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Tag: tea

  • Campos picked up by Dutch coffee giant for undisclosed sum

    Campos picked up by Dutch coffee giant for undisclosed sum

    Australian coffee chain Campos will be acquired by international pureplay JDE Peet for an undisclosed sum, with the transaction expected to be completed next month.

    Campos serves customers through direct-to-consumer, retail, and its own flagship cafes, as well as being available in over 600 cafes nationwide – channels that complement JDE Peet’s Australian retail operations.

    “We’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved from our humble beginnings on the streets of Newtown in Sydney,” said Campos founder Will Young.

    “We are confident that Campos can and will continue to grow under JDE Peet’s stewardship by continuing to focus on what made us Australia’s number one specialty coffee brand – high-quality coffee and great service.”

    JDE Peet’s general manager in Australia and New Zealand Albert Moncau said the Campos business is the “perfect fit” for the pureplay giant.

    “We look forward to welcoming the Campos team to our world of coffee and tea, learning from each other’s expertise and building on their award-winning coffee experience,” Moncau said.

    JDE Peet also owns and operates the L’OR, Moccona, Harris, Piazza Doro, Espresso di Manfredi, Two Seasons and Pickwick coffee and tea brands in Australia

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  • Masan acquires 20 pct stake in Phuc Long tea chain

    Masan acquires 20 pct stake in Phuc Long tea chain

    A subsidiary of the Masan Group conglomerate has signed an agreement to acquire a 20 percent stake in tea shop chain Phuc Long Heritage Jsc.

    Masan’s The Sherpa Company Ltd will pour $15 million into the company, established last week to own the Phuc Long brand, which is among the most popular beverage brands in Vietnam with 82 stores nationwide.

    The deal puts Phuc Long Heritage’s valuation at $75 million.

    It will help establish Phuc Long kiosks in over 2,200 VinMart+ convenience stores to provide tea and coffee to consumers.

    In the last three months, four pilot kiosks have been opened in Ho Chi Minh City and another 1,000 will be set up in the next 18-24 months.

    “I believe that in combining the Phuc Long products and VinMart+ network of more than 2,200 stores today and 10,000 stores in the next five years, we will provide 100 million Vietnamese consumers with the opportunity to enjoy the freshest, most delicious tea and coffee,” said Truong Cong Thang, CEO of VinCommerce.

    Each kiosk will share 20 percent of its revenue with VinMart+, adding 4 percentage points to the profit margin of the retail chain.

    Vietnam’s tea and coffee market is valued at $2.3 billion and is expected to grow more than 10 percent per year, according to data from Masan, which also estimates that popular brands like Highlands Coffee, The Coffee House and Starbucks account for 25 percent of the market.

  • Cafe de Coral Group appoints new managing director

    Cafe de Coral Group appoints new managing director

    Café de Coral has promoted Piony Leung to managing director (Hong Kong) with immediate effect.  In her new position, Leung reports to group CEO Peter Lo and manages business operations and provides strategic leadership across Café de Coral Group’s business in the city, including quick-service restaurants, casual dining, and institutional catering. She will also play a pivotal role in meeting the company’s growth goals in the Hong Kong F&B sector.

    Piony was previously managing director (quick-service restaurants) of Café de Coral Group, and boasts more than 25 years of experience in the retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. Under her leadership in 2020, the group’s quick-service restaurants business took a number of actions to address weak market conditions, shifted marketing focus to promote take-away and delivery services, redesigned menus to meet changing demand, and introduced an e-commerce platform for selling popular seasonal products such as poon choi and party sets.

    “In the face of unprecedented challenges, I am deeply impressed by our frontline staff who have gone above and beyond to service our customers while doing their best to meet our business goals. Although the economic outlook remains uncertain, I am committed to working side by side with my team members to explore future business opportunities and retain the Group’s leadership position in this rapidly changing market,” she commented.

    Speaking of Leung’s appointment, Lo said her leadership skills had led the team through major market shocks and adapted to the challenging business landscape.

