How the Freshly Ground Coffee Store Segment Keeps Growing
Freshly ground coffee covers drinks made by grinding fresh beans on the spot and extracting them by any method, from convenience stores and cafes to pour-over, espresso, and americano made at home. In China the category is expanding as chain brands add outlets, cross-industry players enter, and demand for healthier, better-quality coffee rises.
China's mainland market is still led by instant coffee, while the United States and Japan are dominated by freshly ground coffee. Supply and demand are pushing the industry forward together as consumers learn more about coffee. Coffee store operators, roasters, and equipment makers all depend on this shift toward fresher, quality-focused cups.
In recent years, domestic coffee consumption has continued to rise, and freshly ground coffee, as the category with the greatest growth potential, is attracting the attention of more and more consumers. From instant coffee dominance to the rise of freshly ground coffee, the structure of China's coffee market is undergoing profound changes. Chain brands are accelerating expansion, cross-industry players are entering the market one after another, and the rise of health-conscious consumption concepts has also injected new momentum into freshly ground coffee. At the same time, the two-way drive from both the supply side and the demand side is pushing the entire industry onto a fast track. This article will comprehensively sort out the development status and future trends of the freshly ground coffee industry from multiple dimensions such as market size, consumption scenarios, and brand competition, helping you understand the full picture of this popular track in one article.
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So-called freshly ground coffee refers to drinks made by grinding fresh coffee beans into powder on the spot and then preparing them through various extraction methods. Whether it is a convenience store, a cafe, or making pour-over, espresso, or Americano at home, as long as it satisfies both conditions of "fresh" and "ground," it can be included in the category of freshly ground coffee.
Recently, a report by CNR pointed out that against the backdrop of a new wave in coffee consumption, the market size of China's freshly ground coffee has maintained a trend of continuous growth. Domestic coffee product varieties are becoming increasingly rich, and the huge demand generated by consumer groups, along with their continuously deepening understanding of coffee, is working together from both the supply side and the demand side to push China's coffee market gradually onto a fast track.
It is understood that the coffee markets of major countries such as the United States and Japan are dominated by freshly ground coffee, while China's mainland market is still dominated by instant coffee. However, as coffee culture gradually penetrates and chain coffee brands on the supply side grow stronger, the share of freshly ground coffee in China is also continuously rising.
Coffee sold on the market can be roughly divided into three categories: instant coffee, freshly ground coffee, and ready-to-drink coffee, with their proportions at about 70%, 20%, and 10% respectively. Many veteran coffee lovers' first choice is freshly ground coffee because it is "the freshest." Although the share of freshly ground coffee is temporarily still lower than that of instant coffee, it is undoubtedly the category with the greatest development potential and has now grown into a rapidly growing segmented market in China.
The 2022 China freshly ground coffee industry research report released by iResearch shows that by 2024, the market size of China's freshly ground coffee is expected to reach 190 billion yuan. With the expansion of coffee consumer groups, people are placing higher demands on coffee quality, which has also given rise to the opening of more and more offline freshly ground coffee stores.
At present, the output of freshly ground coffee mainly covers six major consumption scenarios: chain coffee shops, independent coffee shops, fast food restaurants, tea beverage shops, convenience stores, and self-service coffee machines. Data from Qichacha shows that as of now, the number of coffee-related enterprises in China over the past decade has reached 168,000. According to incomplete statistics, in 2022 China had about 23,000 chain coffee shops, among which Guangdong Province ranked first among all provinces in the country in the number of chain coffee shops. Freshly ground coffee chain brands and stores are mostly concentrated in southern provinces and cities, while northern and central-western provinces and cities still have greater room for penetration.
In the past two years, China's freshly ground coffee market has mainly been composed of traditional coffee chain brands and emerging local coffee chain brands. In addition to a group of well-known brands such as Starbucks, Luckin, Manner, Seesaw, and Saturnbird, tea beverage brands Heytea and Chayan Yuese, as well as cross-industry players such as China Post and Li-Ning, have also entered the coffee field one after another, with an accelerating pace of store expansion.
Nowadays, more and more consumers are beginning to pay attention to their own health and have become an emerging force in the health-conscious consumer market. They are happy to be the planners and managers of their own healthy lives. Freshly ground coffee usually uses freshly roasted high-quality coffee beans, which are ground and extracted on site in stores by trained staff or baristas, without any additional ingredients, and can preserve the original aroma and pure taste of coffee to the greatest extent. Moderate consumption is beneficial to health.
Although the price of freshly ground coffee is higher than that of other types of coffee products, with the continuous improvement of the entire coffee industry's technical level and standardization capabilities, coupled with the further expansion of the coffee market and continuously rising consumption levels, the prices of coffee products are also gradually decreasing.
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
