Recently, Naixue’s Tea issued an operating situation and profit warning for the third quarter of 2021. The announcement stated that due to factors such as the recurrence of the epidemic in the second half of the year and the weakening of domestic consumption, it is expected that the full-year revenue in 2021 will be 20%. Year-on-year growth will be lower than expected.
But what is abnormal is that while the revenue is declining, the number of new stores in 2021 has exceeded the plan. In the third quarter alone, Naixue opened 90 tea shops, and it is expected that there will be 90 new tea shops in 2021. About 350 tea shops have been opened, but since the establishment of the business in 2015, President Nai Xue has only opened more than 500 stores, which caused the newly floating performance to suffer losses again. According to the highest market value of 18.98 Hong Kong dollars per share, Naixue’s share in the capital market is now almost halved.
But this has not affected New Tea’s determination to continue to sprint into the capital market. Mixue Bingcheng’s listing location has changed several times, and it finally plans to issue shares and list its shares on the A-share market for the first time. Earlier, Tea Baidao , Chayanyuese also has news of its listing. Following Naixue’s “jump start”, the race to go public in the tea beverage industry has begun.
In the multi-layered latitudes of new products, categories, store openings, and transformation, milk tea companies still have the enthusiasm to continue to innovate.
01 There are always "new species" yet to be discovered
Little Red Book was once again swallowed up by Nai Xue's new tea product, "duck shit fragrance", three words in big words, Be part of the picture-making rate. On Weibo, the topic #豆奶香奶茶是什么意思# has been read 150 million times, and more than 35,000 people have participated in the discussion. The hot search for "duck shit fragrance" is due to another promotion by new tea brands.
At the end of October, Naixue’s Tea launched a new milk tea product, Duck Shit Fragrance Treasure Tea, using “Duck Shit Fragrance Tea” as the raw material. Shortly after the launch, Mixue Bingcheng followed closely, and in its day Cat’s official flagship store has started pre-sale of duck poop-scented Dancong tea bags.
This is not the first time in the world of milk tea that there is a collision of styles.
Since the most intense summer last year, tea brands have embarked on the road of "you love me, I love you" in their products. The first one selected was Peach, which is a relatively Fruits that can be accepted by most consumers. Since then, "Zhizhi Peach" and "Domineering Peach" have become the most popular items of Heytea and Nayuki respectively; then, seasonal fruits "Succulent Bayberry" and "Domineering Bayberry" "Meilongmangmang", "Domineering Cheese Emerald Melon", "Succulent Cherry" and "Domineering Cherry" were on the hot list in stages. After "Coconut Head" became popular, Heytea first launched "Raw Coconut", Naixue also launched "Domineering Coconut".
The story goes even more bizarre after that. The new tea drinkers have extended their perspective to more niche fruits, such as "yougan" and "yellow peel", which are only in the Chaoshan area. It quickly became popular and even caused the price of tangerines in its origin to rise eightfold.
After a new flavor becomes a hit, each company will step up to follow up. The old battle between the two founders of Nayuki and Heytea in the circle of friends whether to be original or plagiarized has long gone. New tea drinks They seem to have reached a certain tacit understanding. The rearrangement and combination of fruits, tea, and snacks can once again arouse a topic in the minds of consumers.
Mixue Bingcheng extends its reach further, re-presenting Henan’s traditional braised noodles and local specialties steamed buns through drinks and ice cream - coconut milk braised noodles, steamed steamed buns ice cream and fried buns Strings, more possibilities to try "weird" new products.
However, no matter in terms of raw materials, cooking methods, time to market or selling price, each company is very close.
After testing dozens of new products from milk tea shops, Douyin review blogger "Bangbangji" lamented, "Milk tea lovers, please return to your original intention. I just want a cup of pure milk tea. ”
An employee of Heytea also told Tech Planet that new products can indeed attract more traffic. Sometimes nearly half of the orders in the store are for trying new products.