    “In the post-pandemic era, it is essential that the group is able to capture opportunities bought by the fast-changing market and consumer behaviours. I have every confidence that she will be able to maximize business synergies and build a stronger brand portfolio by integrating the quick service restaurants, casual dining and institutional catering business as a whole, offering a wide range of food options that cater to the diverse tastes of the greater community,” Lo explained.

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  • Starbucks to open its first coffee store in Laos

    Starbucks to open its first coffee store in Laos

    Starbucks is to make Laos debut next year with its first store opening in the capital city of Vientiane.

    Laos will become Starbucks’s 17th market in Asia, with the first store scheduled to open in the third quarter of next year.

    Starbucks Laos will be managed by Coffee Concepts (Laos) Limited, part of Maxim’s Caterers Limited, a part-owned subsidiary of Dairy Farm International. Through Coffee Concepts, Starbucks operates more than 800 stores across Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand.

    According to Starbucks US, the launch is part of its strategy to expand its network across the region.

    “We’re excited to bring the Starbucks Experience to Laos, which has a rich history of coffee production and thriving coffee culture,” said Michael Conway, executive VP at Starbucks International Licensed Stores.

    Michael Wu, chairman and MD at Maxim’s Caterers, added: “We look forward to continuing to deliver the unique Starbucks Experience to customers in the market to earn the trust and respect known by customers around the world.”

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  • Starbucks China opens first coffee outlet made of containers

    Starbucks China opens first coffee outlet made of containers

    Starbucks has just unveiled a new concept store in China created inside six repurposed shipping containers.

    An identical concept, created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, first appeared in Taiwan. As the 800th store in Shanghai, the Starbucks container store helped set a new record for the city – it has more Starbucks stores than any other city in the world.

    The cafe is located at Shanghai’s Wisdom Bay Science Innovation Park, on space which was formerly home to warehouses and container storage yards.

    Today, the area has been gentrified, converting abandoned cargo containers into office spaces as well has housed the nation’s first museum of 3D printing.

    Elements of the Silicon Valley-esque structure have also been replicated inside the store to create ‘cultural coffee experiences’, an art gallery and a wall installation art piece created by a 3D printer.

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  • TWG Tea plans opening 20 online stores this year

    TWG Tea plans opening 20 online stores this year

    TWG Tea is expanding its digital footprint with more than 20 new online stores scheduled to open this year.

    TWG Tea’s online stores will be rolled out across Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe on third-party marketplaces, including Amazon, Zalora, and Lazada. The company said more products will be exclusively launched online, including its Autumn Haute Couture Tea blends, New World Tea and Destiny Tea.

    “We know that even during this pandemic, demand for TWG Tea is high,” said Maranda Barnes, co-founder of TWG Tea. “With this in mind, we went the extra mile to reach out to consumers through some of their preferred third-party online platforms in each of our markets.”

    “Rather than solely concentrating on expansion through brick-and-mortar locations, these new digital shopfronts are now quickly becoming an integral part of our global expansion strategy and are allowing us to provide an integrated luxury e-retail experience to customers around the world,” she said.

    TWG Tea operates 68 ‘Tea Salons’ and boutiques in 19 countries and has nine online ‘flagship stores’.

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  • R&B Tea expanding in the Philippines 

    R&B Tea expanding in the Philippines 

    Singapore-based Koufu Group is taking R&B Tea to the Philippines with Shakey’s Pizza.

    Under the franchise agreement, Shakey’s will sell selected R&B Tea drinks in Shakey’s and Peri Peri stores in the first year of business, and subsequently open at least five stand-alone R&B Tea outlets in the Philippines.

    “This marks our second milestone this year, following the acquisition of Deli Asia Group, despite the challenging market conditions from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Pang Lim, executive chairman, and CEO at Koufu.

    “We have carefully considered the market trends and found the conditions in the Philippines to be favorable, with a growing receptiveness towards the bubble-tea culture in recent years.”

    R&B Tea is one of Asia’s most popular bubble-milk tea brands, operating more than 1000 outlets across China, the US, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

    “This co-branding initiative is likewise in line with our renewed focus on out-of-store consumption, enhancing sales through these channels with minimal additional investment and maximizing the use of our existing assets,” said Vicente Gregorio, president and CEO of Shakey’s.

