At the beginning of this year, Honey Snow Ice City and Gu Ming on the same day to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the two major Chinese tea brands Qi Qi launched an impact on the listing.。If you add in the tea table in August 2023, Hong Kong stocks are expected to add three more tea stocks after Naixue's tea.。

Competition for the second share of tea

Although there are many domestic tea brands in China, so far only Naixue's tea is listed as a "single seedling."。

In the increasingly competitive situation, many tea brands urgently need to raise funds through listing to further expand。According to incomplete statistics, Xi tea, tea hundred, honey snow ice city, ancient tea, Shanghai aunt, overlord tea Ji and so on have spread the news of preparation for listing, the target is aimed at the "tea drink second share"。Now, with the submission of prospectuses to the HKEx one by one, the curtain is slowly lifting on the second half of the competition。

It is worth noting that the original Honey Snow Ice City is the closest to becoming the "second share of tea."。As early as September 2022, Honey Snow Ice City had prepared to list on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and entered the acceptance stage, according to the pre-disclosed prospectus, Honey Snow Ice City intends to raise 64.9.6 billion yuan, is expected to be officially listed in the first quarter of 2023。But then encountered the landing of the full registration system, at that time in the main board IPO mostly transferred to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange for acceptance, but in the translation of the list of enterprises but did not see the figure of Honey Snow Ice City, Honey Snow Ice City's A-share tour disappeared.。Then in the second half of 2023, there have been many times in the industry that Honey Snow Ice City is going to move to a Hong Kong stock listing, and it was not until early this year that the HKEx news was officially confirmed.。

Store expansion

According to the "2023 New Tea Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the New Tea Committee of the China Chain Management Association (hereinafter referred to as CCFA) in conjunction with Meituan, the scale of China's new tea consumption market is expected to reach 149.8 billion yuan in 2023, with a compound growth rate of nearly 20% in the past three years.。By 2025, the market size is expected to expand further to $201.5 billion.。

Along with the rising market size, the stores of the major tea brands are expanding wildly.。The report mentions that, according to incomplete statistics, the total number of new tea shops in operation as of August 31, 2023 was approximately 51.50,000, up from 37 at the end of 2020.80,000 increased by more than 36%。

Among the current tea brands, the store expansion of "Snow King" is the craziest, and the number of stores in Honey Snow Ice City is already the number one.。

It has more than 32,000 stores in China and about 4,000 overseas, according to its prospectus.。In addition, in the first nine months of 2023, the store network of Honey Snow Ice City reached about 5.8 billion cups.。According to the report of Burning Consulting, according to the number of stores as of September 30, 2023 and the number of drinks in the first nine months of 2023, Honey Snow Ice City is the number one current beverage company in China and the number two in the world.。

The number of stores is Gu Ming behind Honey Snow Ice City.。According to Gumming's prospectus, as of December 31, 2023, Gumming's store network had 9,001 stores, an increase of 35 from the end of 2022..0%。At present, Gu Ming is the most promising to become the second tea brand to enter the "ten thousand store era."。

In addition, according to the latest data from Chabaidao's prospectus, the number of its stores is 7,111, covering 31 provinces and cities across the country, achieving full coverage of all provinces and cities in mainland China.。In addition, by the end of 2023, the number of stores where books are also burning fairy grass is close to that of Chabaidao, with more than 7,000 stores.。

From the point of view of the number of stores, ancient tea, tea hundred, books also burn fairy grass have entered the impact of the "ten thousand store era" stage.。

Where to expand next？

The three brands that have entered the IPO process happen to be in the top three in terms of number of stores.。But even if store expansion has reached the forefront of the industry, the three tea brands are still not satisfied。As can be seen from their prospectus, store expansion remains one of their strategic goals。However, based on their different development status, the three in the next direction of expansion is not the same。