According to statistics, in 2020, HeyTea will launch a new product every 1.2 weeks on average. Naixue will launch 30 new freshly made drinks throughout the year, and Gu Ming will launch 79 new products throughout the year. New products are launched quickly. Frequency not only causes consumers to quickly deplete the novelty of the taste, but in the future, as competition escalates, the Matthew effect will become more prominent. After the industry enters the supply chain drive, products will become more homogeneous, and consumers will be more interested in the novelty. The threshold is further raised, and the "involution" of industry marketing is intensified.
How to find the next hot "new species" as soon as possible will still be the theme of the continuous advancement of new tea drinks.
02 Big stores, small shops, bookstores, all new tea drinks
Exit the Wudaokou subway in Beijing, walk a few hundred meters, and you will see, "Naixue's Tea" The new store Naixue Bookstore stands on the street.
This bookstore, which has been open for a week, is obviously not mature enough. The general manager of North China is inspecting here, "You put this book (parenting book) so high, think about it, are you willing to read this book?" Most of the book readers are female, so it’s so inconvenient to pick it up.”
Tech Planet observed that unlike bookstores that truly provide a reading experience, tea drinking is still the main function of the store, reading. More like a background and embellishment. The current functions of the bookstore cannot meet the reading needs of consumers. The noisy background sound is still used by many people as a space for social conversation. Not many people actually read or work with books, and there are only two places in the store with power supply. , which also adds to the inconvenience.
Nayuki’s Tea insiders told Tech Planet that the bookstore will not be the main direction of Nayuki’s Tea’s space experiments. There is currently no idea of ??opening a second store. The bookstore attempt is because it happens to be in Near Tsinghua University, it would be more suitable to create a reading space near the school.
In the first half of the year, according to Naixue’s tea mid-year report data, Naixue opened 93 new stores. This number is the total number in the past year. The third quarter went a step further. In the third quarter alone, Naixue opened 90 stores.
Before 2020, Nayuki’s stores were mainly standard stores. During this period, a small number of gift shops were launched. The stores were equipped with doll machines and placed limited edition figures and dolls to meet the preferences of female consumers; Naixue Dream Factory store conducts a large number of new product trials; as well as multiple BlaBlaBar Naixue wine houses, it tests night consumption scenarios and extends store business hours; in 2020, Naixue PRO store saves baking space and has now become the main promotion of Naixue Store type.
HiTea is also trying different business formats. Heytea’s first handmade store opened in Nantou Ancient Town, Shenzhen. Heytea said that this is the largest handmade store in the industry. The first floor is Hand-fried ice, hand-made tea on the second floor, and hand-brewed tea on the third floor. The 50 SKUs in the store are all limited to this store, and a single product can cost up to 80 yuan a cup.
HiTea insiders told Tech Planet that handmade stores are the flagship and heavyweight store type within HeyTea. In the development of HeyTea store types, there is no so-called focus on large stores in the future. As for the business model, Heytea’s judgment is that only when the potential of a brand itself is strong enough to attract consumers, stores can continue to develop.
Previously, Heytea has launched different styles of stores such as black gold stores, PINK stores, DP stores, ancient theme stores, pet-friendly theme stores and environmentally friendly theme stores. Heytea is also frantically expanding its stores. There are 848 existing stores and 153 new ones have been opened. By the end of this year, according to this pace of new store openings, it is very likely that the number will exceed 900. At the end of 2020, Heytea will only have 695 stores.
Almost at the same time, Mixue Bingcheng also joined this store expansion game. Mixue Bingcheng, which originally focused on small shops in the streets and alleys, opened a new store on Huaihai Road in Shanghai this year, becoming a "neighbor" of big international brands such as Hermès, Cartier, and Vacheron Constantin. The route of "surrounding the city from the countryside" has taken a step forward. victory.
Opening a store has become an unspoken task for new tea drinkers.
In mid-2020, Mixue Bingcheng officially announced that its number of stores worldwide exceeded 10,000. It also set a new expansion goal at this time: to have 20,000 stores by the end of 2021.
This goal was achieved at the end of October, and Mixue Bingcheng has reached the standard ahead of schedule.
