This newspaper (chinatimesnet.CN) reporters Zhou Mengting and Huang Xingli report from Beijing.
With the intensification of competition in the new tea drink track, Nai Xue's tea (hereinafter referred to as "Nai Xue") seems to be a little "anxious", and after announcing the opening of the franchise on July 20, it is now restarting the overseas plan again. At the beginning of December, Nai Xue's first Thai store opened in Bangkok. For the future overseas store expansion plan, the "China Times" reporter learned from Nai Xue on December 4 that "there will be the first store in Singapore and the second store in Thailand in the first half of next year, and there are also plans to enter the United Kingdom and the United States." ”
After 3 years of silence, why did Nayuki choose to go to sea again?With the halo of "the first share of new tea drinks", Nai Xue chased after him, and many tea brands were exposed to IPO news. At the same time, with the current saturation of the first- and second-tier markets of new tea drinks, it is not easy for Naixue to find increments in China. However, will the resumption of the overseas plan be able to do it once and for all?
Re-opening of stores overseas
After a lapse of 3 years, Nayuki once again launched an overseas attack. At the beginning of December, its first store in Thailand was officially opened in Bangkok emsphere shopping mall, it is understood that the store is divided into two floors of nearly 200 square meters, with dozens of rest areas, the design style continues the bright and warm characteristics of the domestic space, and the Thai store currently provides fresh fruit tea, milk tea, pure tea, coffee and other four categories of a total of 48 freshly made tea and bakery products.
In 2018, Nai Xue went overseas for the first time and opened its first overseas store on the first floor of VivoCity in Singapore, and in July 2020, the second store in the overseas market landed in Osaka, Japan. This overseas redeployment also marks the official acceleration of Naixue's layout in Southeast Asia and even the global market. Nai Xue told the "China Times" reporter that in the future, it will increase the speed of overseas expansion and bring high-quality tea products and beautiful brand experience to mass users in more countries and regions, and there will be the first store in Singapore and the second store in Thailand in the first half of next year, and there are also plans to enter the United Kingdom and the United States.
For the reason why Nai Xue chose to expand overseas stores at this time, Lin Yue, chief consultant of Lingyan Management Consulting and an analyst in the catering industry, told this reporter that its expansion of overseas markets, on the one hand, is to expand the scale of stores, on the other hand, the domestic tea track competition is too fierce, the first and second tier cities have been saturated, according to their own positioning, the sinking market is not suitable for large-scale expansion, so the core business district of the overseas market will have opportunities, and at the same time, the overseas market can also create a stronger chain.
Founded in 2015, Naixue is known as the "pioneer of the new tea drink track", and was successfully listed on the Hong Kong stock market on June 30, 2021, becoming the "first stock of new tea drink". However, at the performance level, it is not satisfactory. From 2018 to 2022, although its earnings increased from 108.7 billion yuan increased to 429.2 billion yuan, but the loss situation was not broken until the first half of 2023, and in the first half of this year, its revenue increased by 26% year-on-year8% to 259.4 billion yuan, with a net profit of 6484 during the period60,000 yuan.
The battle for new tea drinks intensified again
"Volume" is an adjective for new tea drinks in recent years. Among them, even if Naixue is the only listed company in the new tea beverage track, it is also facing greater industry pressure.
From the perspective of consumers, the current new tea market is full of mature brands at all levels, including Nai Xue, Hey Tea, and many other brands in the mid-price market, such as Tea Baidao, Shanghai Auntie, and Bawang Tea Ji.
Since the beginning of this year, with the continuous recovery of the national economy, new tea brands, especially middle-priced brands, have begun to increase their expansion. According to the "2023 New Tea Beverage Research Report" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and Meituan, the scale of the new tea beverage consumption market is expected to reach 149.8 billion yuan in 2023, recovering to a three-year compound growth rate of nearly 20%, and by 2025, the domestic consumer market is expected to further expand to 201.5 billion yuan.