    Gregorio is confident the bubble-tea sector can create a third pillar of growth for Shakey’s.

    Shakey’s is the Philippines’ largest casual dining restaurant brand

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  • Yi Fang Fruit Tea increasing its global expansion pace

    Yi Fang Fruit Tea increasing its global expansion pace

    Taiwanese tea brand Yi Fang Fruit Tea is expanding its retail network globally despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The founder of Yi Fang, Ko Tzu-kai, said the brand will open more stores in northern California where consumers are seeking healthier beverage options. More stores will follow later this year in Dubai along with European countries, including Paris and Sweden.

    Yi Fang operates more than 170 branches outside Taiwan, including Japan, China, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The brand aims to reach 200 stores by the end of this year.

    According to UDN, since July, Yi Fang has opened more than 12 outlets across regions including Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Canada. Yi Fang’s offshore sales account for about 40 percent of the brand’s revenue.

    Last year, the brand was forced to close more than 30 outlets in Taiwan after its announcement to support China’s “one country, two systems” policy triggered a boycott in the country.

  • India’s Cafe Coffee Day shuts 280 stores

    India’s Cafe Coffee Day shuts 280 stores

    Indian coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day shuttered 280 outlets between April and June due to low profitability and potentially rising costs.

    The firm, which now operates 1480 outlets, has also reported a decline in average daily sales from 15,739 cups to 15,445 cups during the period. This was counterbalanced by an uptick in Coffee Day’s vending machine count from 49,397 to 59,115 units year on year.

    “Export operations have been temporarily stopped due to lower margins and higher working capital requirement and around 280 outlets are closed during the quarter based on various factors including the profitability, future increase in major expenses,” said a spokesperson for the firm.

    The firm has struggled since the apparent suicide of founder VG Siddhartha a year ago. Siddhartha founded Coffee Day Enterprises in the late 1990s, years before Starbucks made its Indian debut, building a network of 1700 outlets – 10 times the size of Starbucks.

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  • Wedgwood opens tea-room experience in China

    Wedgwood opens tea-room experience in China

    Vintage ceramics firm Wedgwood has opened a new pilot store at The MixC Luohu mall in Chinese Shenzhen. The Tea Room Experience, which invites customers to try out products according to their own style, represents the first move in Wedgwood’s reimagined brand aesthetic, with the new designs expected to be rolled out globally following the Shenzhen launch. Shoppers in the luxury mall will experience a modern interpretation of a fundamentally British mode in the 2nd-floor tea room.

    “China is our key growth market and we are aiming for double-digit growth over the next three years, so we will be looking closely at the new stores to learn along the way,” said Wedgwood VP Paivi Svens. “We hope that our new stores and tea rooms will encourage conversations and inspire people to focus more on their own homes and become confident in expressing their own personal style.”

    The experience was created in partnership with British design firm Checkland Kindleysides based on the brand’s new proposition “celebrating eclectic originals”. The store presents three zones – a Garden Room, a Pantry and a Tea Emporium – that “balance minimalism with maximalism with strong visual articulations of Wedgwood’s horticultural connections”, according to the firm.

    Customers are invited to immerse themselves in the brand history and collections via interactive displays, while more than half of the available floor space is given over to service and experience over shopping – an unusual balance in a small format store. “In-store stylists” remain on hand to encourage shoppers to recombine product groups from the various zones to discover their own style.

    Further executions of this concept store will be built across China later this year, with flagships in key global cities following next year

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  • Luckin Coffee names new chairman and CEO after founder ousted

    Luckin Coffee names new chairman and CEO after founder ousted

    Luckin Coffee has named Jinyi Guo as chairman and CEO as the Chinese chain tries to move past an accounting scandal that nearly brought it down.