Mixue Bingcheng also opened a 268-square-meter large collection store in Zhengzhou on the day of registration and listing guidance, positioned as the "Snow King Castle Experience Store". Not only has it launched new drinks, but it also involves catering, including fried skewers, braised noodles and other new categories. It is also exploring peripheral, cultural and creative products.
Earlier in September, another tea brand Cha Baidao also used the franchise model to expand wildly, and the number of offline stores also exceeded 5,000. At the end of last year, there were about 3,000 Chabaido stores. In the past nine months, Chabaido has rapidly increased its number by about 2,000 stores, which is equivalent to opening 7 stores every day.
You are chasing after me, whether it is Nayuki’s tea and Heytea, which focus on high-end, or Mixue Bingcheng and Tea Momo, which focus on the sinking market, no one wants to miss the industry of the “Great Leap Forward” During the turbulent period, the reality is that the number of consumers drinking milk tea will not grow at the same time.
03 The "Concerns" of Milk Tea People
Hidden behind the infinite expansion of categories, endless exploration of stores, and the final investment in former opponents is the collective profit anxiety of milk tea people.
Expanding categories and building new stores can no longer satisfy Heytea’s ambitions. In order to build a higher moat, the milk tea giants with the highest valuation in the market, reaching 60 billion yuan, have begun to start from scratch. invest.
HiTea invests in WAT cocktails, coffee brand Seesaw, plant-based brand YePlant and tea brand Heji Taotao. It has a layout from wine to plant milk. Mixue Bingcheng’s investment time is clever and timely. On the eve of the listing, I also invested in a Huicha.
Zhu Yonghua, the founding partner of Meituan Longzhu who invested in Heytea, has reached a tacit understanding with Heytea. He believes that Heytea’s investment is to prepare for the disappearance of the dividends of the milk tea industry and to expand its main business. At the same time, strengthen the moat in terms of products, channels and brands.
On the one hand, milk tea companies can only keep opening stores to tap into wider offline traffic intersections.
According to Tech Planet, in order to expand rapidly, Mixue Bingcheng has canceled regional protection this year, which means that more stores are allowed to be opened in a region. The reason for this strategic change is that "in the region Within the scope of protection, especially within the scope of regional protection of high-performing stores, if the brand no longer opens stores, it will cause competing products to gather together, which will eventually lead to a decline in store performance or even closure of stores. Therefore, the brand has gradually canceled regional protection. "In order to prevent others from losing. If you get the initiative, you can also roll yourself in.
On the other hand, the original profit model has reached a certain ceiling, making upward exploration increasingly difficult. According to Nayuki’s tea financial report, the average daily sales of each store in 2018, 2019 and the first three quarters of 2020 were 30,700 yuan, 27,700 yuan and 20,100 yuan respectively.
More tea brands are more inclined to let themselves jump out. Naixue’s Tea bills itself as a “lifestyle brand”. “What Naixue’s Tea sells is not tea, but a lifestyle,” said Peng Xin, founder of Naixue’s Tea. The person in charge of Naixue's tea brand told Tech Planet, "The core of Naixue's future focus is how to bring more beauty, happiness and sense of accomplishment to consumers, and will create added value for consumers around their lifestyle."
In Naixue’s official flagship store, you can find that Naixue not only has a home page for tea drinks such as cold brew tea, but also launched peripheral products such as mooncake gift boxes, water cups, and silk scarves, constantly increasing the number of new retail products. field, striving to become a part of young people's lives. Financial report data shows that in the first half of 2021, Naixue's new retail revenue was 69.729 million, which is nearly five times the 15.496 million in the same period last year.
As Peng Xin judged, "The next stage is no longer an era of relying on a single point to win."
On the surface, new brands are broadening their product lines and breaking through the original The purpose of having a product is to attract more consumers; but the deeper reason is actually to create a unique lifestyle based on culture around the target consumer group.
The milk tea players have to keep pace with each other in many aspects to be able to rank according to seniority in the second half.