Can Old Instant Coffee Brands Be Challenged by Tims China's Growth?
Tims China opened its 1,000th store in Jing'an District, Shanghai, on October 25, entering the thousand-store era. The chain entered China in 2019 and reported 907 stores across 71 cities with 21.4 million members as of June 2024, expanding through a coffee-plus-warm-food format that targets a different occasion than old instant coffee brands.
Its four store types, Golden Maple flagship, Red Maple standard, Tims Go and Tims Express, plus mobile ordering and delivery, support the expansion. With bagels, health positioning and community operations as selling points, Tims is betting that convenience and food pairing can win customers who once relied on packaged coffee at home.
Tims Tianhao Coffee recently opened its 1,000th store in China in Jing'an District, Shanghai, marking the brand's official entry into the thousand-store era. Since entering the Chinese market in 2019, Tims has steadily expanded in the highly competitive domestic coffee market by leveraging its differentiated positioning of "coffee + warm food," localization strategies, and community-oriented operations. As of June 2024, it has established a presence in 71 cities, with 907 stores and 21.4 million members. However, compared to the aggressive expansion of competitors like Luckin and Cotti, Tims's pace of store openings appears restrained. Facing dual pressure from new tea beverages and chain coffee shops, Tims is focusing on bagels and promoting health and low burden as its selling points, attempting to carve out a unique path to break through.
On October 25, the global coffee chain brand Tim Hortons China (referred to as "Tims Tianhao China") announced via its official Weibo that its 1,000th store in China officially opened at Huiyin Building, 758 Nanjing West Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai, marking the brand's official entry into the thousand-store scale in the country.
In 2019, Tims Tianhao Coffee officially entered the Chinese market, with its first store located at Shanghai People's Square. Relying on its differentiated product combination of "coffee + warm food," operational strategies tailored to local consumption habits, and community-based business model, Tims Tianhao Coffee achieved rapid growth in the Chinese market.
Currently, Tims Tianhao Coffee has essentially completed its initial layout in the Chinese market. According to financial reports, as of June 2024, the brand has covered 71 cities nationwide, with a total of 907 stores and a membership base of 21.4 million, including over 200 stores in the Shanghai area.
To adapt to consumer needs in different scenarios, Tims Tianhao China mainly offers four store types: flagship stores (Golden Maple stores), standard stores (Red Maple stores), Tims Go (Express Maple stores), and Tims Express (Spirit Maple stores). The brand optimizes customer experience through mobile ordering and enhances coverage and operational efficiency via delivery services, striving to provide convenient service to consumers.
At the same time, the company has partnered with Metro and other collaborators to open Tims Go store-in-store locations and collaborated with Sinopec EasyJoy to launch small Tims Express stores, extending Tims outlets to supermarkets and gas stations to cover more coffee consumption scenarios.
It is reported that Tims China has received long-term support from several blue-chip shareholders, with institutional investors including Cartesian Capital, brand owner RBI, Tencent Investment, Sequoia China, and Zhongding Capital.
In September 2022, Tims Tianhao China officially listed on Nasdaq, with the funds raised used to further expand its business and deeply cultivate the domestic coffee market. In July 2024, Tims announced that it had secured a total of $65 million in financing and additional funds from founding shareholder Cartesian Capital Group, LLC and international restaurant group RBI (Restaurant Brands International Inc. (NYSE: QSR)).
It is worth noting that in the face of intensified competition in the domestic new tea beverage market and the rapid expansion of competitor stores, Tims Coffee has shown relatively steady pace in store openings in recent years.
Public information shows that by the end of 2021, more than three years after entering China, Tims Coffee had only 390 stores; in 2022 and 2023, it added 227 and 285 stores respectively; in the first quarter of 2024, the net increase in stores was only 4. In contrast, not to mention the疯狂 store expansion of Luckin and Cotti in China, even Starbucks, also a foreign chain coffee brand, added 885 net stores in China in 2023.
Since it is not competing on the speed of store openings, Tims Coffee must differentiate itself in the domestic market to maintain competitiveness, and the特色 combination of "coffee + warm food" has always been the brand's differentiated advantage in the domestic coffee industry, with bagel-centric products favored by consumers in first-tier cities.
In recent years, Tims Tianhao Coffee has continuously improved its bagel product line, including the healthy and nutritious "Grain Bagel" series, the delicious and light "Smile Bagel" series, and the energy-replenishing "Bagel Burger" series, covering all-day consumption scenarios.
At the product level, Tims Tianhao Coffee stated that in the future it will follow the healthy consumption trend and launch more low-calorie bagel meal sets, such as bagel sets with less than 400 calories. In addition, the brand emphasized that all beverages in-store promise 0 non-dairy creamer, 0 creamer, 0 hydrogenated vegetable oil, 0 trans fatty acids, and 0 instant tea powder.
At the opening site of the 1,000th store on October 25, Tims Tianhao China CEO Lu Yongchen announced the brand's latest proposition—"Fresh is delicious, healthy and low burden."
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
