Why does the West China tea and coffee market matter?

Modern China Tea Shop, the Changsha tea beverage brand, has confirmed it will open in Chongqing in June, its first move into Western China after years of operating mainly in Central China. The company has reached intentions with four shopping malls: Raffles City, Longfor Times Paradise Walk, Longfor North City Paradise Walk, and MixC. The expansion follows its first Wuhan store in December 2020, which drew reports of eight-hour queues on opening day.

The brand's earlier push outward stumbled. A Shenzhen pop-up opened in April 2021 and was gone by September, and in 2021 the company closed stores three times, including more than 80 at once, most in Changsha. Founder Lü Liang has said expansion was delayed by fear of a survival crisis. Whether the Chongqing entry holds up amid premium tea brands cutting prices will be watched closely, much as regional gatherings such as the Taiwan coffee festival and Sydney coffee festival track drink trends.

Modern China Tea Shop, the Changsha tea beverage brand that consumers across the country have been longing for, is finally set to leave Central China and enter Western China. Following the unprecedented eight-hour queues triggered by its first Wuhan store at the end of 2020, Modern China Tea Shop has officially confirmed it will open in Chongqing in June this year, and has already reached intentions with four shopping malls: Raffles City, Longfor Times Paradise Walk, Longfor North City Paradise Walk, and MixC. From the failed Shenzhen pop-up store, to three waves of store closures in 2021, to reflecting on blind expansion and "traveling light to new cities," Modern China Tea Shop's expansion path has been full of twists and turns. Whether it can hold its mid-range position in Chongqing amid the fierce battle triggered by premium tea brands cutting prices to seize territory remains to be seen.

When it comes to Changsha's signature brands, Modern China Tea Shop is bound to be on the list. Once, countless netizens expressed the same wish on social media: they hoped their own city could also have a Modern China Tea Shop. Now, the people of Chongqing have finally waited for this day.

Lü Liang, founder of Modern China Tea Shop, once admitted at the FBIF2020 Food & Beverage Innovation Forum that the brand was not unwilling to expand outward, but rather worried that rushing out would lead to a survival crisis. In April 2021, Modern China Tea Shop opened a pop-up store at Shenzhen Wenheyou, but withdrew from Shenzhen by September. From initially requiring three-hour queues with tea hard to come by, to the later sharp drop in Shenzhen Wenheyou's popularity, the experience was less than ideal.

With the philosophy of "making a cup of warm tea," Modern China Tea Shop suffered three rounds of store closures in 2021: the first was temporary closure during the Spring Festival for staying put during the holiday; the second was store suspensions caused by a resurgence of the pandemic at the end of July; and the third was the one-time closure of more than 80 stores, most of them concentrated in Changsha.

However, before the wave of closures arrived, Modern China Tea Shop had already taken its first step out of Changsha. On December 1, 2020, the first Modern China Tea Shop in Wuhan officially opened at Wuhan Tiandi. On the opening day, reports emerged of eight-hour queues, errand-buying fees as high as 100 yuan, and scalper prices reaching 150 yuan per cup. In the end, the brand had to announce on its official Weibo that each person was limited to four cups that day.

This time, Modern China Tea Shop has set its sights on the Western China market. Modern China Tea Shop's official Weibo posted a message at around 11 a.m. today, announcing that it will open stores in Chongqing.

From that message, it can be learned that before the official announcement, Modern China Tea Shop had already reached cooperation intentions with four shopping malls: Raffles City, Longfor Times Paradise Walk, Longfor North City Paradise Walk, and MixC, which means Modern China Tea Shop's site selection in Chongqing has been finalized.

As soon as the news came out, many local Modern China Tea Shop fans in Chongqing expressed their excitement.

In addition, the message also revealed that the Modern China Tea Shop Chongqing store is scheduled to open its doors to customers in June.

According to an interview by Jiupai News with Modern China Tea Shop's brand PR, the reason for choosing Chongqing is that it is a massive city that contains the opportunities and challenges Modern China Tea Shop is seeking at its current stage, and the lifestyle and dietary habits of Chongqing residents share a lot of common temperament with those of Changsha people.

As for where the next city will be, Modern China Tea Shop said it is still in the planning stage and does not rule out the possibility of Sichuan, Jiangsu, and other provinces, but before that it will first evaluate the team's capabilities and comprehensively consider opinions from all sides.

Modern China Tea Shop also reflected on the lessons of its past blind store openings, writing: "Taking advantage of this adjustment, we will also make some adjustments to our earlier store-opening strategy. Decisions made from inflated thinking are as foolish as a waterlogged brain—truly dumb. We will close some stores in Changsha that are too densely distributed and not reasonable enough, and travel light to new cities."

An article yesterday from Front Street Coffee mentioned that the gap between brands in the new-style tea beverage track is narrowing, and premium tea brands are no longer putting on airs, but have lowered prices one after another to compete for mid-range market share. As premium brands begin to penetrate downward, how much chance of winning does Modern China Tea Shop, originally positioned in the mid-range, still have?

It is not hard to see that the new city where Modern China Tea Shop has made this move also carries the "spicy" gene. If you are in Chongqing, have you already begun to imagine the comfortable days after June, enjoying spicy hot pot while drinking Modern China Tea Shop?

Image source: Modern China Tea Shop official WeChat account and official Weibo, internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.