What Is Behind Li-Ning's New Coffee Service in Its Stores?

Li-Ning Sports has applied to register the trademark for NING COFFEE and confirmed it will add coffee service inside its own stores. With 7,137 stores reported at the end of 2021, a full rollout would put the chain among the largest coffee networks in China by store count, possibly ahead of Luckin.

Because the coffee areas sit inside existing shops, rent and labor costs run lower than for standalone cafés, and staff can be trained rather than newly recruited as baristas. Li-Ning first used coffee grounds in sportswear in 2013 and has tested freshly ground coffee since last year. Whether this follows the origin of costa coffee as a retail sideline or a real expansion is the open question.

Following China Post, Goubuli, Tongrentang, and PetroChina, Li-Ning has now officially entered the coffee business. Recently, Li-Ning Sports applied to register the "宁咖啡 NING COFFEE" trademark and acknowledged that it will offer coffee service in its stores. Relying on more than 7,000 Li-Ning stores nationwide, if NING COFFEE is rolled out fully, its store count will be extremely impressive, and may even surpass Luckin. In fact, as early as 2013, Li-Ning began using coffee grounds to make sportswear, and since last year it has repeatedly tested the waters of freshly ground coffee. Can NING COFFEE win consumer recognition in fierce competition? Is cross-border coffee a serious business or a gimmick for service upgrades? This article takes you to find out.

China Post, Goubuli, Tongrentang, PetroChina... After these companies that seem to have nothing to do with coffee entered the coffee field one after another, another unexpected brand has stepped onto this track! Recently, Li-Ning Sports (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. submitted a registration application for the "宁咖啡 NING COFFEE" trademark, quickly sparking heated discussion. Soon after, Li-Ning also responded frankly: in the future, it will introduce coffee service in its stores, with the aim of giving customers a more comfortable feeling and a better experience while shopping.

That's right, Li-Ning does indeed plan to set up coffee areas in its own stores. According to data from Li-Ning's 2021 report, as of the end of 2021, Li-Ning had a total of 7,137 stores. If all these stores roll out coffee business, then NING COFFEE will have at least more than 7,000 stores. If the pace is fast enough, it may even surpass Luckin and become the coffee brand with the largest number of stores nationwide.

Do you find it hard to believe? But nothing in this world is absolute. Under the pandemic, more and more brands have begun selling coffee across industries, and these brands themselves already have a large number of physical stores. Selling coffee is not difficult for them; they only need to add a coffee area to their existing stores.

Compared with simply renting a storefront to sell coffee, NING COFFEE is opened inside Li-Ning's existing stores. As long as staff are properly trained, there is no need to specially recruit baristas. In this way, labor costs and rent costs are already much lower than those of many coffee brands, so coffee pricing can also be lower. In addition, when a brand originally unrelated to coffee suddenly starts selling coffee, the impact of this cross-industry move firmly grabs consumers' curiosity.

In fact, compared with the registration of the "宁咖啡" trademark, Li-Ning began laying out its entry into the coffee track much earlier. As early as 2013, Li-Ning had already "started selling coffee," except it was not for drinking, but sportswear made from coffee grounds. At that time, Li-Ning used a special process to grind and calcine coffee grounds and then weave them into new material products. The clothing produced was not only environmentally friendly, but also antibacterial, deodorizing, heat-storing, and warm. In August 2020, the Li-Ning brand also teamed up with LOVERE, under Aihuishou's Aifenlei Aihuishou, & COSTA to launch limited-edition eco-friendly T-shirts, also made from coffee grounds.

At a Li-Ning brand event in November last year, consumers could get free freshly ground coffee bearing the "Li-Ning logo" as long as they made any purchase on site. In February this year, Li-Ning began placing a coffee cart printed with Li-Ning LOGO X CAFE in a newly opened store in Guangdong, and the coffee machine also had the Li-Ning LOGO attached. In front of the cart, camping chairs and camping storage boxes were placed as tables, providing every guest who made any purchase with free freshly ground coffee, while also creating a leisure experience of drinking coffee while camping outdoors.

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After two months of "warm-up," Li-Ning officially registered the "宁咖啡" logo on April 15 this year. Although it is still awaiting substantive examination, Li-Ning could hardly wait and opened its first "宁咖啡."

On April 30, the first "NING COFFEE" opened in a Li-Ning flagship store in Xiamen, Fujian. That day, Li-Ning also announced the news on its official Weibo. With the official debut of "NING COFFEE," netizens came out one after another to support the "guochao" brand, and some netizens said bluntly that as long as the taste is not especially bad and the price is affordable, they are willing to support it for a long time.

Just as China Post opened post office coffee shops before, the emergence of NING COFFEE this time is still not favored. The reason it is not favored is mostly that this brand is not professionally engaged in coffee. Compared with existing domestic coffee brands, NING COFFEE looks very unremarkable, and it will still take a very long time to gain consumer recognition.

Indeed, if it wants to gain consumer recognition, it will still take some time. But if "NING COFFEE" really covers the country comprehensively, its influence should not be underestimated, because Li-Ning stores have very broad coverage across the country. From big cities to small counties, Li-Ning stores can be seen everywhere. Compared with the store coverage of existing domestic coffee brands, NING COFFEE will have a greater advantage. Although it seems like a long way off, in this era, you never know who your next opponent will be.

Li-Ning does not need to make coffee truly professional. It only needs to provide coffee that satisfies the tastes of mass consumers, at a price that mass consumers accept, because coffee is only a side business. The real purpose is to use coffee as a connection to attract more young people's attention to its sports brand, while relying on its huge store network for diversified operations. From apparel to coffee, Li-Ning simply hopes to make a sports brand into a lifestyle.

For this kind of cross-industry brand, coffee is like a harmless side business. If it succeeds, it can open up another world; if it fails, it will not cause too great an economic loss. Li-Ning officials also said that providing coffee service is intended to enhance customers' comfort and experience while shopping by optimizing in-store service. This also proves that Li-Ning Coffee is not aiming at the coffee track.

Rather than worrying about whether these cross-industry brands will get "a piece of the pie" in the coffee industry, it is better to look more at the dazzling players currently on the track. How to survive amid competition among these brands is what is worth everyone's attention.

Image source: Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Internet

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