In this context, the capital market has become one of the directions for some new tea brands. In August this year, Tea Baidao submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and in addition, Gu Ming, Shanghai Auntie, and Bawang Tea Ji were also exposed to be IPO. Lin Yue previously pointed out to this reporter: "Tea brands have reached a stage of 'if you don't do it well, you will be swept to death', product research and development pressure is high, and the size of the store determines whether venture capital will continue to invest." ”
And new tea brands have also accelerated the speed of opening stores this year. According to the data of the Narrow Door Dining Eye APP, as of December 4, the number of Mixue Bingcheng stores has reached 26,346, which is the only brand of 10,000 new tea drinks, with 7,878, 7,581 and 7,037 tea Baidao, Shanghai Auntie, and Shuyi Burning Fairy Grass, while in July this year, they were less than 7,000;Heytea, which is also the first **, also reached 3,027 stores on December 4, and on December 4, the reporter learned from Nai Xue that the total number of its stores is now more than 1,400.
More importantly, as the first- and second-tier new tea beverage market tends to be saturated, Naixue needs to explore the sinking market. According to the above-mentioned new tea beverage research report, in 2023, the number of new tea beverage stores of more than 10 chain brands in first-tier, new first-tier and second-tier cities will decrease slightly, but there will still be a slight increase in third-tier cities, and the growth of sinking markets will be more obvious. The research report pointed out that this is corroborated by the intensive opening of new tea beverage brands in high-tier cities, and the market layout has entered a saturation period, but there is still room for growth in the market below the third tier.
Going to sea still has challenges
Even so, there are many challenges for Nayuki, who chooses to go to sea again in this context.
As early as 2010, Happy Lemon entered the Philippines, and the current overseas layout of new tea brands in addition to Nai Xue, including Mixue Bingcheng, Bawang Tea Ji, Hey Tea, etc., especially since this year, some new tea brands have significantly accelerated the speed of going to sea, Hey Tea opened another store in London in August this year, and in October, Tianlala opened 6 stores in Southeast Asia, at the same time, Tea Baidao revealed when submitting the prospectus that it plans to expand the store to overseas markets, mainly to develop the Southeast Asian market.
Nai Xue also told the "China Times" reporter, "In the future, we will definitely compete with a lot of Chinese and foreign brands, which regard Southeast Asia as a very important market, and at the same time, how to adapt our products to local tastes will also be a challenge." However, Naixue also said that unlike other tea brands, Naixue's overseas stores will still do it in a direct way, which will allow it to have better uniformity and stronger professionalism in the management of overseas stores, and at the same time, overseas stores will still insist on building a third space in the early stage, which is its biggest advantage.
In addition to competition from other brands, Lin Yue told this reporter that there must be many challenges for Naixue to go overseas, such as overseas consumers' understanding of tea and other raw materials for tea, in addition to cultural integration, there are also compliance and cost issues in local operations;In the attempt to go overseas with tea, Mixue Bingcheng is doing well, because its store and operation are relatively light, but Naixue and Heytea, as the head tea brands in China, are relatively cautious in their big store models, especially the foreign operating costs are not low, and the cultivation of the brand also takes timeBut in the long run, going to sea is the only way to become bigger and stronger.
For brands going overseas, the first chain level has always been a big problem. The reporter of this newspaper learned from Nai Xue that for overseas characteristic new products, it will still be placed in the headquarters to do, but in the future, there are plans to establish a first-class chain center, R&D center and logistics center in the local area, which is a long-term planAt the same time, due to the short preparation period for the first store in Thailand, the raw materials and materials are provided in China, but they will be different from the domestic in terms of design and some communication and publicity, such as the opening activities in China may be 99 Drink Nayuki or buy one get one free, but in Thailand, considering the consumption Xi over there, may not choose this way;In addition, the peripheral products will also use more elements of local customs.
Editor-in-charge: Huang Xingli Editor-in-chief: Han Feng.