If you do n’t know the dangers of the game, the years on the surface of the tea industry are quiet, and the true situation of the industry is hidden. Most of the people who entered the game are blinded by the word “profiteering”.
Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “Rui company” (ID: shangjiezz) < / a>, Author / Editor Liu Xuting / Zheng Luan.
People who want to resign to open a milk tea shop will fantasize: sit back and wait for “coins” every day, and use a cup of long-sweet and refreshing milk tea to polish each day. Yes, this is indeed fantasy.
According to company search data, so far in 2019, there have been 82,157 newly registered milk tea companies in the country, of which 8 1080 have been registered by individual industrial and commercial households, accounting for about 98.7%.
If you do n’t know the dangers of the game, the years on the surface of the tea industry are quiet, which hides the true situation of the industry. Most of the people who are in the game are blinded by the word “profiteering”.
In fact, from the selection of the milk tea brand to the successful opening of the milk tea shop, first of all, we must go through the inspection of various brands of milk tea; invest a large amount of franchise fee, raw material fee, rent, and decoration fee in the early stage; find and successfully rent a dense crowd of people To recruit employees and train them according to the needs of the store; finally, to compete with dozens of nearby tea shops of the same category; and to rely on the dawn of profitability to support their courage to continue opening the store …
An industry insider who has been in the industry for many years said: “The milk tea market is currently showing a ‘nineteen’ pattern. Less than 10% of the stores are truly profitable, and the remaining 90% are difficult to survive.”
Opening a milk tea shop is like upgrading and playing monsters in the game. Only by accumulating a certain level through each level can you defeat the ultimate boss and win the final victory, but it is countless to be eliminated halfway through.
The raw material is the foundation
Since both love milk tea, Xiaolan and Gao have the same dream: resign and open a milk tea shop. They yearn for not being tied to the work of 9-5, can take charge of their own lives, and can enjoy a restful life every day.
In April 2019, Xiaolan opened her first milk tea shop in her life. This name is a true portrayal of her heart. In these busy years, there needs to be a space for the mind to rest.
Now milkingThere are two ways for tea shops: one is to buy milk tea ingredients directly through raw material suppliers; the other is to join. In the industry, it is common practice for raw material suppliers to sell ingredients of well-known milk tea brands. In the market, Nai Xue’s tea, CoCo, and a little bit of official ingredients (the original manufacturer’s formula can be sold publicly) are the most popular with tea shops.
Even if it is a milk tea shop opened through a franchise brand, some raw material suppliers will come to you and ask if they need alternative ingredients of the same taste. 98% of customers will not taste different in taste. Although this kind of raw material is cheap, its quality is not good.
Yan Zhen, vice president of Heilong Tea, told reporters in the “Business” that many milk tea shops in the market only use publicly available raw materials. The products they produce have the same taste, no features, and the threshold for replication is too low. This is beneficial for brands with highly customized raw materials. Under the situation of market saturation, after a large-scale reshuffle in the industry, brands with R & D customization capabilities can go further.
In fact, if you want to make a good tea company, the product is the cornerstone. In addition to the necessary official materials, many head tea brands will work on the raw materials, and more than 90% of the raw materials will be customized. Hi Tea not only has its own tea garden, but also has in-depth cooperation with many upstream tea suppliers. According to the needs of its own products, it customizes raw materials to tea workers. The raw material of black dragon tea is also a custom product. In order to make the product taste better, the previous creamer became fresh milk, jam became fresh fruit, and it also gave birth to innovative categories such as milk caps and cheeses.
Unlike Gao chose to join a brand company, Xiaolan chooses to buy milk tea ingredients from a coffee company. As long as the company buys raw materials from this company, the company promises to teach Xiaolan to make tea for free, but the company ’s main business is Business is coffee.
Within less than a week of studying, I took a break and opened outside a noble middle school in Xiaolan’s hometown. Together with her, I have a well-known brand store such as Gongcha, Mixuebingcheng, and Auntie.