● Ancient tea: to the north

According to the prospectus, as of December 31, 2023, Guming had established a presence in 15 provinces across the country and a store network of more than critical size in eight of them, all of which are located in southern China.。At the same time, there are still 19 provinces in China that have not yet been laid out, and they are basically in the northern part of China in a broad sense.。The company believes that this gives it a lot of room for growth.。It can be seen that the probability of the subsequent expansion direction of ancient tea is to push north.。

● Tea Baidao: sinking

According to Chabaidao's prospectus, it accounts for about 60% of cities in and below the second tier, and there is plenty of room for expansion compared to Gu Ming (about 80%) and Honey Snow Ice City (about 75%).。

In the prospectus, when it comes to development strategies, Chabaido ranks store expansion at the top of the list。

The first of the expansion plans of Chabaidao is to increase the penetration rate of stores in the already laid out area.。At the same time, Chabaidao believes that there is still a large market space in low-tier cities.。The company said that based on big data analysis, it intends to further encrypt stores in second-tier cities and below, giving priority to strategic areas such as encryption potential business circles.。At the same time, Chabaidao will encourage existing franchisees to open a number of stores, continue to give franchise fee incentives to multi-store franchisees and empower franchisees to improve operational efficiency and profitability.。

● Honey Snow Ice City: Going to Sea

According to the prospectus of Honey Snow Ice City, as of September 30, 2023, Honey Snow Ice City's store network has spread across 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, about 300 prefecture-level cities, 1,700 counties and 3,100 townships, covering all line-level cities.。Honey Snow Ice City has industry-leading penetration in the sinking market, according to a report by Insight Consulting.。And the breadth and depth of the store network in Honey Snow Ice City has been distinguished from other current beverage brands in China.。In other words, the store expansion of Honey Snow Ice City has come to the "next level."。

In 2018, the first overseas store of Honey Snow Ice City opened in Hanoi, Vietnam。At present, honey snow ice city stores have covered 11 overseas countries。According to a report by Insight Consulting, Honey Snow Ice City is the number one current tea brand in the Southeast Asian market based on the number of stores as of September 30, 2023.。

In the prospectus, Honey Snow Ice City said that one of its strategic goals is to consolidate its leading position in China's current beverage industry and actively expand overseas markets。"Overseas, first of all, we will continue to focus on the Southeast Asian market and continue to expand the local franchise store network。Second, we will explore other markets in due course and build a more global brand.。"

The supply side becomes the new inner roll track

In addition to the "volume" in the number of stores, supply and logistics are also the focus of the above three major tea brands.。

The price of honey snow ice city core products is usually 2 yuan to 8 yuan。The reason why Honey Snow Ice City can maintain this low price range for a long time and in different regions is closely related to its huge supply of raw materials and logistics system.。

Since 2014, Honey Snow Ice City has been building a self-operated storage system.。According to the prospectus, as of September 30, 2023, Honey Snow Ice City's storage system consists of 26 warehouses with a total area of more than 300,000 square meters, the largest in the industry.。

In addition, to support its overseas business, as of September 30, 2023, Honey Snow Ice City had established a localized warehousing system in four countries in Southeast Asia, including a total of approximately 6.11 self-operated warehouses of 60,000 square meters。

In addition to building a storage system, Honey Snow Ice City has also built a number of raw material production bases.。At present, Honey Snow Ice City has 5 production bases in Henan, Hainan, Guangxi, Chongqing, Anhui and other places in China.。These production bases deliver sugar, milk, tea, coffee, fruit and other raw materials for tea drinks to the franchise stores in Honey Snow Ice City.。

Guming's logistics and warehousing system is also a leader in the industry.。

In the prospectus, Gumming said that as of September 30, 2023, its cold chain warehousing and logistics infrastructure was the largest of any existing tea shop brand in China.。In the first nine months of 2023, among China's top ten current tea shop brands by GMV, Gu Ming is the only company that can frequently distribute short-shelf fresh fruits and milk to stores in low-tier cities.。

According to the Burning Knowledge Advisory Report, the average warehouse-to-store delivery cost of Gu Ming is only about 0% of GMV's.9%, well below the industry average of 2%。By the end of September 2023, Guming had completed the cold chain distribution of raw materials worth more than RMB 3 billion, the highest level in China's current tea shop industry.。

