China's freshly ground coffee industry has entered the high-speed development track

Reporter Luo Chen

In 2021, the scale of China's freshly ground coffee market is about 87.

Coexistence and competition era

The advantages of freshly ground coffee are highlighted

The development of China's coffee industry has mainly experienced six major stages, followed by instant coffee, chain coffee, ready-to-drink coffee, the Internet and new retail, specialty coffee, and the current stage of new entrants competing for development, and the coffee categories represented by these stages alternately appear

Freshly ground coffee usually uses freshly roasted high-quality coffee beans, which are ground on the spot by professionally trained clerks or baristas in the store, and then add milk and other fresh raw materials to the extracted coffee solution, which can maximize the preservation of the original aroma and pure taste

Two-wheel drive at both ends of supply and demand

The layout of the whole industry chain builds the core competitiveness of the brand

The "Report" shows that from the demand side, the change of China's population structure has brought about changes in the consumption structure of residents, and freshly ground coffee as a consumption upgrade product, its attributes are just in line with the new consumption needs

The freshly ground coffee industry chain mainly involves the production and processing of upstream coffee beans, the trading and supply of midstream coffee cooked beans, and the production and sale

Since the raw material cost of freshly ground coffee is relatively fixed, the key to determining its gross profit margin lies in whether it can go deep into the upstream of the industrial chain, that is, coffee planting land, based on the scale effect, so as to further reduce the cost of raw materials; Can you improve product pricing by improving brand positioning, thereby reducing the cost of raw materials as a percentage of

According to whether the freshly ground coffee is the main business, the entire freshly ground coffee industry can be divided into coffee specialty stores and other sales channels, and according to whether the business format is chained and scaled, the coffee specialty store can be divided into chain coffee shops and independent coffee shops, and chain coffee shops can be divided into "big stores" and "small shops" according to the store model

According to the development stage, China's freshly ground coffee chain brands can be divided into three camps: traditional chain coffee, Internet and new retail coffee, and new incoming chain coffee brands

Traditional freshly ground coffee mainly includes four types of Italian coffee, drip coffee, cold brew coffee and hand-brewed coffee, and the new freshly ground coffee is equivalent to the creative blending on the basis of traditional freshly ground coffee

New freshly ground coffee refers to the fixed collocation of traditional freshly ground coffee, that is, on the basis of coffee stock solution (+ milk), cream, cheese, oat milk, coconut milk, syrup, chocolate, vanilla, matcha, fresh fruit, freshly squeezed juice, fruit pulp stock solution, nut crumbs, biscuit crumbs and other new ingredients, which can be diversified and matched, and can be further supplemented with seasonal characteristics such as cherry blossoms and osmanthus flowers, making the taste and taste of coffee more novel and rich, while bringing consumers rich layers, attractive colors, A visual experience

Ordinary coffee and specialty coffee are distinguished from the perspective of products, chain coffee shops and independent coffee shops can make specialty coffee, but specialty coffee is a relatively low degree of standardization of the product, the barista technical level and the ability to control the product is also one of

From the store model, the "big store" usually has a store area of 100-150 square meters, supports offline cashiering, and has a certain number of guest areas for consumers to eat; "Small shops" usually store an area of 40-50 square meters (fast food restaurants, convenience stores), basically no guest area, generally only support online ordering, that is, pick-up or takeaway

Different freshly ground coffee brands, based on their different brand positioning to build the corresponding store model; Different types of stores, their market strategies, operating models, etc.

The brand reputation of freshly ground foreign coffee brands is generally higher than that of local brands

Coffee shops are more laid out in the city

Maximize store operating costs and benefits

The "Report" believes that in 2021, the size of China's freshly ground coffee market is about 87.

According to incomplete statistics, in 2022, there will be about 23,000 chain coffee shops in China, of which the number of chain coffee shops in Guangdong Province ranks first

About 70% of China's chain coffee shops are located in first-tier and new first-tier cities, in 2022, the number of chain coffee shops in China's first-tier and new first-tier cities accounted for 34.
8% and 33.
8% of the national total, of which Shanghai is the city with the largest number of freshly ground coffee chain brands in China, followed by Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and the number of freshly ground coffee chain brands in Shanghai alone accounts for more than
half of the whole province of Guangdong.

East China is the region with the largest number of freshly ground coffee chain brands in China, and in 2022, a total of 536 freshly ground coffee chain brands will choose to open stores in East China; East China is also the region with the largest number of chain coffee shops in China, and nearly half of the country's chain coffee shops are located in East China, especially Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang as the main concentration of
chain coffee shops.

In view of the above situation, the "Report" puts forward suggestions for the development of the industry:

In-depth layout of the whole industry chain, building a dynamic closed loop of the whole industry chain of coffee Based on the consumption insight of existing (transformed) and incremental (unconverted) users, including consumption motivation, consumption preferences and consumption behavior, it can provide value reference for the key links in the upstream and downstream of the coffee industry chain, as well as the trend direction of the whole industry chain that urgently needs innovation and iteration, so that the rigid needs and elastic needs of consumers can be effectively released
at the same time.
Deep upstream of the industrial chain, on the one hand, it can reduce the cost of raw materials, on the other hand, it can ensure the stability
of raw material supply and product quality.
Intelligent site selection planning based on urban characteristics and consumer groups for different line-level cities can maximize
the "cost-benefit" of store operation.

Expand the radiation range of stores and accurately cover potential people For freshly ground coffee brands and stores that focus on high-tier cities, the potential space around them can be fully tapped, and the system linkage and dynamic response can be formed with satellite cities and surrounding scenic spots, so as to further cover consumer groups
that have similar consumer demand characteristics to high-tier cities but have not been met.
Satellite cities and surrounding scenic spots can submit an order or transfer application to the main city store in advance, and after summarizing the order demand of the main city store, the main city store will issue an order application to the regional core warehouse, thereby reducing the number of orders and reducing the cost of
transportation.

China Food News (October 10, 2022 07 edition)

(Editor-in-charge: Luo Chen)