Why did Kung Fu Coffee shut its first store so soon?

Gongfu Coffee, the tea-and-coffee concept from the team behind Benlai Buyingyou, closed its first national store at Shenzhen's Huangting Plaza on June 30, roughly seven months after a December opening. The store was reported to have cost over six million yuan to build and served about 1,200 cups a day during its first ten days.

Reviews were polarized, and the brand cited business-district factors and product quality in its explanation, while some netizens pointed to a property-owner change and a failed contract negotiation. Three Gongfu Coffee stores reportedly remain open, and the case highlights the awareness and talent bottlenecks facing Chinese-style tea-coffee concepts.

Gongfu Coffee, which once made a high-profile debut with the concept of "Eastern tea plus Western coffee," quietly shut down its first national store at Shenzhen's Huangting Plaza just seven months after opening. This brand, incubated by the team behind "Benlai Buyingyou" and whose first store was said to have cost over six million yuan to build, once became an internet-famous photo spot thanks to its purple space and Chinese-style design, serving an average of 1,200 cups per day in its first ten days. However, consumer reviews were polarized, and coupled with the awareness and talent bottlenecks faced by the tea-coffee category itself, Gongfu Coffee's future direction has drawn attention.

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According to information provided by multiple netizens, the first national store of "Gongfu Coffee" located at Shenzhen's Huangting Plaza ended operations on June 30. On the Meituan app, the store is currently shown as closed, and no information about this store can be found in the official mini-program. Data from Zhaomen Canyan shows that the Gongfu Coffee brand still has three stores in operation.

It is understood that the first national store of Gongfu Coffee officially opened on December 2 last year, and its sudden closure came just seven months later. Some netizens on social platforms speculated that the store's closure may be related to failure to reach agreement on a new contract after a change of property owner, while the brand explained that the decision was based on consideration of hidden rules in the business district and its commitment to product quality.

Public information shows that Gongfu Coffee is a new project created by the team behind the domestic coffee brand "Benlai Buyingyou," focusing on the pairing concept of "Eastern tea plus Western coffee," aiming to create "coffee that suits Chinese palates."

The first store was publicly said to have invested more than six million yuan in meticulous development, with the overall space based on a striking purple tone and incorporating traditional Chinese cultural elements such as Fuxi and Nüwa sculptures, taiji patterns, and large-area murals. In its early days, the store attracted many young consumers to visit, becoming a newly popular internet-famous photo spot at the end of last year.

According to official data released at the time, "in its first ten days, Gongfu Coffee served an average of 1,200 cups per day, with a maximum of 1,800 cups in a single day and peak daily revenue of 35,000 yuan." Some media reports said it "quickly went viral after opening, attracting half the beverage industry to check in." Such popularity greatly boosted the brand's confidence, and it subsequently opened new stores in Shenzhen's Longhua and Futian and expanded its footprint to Huizhou, Xinjiang, and other places.

However, netizens' evaluations of Gongfu Coffee on social platforms were not uniform. Some felt the store design was novel and distinctive and suitable for photos, while others fed back that it was "not good to drink" and that "the space design was unreasonable." Some even directly said, "I suggest not piggybacking on Chinese coffee," believing that although Gongfu Coffee raised the banner of "Chinese coffee," its brand concept remained superficial, and neither its store decoration nor product naming truly conveyed a Chinese style.

In recent years, a number of coffee shops featuring Chinese style as a selling point have emerged in the Chinese market. They incorporate elements such as hanfu, gaiwan, and tea leaves, which has also made the public impression of "Chinese-style" coffee shops tend toward the antique and old-fashioned. The store design approach of Gongfu Coffee differs clearly from this common perception, making it harder to gain consumer recognition.

On the other hand, although the "tea-coffee" category has existed for a long time and well-known brands such as Chayan Yuese and Heytea have also tried launching related products, for most people, drinking milk tea is for relaxation and drinking coffee is for refreshment, while drinking tea-coffee is more about trying something new. Once the novelty fades, most consumers return to milk tea and coffee rather than staying with tea-coffee for long.

In addition, some industry insiders analyzed that although tea-coffee appears to be a simple combination of "tea plus coffee," creating products that truly meet market demand is not easy. At present, professionals in the industry who are proficient in both coffee and tea are relatively scarce, causing many brands' "tea-coffee stories" to tell only the beginning, with subsequent development difficult to sustain.

Although the true reason for the closure of Gongfu Coffee's first store is still unclear, judging from the brand's recent move to open a new store in Dongguan, it still intends to further expand its regional coverage. As for whether this cup of "Chinese-style tea-coffee" can carve out a place in the fierce market competition and truly win consumers' hearts, only time will tell.

Image from: Internet

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