Before opening the store, Xiaolan had a calculator in her heart. “The cost of a cup of milk tea is 1-2 yuan. Even if you add fresh fruit, the cost is 2-3 yuan. The unit price range of the products in the shop is mostly 5-14 yuan. In between, this is the naked profit! “
But what she didn’t expect is that there is often a monroe outside the store after opening, which is in stark contrast to the phenomenon of queues outside other tea shops. No one had told her that the shelf life of her dreams might be only three months.
Three months later, she reluctantly shuts down her rest time. 20,000 yuan (store transfer fee), 5,000 yuan (raw materials fee), 10,500 yuan (rent), 5,000 yuan (decoration fee), 24,000 yuan (labor fee), a total of 64,500 yuan, the deposit before resignation has been spent, Xiaolan bear Can’t afford the long time cost.
Compared with Xiaolan’s experience, Gao’s journey of opening a store seems to be more ups and downs and weathered.
Location mastery of tea shop
The location of the tea shop holds its power of life and death. In the early days of opening the store, Sister Gao was so anxious to win her favorite shop.
Every day before 9 am to 5 pm, at 12:00, Sister Gao worked in a public institution for 8 years. Except her husband, no one in the family supported her to start a milk tea shop. She knew it was a big bet.
Since she was determined to open a tea shop, Sister Gao was looking for a suitable brand to join. By chance, a tea brand from a Shenzhen tea brand captured Sister Gao’s taste buds.
She roughly calculated the cost of opening the store, the joining fee is about 100,000 yuan, the security is 20,000 yuan, the first batch of equipment and material costs is about 200,000 yuan, the decoration cost is about 200,000 yuan, and the store rent, employee wages, water and electricity costs As well as the procurement of local raw materials, a total of about 700,000 yuan is required for start-up capital. In order to prepare sufficient start-up funds, she did not hesitate to lend to the bank.
Sister Gao’s city is Xining, Qinghai. Due to the special geographical environment, the resident population is small, the city is not large, and the popular business districts are saturated and unable to settle in. She suddenly realized that even with sufficient start-up funds, it will not be smooth. To open a store.
At this time, Gao Gao, everything is only due to Dongfeng, the arrow has to be sent on the string, the resignation report has been submitted, the store has not landed, the tourist season is coming (the tourist season is also the peak season of the beverage store), and the family has the last ultimatum. When she couldn’t find a shop within one month, she was asked to return to her unit to work.
At that time, Sister Gao found countless business districts. She wanted to buy a store in the relationship. After submitting brand-related information to the business district, she was in an anxious state waiting for the business district to review. Finally, the business district responded: Shop Drink shops are not allowed.
It is understood that if the brand can bring traffic to the business district, real estate developers are more inclined to choose it. Therefore, brands that are very active on social media generally have stronger bargaining power and can get better positions with lower rents. Sisyphus Bookstore is a typical example. The rent from the real estate agent to Xifufu is as low as 10% of the market price, and even rent-free is accepted, and the model is only divided. Nie Yundi, the founder of Xicha, also said that rents for Xicha Napu are generally low.
Compared to these brands with their own traffic, Gao’s tea brand has no advantage. The one-month deadline was approaching immediately. When Sister Gao was frustrated, she saw the news of a store transfer, and the location was still in a popular business district. She decided to seize this vitality and take down the store.
I thought that the store would be all right after opening the store, but unexpected problems followed. The shelf life of fresh milk in the direct-operated store is only 12 days. It is impossible to ship it to Xining, a northwest fortress, within the time limit. On the way to Yuanyuan, Gao stepped through the door of every supermarket and store …
Since then, Sister Gao’s work status has changed from 955 to 9127. Every day, she not only has to fight with 30 neighboring tea shops in the same category, but also has to worry about appeasing all kinds of “strange” customers. But sister GaoShe said that if she chooses again, she will resign recklessly and choose to open a tea shop. As long as she has light in her heart, even the most difficult difficulties can be overcome.