As of September 30, 2023, Guming has 21 warehouses with a total floor area of over 200,000 square meters, including over 40,000 cubic meters of cold storage that can support different low temperature ranges.。Moreover, more than 75% of Guming's stores are located within 150 kilometers of the warehouse, greatly improving the efficiency of its logistics operations.。

Among the uses of the funds raised by the listing, Gu Ming said it would use some of the funds to invest in warehouses and processing plants.。Gu said it expects to operate new warehouses with refrigeration / freezing capacity in provinces where it plans to have a dense network of stores in the next three to five years to expand its warehousing infrastructure.。The company also plans to invest in smart warehousing facilities to support automated storage, packaging, inventory management and information tracking, thereby improving the efficiency of warehouse operations.。At the same time, Gu Ming also plans to invest in processing plants to continue to strengthen its raw material processing capacity.。

Unlike the self-built supply system of Honey Snow Ice City and Gu Ming, Chabaidao is still more dependent on third-party suppliers.。

In the prospectus, Chabaidao mentioned that the company has established a nationwide warehousing and logistics network through self-management and third-party cooperation.。As at 31 March 2023, its storage facilities consisted of 22 high-standard warehouses with a total floor area of approximately 80,000 square metres, including 17 central warehouses and five front warehouses.。

By the end of March 2023, Chabaidao has realized the unified procurement and distribution of core fruit categories in most stores, and has directly signed procurement agreements with the national high-quality fruit producing areas for some core fruits, locking in long-term supply from the source in batches.。In addition, for the purchase of large quantities of dairy products, tea, frozen freshly squeezed juice and other core raw materials, Chabaidao has also continued to strengthen cooperation with head suppliers with source pastures and advanced production processes to lock in high-quality production areas and supply quantities of upstream raw materials.。

At the same time, with the development of the company, Chabaidao will enhance the supply chain capabilities into the company's development strategy.。

IP creation and joint marketing

For tea brands, to create their own IP, learn to market themselves in order to stand out in many tea brands。

Mentioning the IP of the tea industry, we have to mention the "Snow King" of Honey Snow Ice City.。When asked about the super IP of China's current beverage industry, 79.1% of consumers choose "Snow King"。

According to the prospectus, as of the Latest Practicable Date, the cumulative exposure of topics related to "Snow King" and the theme song of "Snow Ice City" on major social platforms exceeded 8.7 billion and 8.4 billion, respectively.。

Around the IP of "Snow King," Honey Snow Ice City has also developed other derivative service products such as Snow King Wenchuang and Snow King Animation.。Snow City will also hold "Snow King" parade and "Snow King" music festival and other activities。According to Honey Snow Ice City, the animation "Snow King Arrives" featuring "Snow King" has achieved more than 2 broadcasts since its launch in August 2023..0 billion times。Vietnam 2023 Children's Day period, "Snow King" painting activities related to the topic has more than 66 million views。

For other tea brands that have not formed a super IP like Honey Snow Ice City, "joint marketing" is the most common marketing method.。According to incomplete statistics, in the first three quarters of 2023, the number of joint marketing events of 18 new tea brands, including Chabaidao, Naixue's tea and Gu Ming, exceeded 230.。

In 2023, a number of joint activities, such as Chabaidao and the mobile game "Undetermined Event Book," Chabaidao and the popular film and television drama "Sauvignon Blanc," Gu Ming and the popular film and television drama "Lotus House," and the popular animation "Heavenly Official Blessing," all led to hot drinks in tea stores.。

Conclusion

As tea brands such as Chabaidao have entered the listing stage, the future competition of existing tea brands is likely to usher in a new "shuffle."。, R & D, supply chain, digitalization, cold chain logistics, marketing, every link has room for development.。Listing is not the end, but a new starting point, the second half of the competition has just begun。Follow-up major brands will be how to "show their hands and feet," let us wait and see。