What Do Heytea Store Closures Mean for Coffee Development?

Heytea has been closing stores across China, drawing attention from consumers and the industry. Two outlets in Baoji, Shaanxi, shut within months, one citing sewer repairs and the other posting an equipment damage notice. Jihai monitoring data shows 12 openings and 146 closures in 90 days, roughly two stores leaving cities each day.

After pausing franchise expansion, the brand says it wants to raise store output quality and selectively close weak locations. Some customers hope the Baoji closures are temporary upgrades, but the scale of the pullback suggests a deliberate reset. For those tracking coffee development, the shift shows how quickly tea and coffee beverage chains are reworking their footprints.

Recently, Hee Tea has been closing stores in many places across the country, drawing attention from consumers and the industry. Two stores in Baoji, Shaanxi, have suspended operations one after another, while stores in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Qingdao and other places have also disappeared or reduced their scale. According to Jihai brand monitoring data, in the past 90 days, Hee Tea opened 12 new stores, but the number of closures reached 146, equivalent to nearly 2 stores disappearing from cities every day. After suspending franchise expansion, the brand intends to improve store output quality and selectively close stores with poor profitability, but the large number of closures is still surprising. As coffee lovers, Front Street Coffee continues to follow the dynamic changes in the tea beverage and coffee markets. This article sorts out cases from various places and industry interpretations of Hee Tea's current wave of store closures.

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Recently, when a Hee Tea fan in Baoji, Shaanxi, opened the mini program to place an order, they suddenly found that the Yintai City store had disappeared from the ordering list. At first, some guessed that it was only because the staff were busy and the online channel had been temporarily closed. However, after rushing to the scene, they saw only the glass door tightly locked, with a notice on the door reading "Equipment damaged, business suspended," and no one inside the store.

Faced with this unexpected scene, many netizens began to worry, "Has the Hee Tea at Baoji Yintai gone out of business?" It is understood that Baoji originally had two Hee Tea stores. The first store opened in Wuyue Plaza in October 2023, but nearby residents reported that in November last year, the Wuyue Plaza store closed due to sewer repairs and has still not reopened.

Unexpectedly, only a few months later, the Yintai City store followed suit for a similar reason. Some customers who had recently consumed at the store said the closure came too suddenly, "I went yesterday and saw it was still there," and lamented that with this store closed, Baoji no longer had any Hee Tea.

However, some optimistic consumers believe that perhaps the two stores in Baoji, as the notices said, were only temporarily closed for store upgrades and would resume taking orders after a while, so there is no need to conclude too early that Hee Tea has exited Baoji's milk tea market.

However, netizens who have long followed Hee Tea's developments pointed out that posts about Hee Tea stores disappearing have noticeably increased recently on social platforms.

A netizen in Shenzhen posted a photo saying they noticed that two Hee Tea directly operated stores in Central City had quietly closed, while another store in Vanke Lane had reduced its store scale and been renovated. Other travelers also found during their trips that the Hee Tea stores at Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport and Shandong Qingdao North Station had either been replaced by other brands or appeared deserted.

In a discussion thread titled "A county town can accommodate at most two Hee Tea stores," many netizens reported that the number of Hee Tea stores around them was decreasing. "Our county used to have 5, now it's only 3," "I'm from the county next to Ninghai, and the original 2 Hee Tea stores have become 1," "There used to be four here, now only two."

Data from Jihai brand monitoring shows that in the past 90 days, Hee Tea opened 12 new stores, but the number of closed stores reached 146. In other words, over the past 3 months, nearly 2 Hee Tea stores have quietly disappeared from cities every day, becoming memories that some users can no longer visit.

In response, netizens familiar with Hee Tea believe that after the brand officially announced the suspension of franchise expansion, it is understandable that the company, intending to improve store output quality, would selectively close certain stores, but the large number of closures is still somewhat surprising.

Some believe that Hee Tea's current "wave of closures" has not yet come to a stop. On the contrary, there may be more stores officially closed because of poor profitability and because they are unfavorable to brand development, and the market layout will also change.

Image source: Internet

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As coffee lovers, Front Street Coffee suggests that while paying attention to store adjustments among tea beverage brands, one may also explore more of the stable flavor and quality experience of specialty coffee.

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