According to the latest data released by the National Bureau of statistics on January 17, the overall revenue of China’s catering industry reached 4689.5 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%. If compared with the data of 4672.1 billion yuan in 2019, the income of the whole industry in 2021 is the same as that before the epidemic and has achieved a slight increase – as the catering industry has come out of the trough, the giants also began to continue to work in their respective segments.
On January 18, Starbucks announced that it had reached cooperation with meituan. In addition to launching the exclusive space service “1971 living room” for the first time, the two sides will also deepen cooperation in Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) many fields such as special star delivery and “super store”. In recent years, with the influx of capital, the competition temperature of Chinese coffee track is boiling day by day. What sparks will Starbucks spark in the Chinese market after joining hands with meituan?
the “take out order” of the two giants
Since mid September 2018, Starbucks has gradually opened distribution services in the Chinese market, which is regarded as its attempt to reach more scenes out of the “third space”. With the expiration of the three-year exclusive distribution cooperation agreement with hungry Yao on December 31, 2021, Starbucks also announced a new digital “ally”.
On January 18, Starbucks China announced that it had reached innovative cooperation with meituan on digital space. After joining hands with meituan, Starbucks announced that the new function of “special star delivery” created by Starbucks and meituan was launched nationwide. In addition, Starbucks took the lead in enabling the “super store” function of meituan to realize Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) integration.
The reporter learned that at present, Starbucks’ mobile orders are mainly divided into two parts: coffee Express (pick it up at the store) and special star delivery (take it home). According to the latest financial year data as of October 3 last year, the proportion of mobile point order business in Starbucks’ overall sales in China has reached a record 36%, of which special star delivery accounts for about 16%. In this fiscal year, Starbucks China’s revenue was $3.7 billion. Based on this calculation, in the past fiscal year, the scale of special star delivery business was about $590 million, about 3.7 billion yuan.
However, after the announcement of cooperation with meituan, on January 18, the reporter logged in to hungry and learned that Starbucks’s special star delivery service can still continue to order. Industry analysts believe that the economic supervision of the platform is becoming more and more strict, and the previous “one of two” cooperation mode has long become history. In addition, with the gradual increase of the contribution of takeout business in Starbucks China in recent years, for meituan, participating in Starbucks takeout business is also helpful to its thickening its performance.
In addition to the online “special star delivery” business, Starbucks is also constantly strengthening its competitiveness in the offline scene in the face of the competition of Internet coffee. On January 18, Starbucks China launched the exclusive space service “1971 living room” for the first time. Customers can book the exclusive space in Starbucks stores through meituan app and public comment app.
“In the past two years, due to the epidemic, technological innovation has blurred the boundaries of home, workplace and third space. It has become a common way of life for people to realize diversified scenes and functions in the same place.” Cai Deli, CEO of Starbucks China, pointed out that it was this insight that led Starbucks to explore how to turn a store into a “living room” for everyone.
The reporter of Huaxia times learned that at present, Starbucks has more than 5500 stores in China. At present, the “1971 living room” service will take the lead in launching more than 60 stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu, and plans to gradually cover more Starbucks stores in the country in the future.
According to Starbucks, in the first stage of the launch, “1971 living room” will first provide two new services, including “coffee has a bureau” focusing on the leisure gathering scene of three or five friends and “a meeting in the living room” focusing on the business meeting or community gathering scene. In terms of consumer price, the reporter learned that taking “coffee has a bureau selection package” as an example, it is ordered by three people for 1.5 hours, and the single person price is 179 yuan / person.
speed up shop opening
In the past 2021, capital continued to prefer the coffee market. According to a report released by some institutions, the total amount of financing disclosure related to China’s coffee industry in the first 10 months of last year was close to 6 billion yuan, and some popular brands even got two or three rounds of financing in the first half of the year.
Taking seesaw, a boutique coffee brand, as an example, announced in July last year that it had completed a + round of financing of more than 100 million yuan; M stand, a cutting-edge coffee chain brand, also announced the completion of round B financing of more than 500 million yuan that month; In December last year, TIMS China also announced that it had obtained pre IPO Financing from an asset management company… With the influx of capital, the competition in China’s chain coffee market has become increasingly fierce.
Taking stock of the current chain coffee brands in China, if they are divided by price, they can be roughly divided into three categories. One is the brands with more than 30 yuan represented by Starbucks, Costa and tims; One is a mid-range brand represented by Ruixing and man, with a price range of 15 yuan to 30 yuan; There is also an economic brand, represented by coffee sold in convenience stores and fast food restaurants.
Compared with ready to drink coffee, the space to be explored in China’s chain coffee market is still huge. According to the blue book on China’s coffee industry released by CIC insight consulting, the number of coffee shops per million people in China’s first tier cities will be about 267 in 2020, 171 in new first tier cities, 130 in second tier cities and 30 in third tier and below cities. The report points out that although the coffee culture in China’s first tier cities is relatively mature, there is still some room for development in the future. At the same time, the number of coffee shops in major new first tier, second and third tier cities in China is still low, but it is developing very rapidly.
The reporter learned that for Starbucks, one of its priorities in 2022 is still to open stores. Official data show that in fiscal year 2021, Starbucks China recorded a net increase of 654 new stores, including a net increase of 225 in the fourth quarter. According to the plan of Starbucks China, in fiscal year 2022, Starbucks China plans to have 6000 stores in 230 cities. In addition to Shenzhen New Land Tool Planning &Architectural Design Co.Ltd(300778) , it will also improve the penetration rate of existing cities.
In addition to Starbucks, other major coffee chains are also speeding up store layout: Ruixing’s financial report data show that as of September 30, 2021, the number of Ruixing’s stores in China has reached 5671; Since tims coffee entered the Chinese market in February 2019, it has opened more than 390 stores. According to its plan, it will open more than 800 stores by the end of 2022; In addition, according to the report in October last year, the number of back door stores of online red coffee brand manner has reached nearly 200 after five rounds of financing
“From the perspective of the current penetration rate of China’s coffee market, there is still a large gap between China’s market and European and American markets. Although emerging chain brands continue to appear, the whole market is still in the stage of cultivation or cultivation.” Coffee industry practitioners told our reporter that at present, many emerging coffee brands in the Chinese market are still in the stage of “enclosure” of scale. With the gradual withdrawal of capital, for the brand side, the focus of future competition is still on long-term profitability.