    Guo, a director, and former acting CEO, replaces founder and former chairman Charles Zhengyao Lu, who was voted out by shareholders, the company said Monday in a statement. Yang Cha, Feng Liu, Jie Yang, and Ying Zeng were also appointed as independent directors, while David Hui Li, Erhai Liu, and Sean Shao left the board following an extraordinary general meeting July 5 and board meeting July 12.

    While shareholders voted to remove Lu and the other three directors, some investors cried foul because Lu had nominated two of the new members to the board, potentially giving him ongoing influence at the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.

    Lu has come under fire amid an accounting scandal that has already led to the firing of Luckin’s CEO and made its stock nearly worthless. Chinese and U.S. regulators have been investigating the company over fabricated transactions that inflated net sales by about US$300 million last year.

    The scandal has rocked the Xiamen-based company once considered among China’s brightest growth stories, sending the US-listed stock plunging 93 percent this year. The situation is also a black eye for China Inc as the US Congress moves closer to passing legislation that could bar Chinese companies from trading on US stock exchanges.

    In May, Luckin Coffee dismissed CEO Jenny Zhiya Qian, COO Jian Liu, and some employees who reported to them, after uncovering the scheme that funneled funds to the company from several third parties with links to the participants. The board said it fired the executives based on evidence showing their participation in the false transactions.

    Lu became a billionaire after his fast-growing Chinese chain went public in the US, but much of his wealth was wiped out by the plunge in Luckin’s stock. Lu last month resigned as chairman of Car Inc, China’s biggest rental-car fleet operator, as scrutiny increased over Luckin and the accounting scandal.

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  • Starbucks set to open its first bakery cafe in South Korea

    Starbucks set to open its first bakery cafe in South Korea

    Starbucks, marking its 21st year in South Korea with more than 1400 stores across the country, will open its first bakery cafe this month.

    Starbucks Korea, the local unit of the US coffee giant, plans to open a bakery in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, overlooking the Namhan River. It will also feature a bar that serves the company’s tea brand Teavana.

    The company has been outsourcing the production of the baked goods it sells at its stores.

    The new store, however, will bake fresh bread on site with dough from Shinsegae Food, the food manufacturing arm of South Korean retail giant Shinsegae Group, which owns 50 percent of the South Korean Starbucks franchise through subsidiary E-mart

    The new initiative is seen as an attempt to achieve a new breakthrough in South Korea’s overcrowded coffee market.

    More than 70 percent of Starbucks sales come from drinks, with food accounting for about 20 percent of sales.

    Starbucks has been introducing new baked goods every one or two months to persuade customers to buy more bread or cakes and bakery sales have been growing by more than 20 percent annually.

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  • Starbucks India opens first drive-thru store

    Starbucks India opens first drive-thru store

    Starbucks India has opened its first drive-thru store in Singhpura, Zirakpur. Located in Dhillon Plaza, the store spans two floors, featuring large in-store seating and ceiling-to-floor windows, offering a large dine-in space as well

    At the drive-thru window, customers can order drinks from the same menu as in-store and pick up from their car.

    “The opening of our first drive-thru store showcases our commitment to evolving our brand and business in India to provide new and meaningful experiences to our customers,” said Navin Gurnaney, CEO at Tata Starbucks, the local franchisee of the North American cafe chain.

    Tata Starbucks operates 187 stores across India.

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  • Chinese tea brand Nayuki opening in Japan

    Chinese tea brand Nayuki opening in Japan

    Chinese fruit-based cheese tea brand Nayuki is making its debut in Japan, opening its first cafe in the Zero Gate shopping complex in Osaka.

    The new 200sqm store features a teahouse experience similar to the brand’s locations in its home market, incorporating special details to match modern Japanese culture.

    “As a brand dedicated to becoming the innovator and promoter of the tea culture, we wish to deliver an exceptional experience for the local residents, one that reflects our passion for creating unique tea-based drinks for tea lovers worldwide,“ said Nayuki founder Peng Xin.

    The new outlet serves a wide range of tea drinks made by tea baristas as well as low oil and sugar-content soft-euro bakes.

    Nayuki operates nearly 400 stores in China, ranging from 1200–11,000sqft in prime locations across the country and also has stores in Singapore.

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