea opened a branch in Thailand.
In January this year, Chamomodo opened its first overseas store in South Korea, marking the beginning of internationalization.
Another overseas brand, Bawang Chaji, has successfully opened 100 stores in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, bringing the total number of stores worldwide to more than 4,000.
According to reports, the new tea drink products are popular among young urban consumers overseas, who see bubble tea shops as "fun and trendy meeting places", attracted by the innovative tastes, high-quality ingredients and overall experience offered by these tea brands, especially in markets such as Southeast Asia.
According to a report by Momentum Works, a Singapore-based business development services company, the annual consumption of new tea beverages in Southeast Asia is considerable, reaching US$3.66 billion (about 26.5 billion yuan). Indonesia leads with $1.6 billion, accounting for nearly half of the total, followed by Thailand with $749 million. In the lucrative Southeast Asian market, Chinese brands have already made initial noise.
According to industry experts and practitioners, "all the innovations that are happening in China's tea industry are attracting many (overseas) young consumers". Yu Jian, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel Greater China, said that under the pressure of competing for new ideas, companies have taken milk tea to a new level.
The founder of Uhooglobal, an overseas milk tea market operating company, said: "China's tea beverage market has entered the stage of digital and intelligent transformation, while the Southeast Asian market is still in the capital stage of the 1.0 model of single-store brands and chain brands. A franchisee who has opened four Honey Snow Ice City stores in Bangkok believes that this year, the streets of Bangkok will see more Chinese tea brands appear.
Upstarts on the 100 richest list are frequent
China's tea market has spawned billionaires
According to the "2023 New Tea Beverage Research Report" released by the New Tea Beverage Committee of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and Meituan New Catering Research Institute, the national new tea beverage market is expected to reach 149.8 billion yuan in 2023, and the domestic consumer market is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan by 2025.
In the booming development of China's tea industry, a number of billionaires have sprung up. Among them, there are as many as 4 billionaires and 6 billionaires at the 5 billion level. They have achieved rapid growth in wealth by operating tea brands and leveraging market forces.
According to the data of the 2023 Hurun Report, the founders of Mixue Bingcheng, Zhang Hongchao and Zhang Hongfu, have a combined wealth of 56 billion yuan, ranking as the richest man in the milk tea industry. Nie Yunchen, the founder of Heytea, became the richest man in the industry after 90 years with a personal wealth of 8.5 billion yuan.
Zhang Hongchao, born in 1978, started his own business after graduating from junior high school, and was later admitted to Henan University of Economics and Law majoring in adult education public relations and secretarial. Zhang Hongfu, born in 1985, graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of Zhengzhou University. The entrepreneurial story of the two started from the small shop of two or three square meters in 1997 "Cold Stream Shaved Ice", to the official establishment of the Mixue Bingcheng brand in 1999, and has developed into a world-renowned tea chain brand.
According to the prospectus submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 30, 2023, by the end of September of that year, the number of stores worldwide exceeded 36,000, including more than 4,000 overseas, the operating income in 2022 was 13.576 billion yuan, and in the first three quarters of 2023, it has reached 15.393 billion yuan, and about 5.8 billion cups were sold in the first three quarters. On the 2023 Hurun Report, the wealth of Zhang Hongchao and Zhang Hongfu brothers is 28 billion yuan each, with a total of 56 billion yuan.
Wang Xiaokun and Liu Weihong of Cha Baidao, and Wang Bin, who also burns fairy grass, will be on the rich list in 2023 with a wealth of 14.5 billion yuan and 7 billion yuan respectively.
Wang Xiaokun and Liu Weihong, born in 1983 and 1981 respectively, opened the first 20-square-meter milk tea shop near Wenjiang No. 2 Middle School in Chengdu in 2008, and now Tea Baidao has grown to 8,016 stores.
Wang Bin, born in 1986, opened the first small milk tea shop at the entrance of the East Campus of Sichuan Normal University in 2007, and now the number of Shuyi Yao Xiancao stores has exceeded 8,000.
In the Chinese tea market, there are many milk tea brands, which also have a place in the market.
Red Star News reporter Deng Shuyi
Editor: Zhang Xun, Editor: Wei Kongming
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