Is the money of milk tea really profitable?
2018 is known as the “New Year of Chinese New Tea Drinks”, and big capitalists are all in love with this cup of “tea”. In March 2018, Nai Xue’s tea announced that it had obtained several billion yuan A + round of financing led by Tiantu Capital, with a valuation of 6 billion yuan. In April, Xicha obtained a B round of financing led by Dragon Ball Capital. The initial 200 million yuan has been increased to 400 million yuan.
In late July, LatePost reported that Hi Tea is about to complete a new round of financing, led by heavyweight players Tencent and Sequoia Capital, with a valuation of 9 billion yuan. This valuation immediately opened up the new tea beverage market. Up the pot. If Hi Tea completes its latest round of financing, Hi Tea will receive the highest valuation of the new tea beverage market.
The White Paper on New Tea Consumption 2019 shows that the total scale of China’s tea beverage market will exceed 400 billion yuan in 2019.
Whether it is hi tea or nai snow tea, the long queues outside the tea shop have been common. At the time when the tea was the hottest, a 30 yuan cup of tea was doubled by yellow cattle.
6 billion yuan, 9 billion yuan, 2 times, 5 times. These lively numbers are constantly beating in the hearts of those who want to resign to open a milk tea shop. They think that there are huge profits and they want to enter the game.
But the reality is that the tea industry is extremely fiercely competitive, and it is now a red sea. A little bit of the head companies, CoCo, Hi Tea, Nayuki’s tea, etc. basically made most of the money in this market.
A little bit and CoCo have adopted the franchise model, Hi Tea and Nayuki’s tea are all directly operated stores.
Although it is open to join a little bit, it is very difficult to apply. Some people have submitted the application form for one or two years without any reply; CoCo’s current single-store franchise and regional authorization have been basically saturated. Waiting for someone to transfer, but this probability is very small.
Another pain point of the tea industry is trademarks.
The trademark registration cycle in China is relatively long. After a tea brand became popular, the trademark application has not been successfully registered. At this time, Kuaizhao Co., Ltd. copied the shops that could be faked with lightning, and then attracted investment across the country to make false promises to those who wanted to join. These people could easily join in front of huge temptations. However, the company has neither product development and innovation capabilities, nor store operation and management capabilities. Usually, after the store is opened, it will be ignored.
The most typical example is Antlers Lane. There is no franchise in Lujiao Lane. Currently, there are only direct-operated stores or partner stores. There are now more than 3,000 Lujiao Lane in China, of which only 136 are authentic (data from food safety nets).
The milk tea shop model operated by Xiaolan in the above still stayed five or six years ago. Saving raw material costs by five or six times the selling price of a cup is indeed profitable.Consumers don’t buy it.
Hi Tea first developed high-quality milk caps and a wide range of raw leaf teas. The entire industry is currently being forced to raise the level of raw materials. Before Hi Tea became popular, it was just a small shop in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province. At the beginning of its establishment, the founder Nie Yunzheng strictly selected milk tea ingredients and adjusted the formula.
Mr. Gao chose this brand because most of its ingredients are the same as that used for tea, such as Anjia for cream and Nestlé condensed milk for fresh milk.
From the establishment of a milk tea shop to its profitability and popularity, it needs not only sufficient start-up capital, but also the ability to screen out the correct information from a large amount of information, and the ability to think about innovative products. The reason why hi tea has become a phenomenal new tea brand is because of the brand potential brought about by its marketing methods; to build its own brand culture; to adapt to market fluctuations; to build upstream barriers at the supply chain level to open up the industry’s upstream and downstream.
At the beginning of the Huadeng Festival, the last customer in the store was taken away. Sister Gao and several employees were going to close the house and go home. She doesn’t know how long she can hold on to this career, but she proves that life isn’t just a step-by-step process.