During the Spring Festival holiday, offline catering businesses usually usher in peak seasons. However, on the eve of this year's Chinese New Year, Seesaw, a well-known domestic specialty coffee brand, chose to close its stores in several cities, including all four stores in Wuhan. **Statistics show that Seesaw has closed nearly 40 stores in the past four months. Even at its most glorious times, Seesaw did not have more than 200 stores nationwide.
According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, coffee made from beans with a cupping overall score of more than 80 is called specialty coffee. However, in the current coffee market, it is no longer possible to distinguish which brands are specialty coffee based on the standard of coffee bean usage alone. From the point of view of the coffee product itself, there is not much difference between coffee brands with a certain scale on the market.
As a veteran who has been in the coffee industry for more than ten years, Li Peng, CEO of Magic Bean, believes that the definition and concept of specialty coffee have changed, and the boundaries of specialty coffee have gradually blurred. Nowadays, specialty coffee brands are more focused on providing special scenes, and the differentiation of coffee products itself is no longer so obvious. Half of the enjoyment of coffee comes from the feeling, and half from the taste. Specialty coffee needs to convey a specialty coffee culture, and baristas should be able to bring emotional value to customers.
Independent coffee shops are under greater pressure to survive in 2023 than larger specialty coffee brands. According to big data statistics, as of October 29, 2023, the number of coffee stores nationwide is about 19160,000, of which about 9 have been added this year50,000 and about 4 closed40,000. Most of the more than 40,000 coffee shops that have closed are independent. Previously, the proportion of independent single stores in the national coffee market could reach 70%, but now it only accounts for 60%.
Many independent coffee shop owners attribute the collapse on social platforms"9.9 yuan coffee ** war"。At present, the number of Luckin stores has exceeded 10,000, and Cudi also has nearly 7,000 stores. In order to compete, Luckin began to open a number of regional franchises that had not been set foot in before last year. Compared with chain coffee brands operating in a franchise model, specialty coffee does not have an advantage in terms of the number of stores.
Industry insiders believe that the so-called once"Specialty coffee", the number of stores in chain stores fluctuates little, while independent coffee shops are at greater risk of volatility. However, some independent coffee shop founders said that the vast majority of independent coffee shops that closed down were not affected by the market environment, but because the coffee shop operators themselves lacked ability and personal charisma, such as not being good at chatting with customers or making short **.
9.The 9 yuan coffee is mainly sold to those who need to take it away, while the 20 yuan cup of coffee tends to be ** for those coffee lovers who taste it carefully in the store. For 2024, most people are optimistic about the coffee market. The domestic coffee market is still in the growth stage, according to the data of imported raw materials, the import of coffee raw materials in 2022 exceeded 100,000 tons, while in 2023 it reached 130,000 tons, an increase of 20%.