7个月开1600+家，关600+家，肯悦咖啡进入高频调整阶段Opening 1600+stores and closing 600+stores in 7 months, Kenyue Coffee enters a high-frequency adjustment stage

文丨茶咖观察 雷俊

编辑丨蒙嘉怡

贴着肯德基长大的肯悦咖啡，到了该松手的时候了。

社区门口的肯德基旁边、写字楼底层的肯德基对面、商场一层的肯德基不远处——你总能看到那个红白相间的“K COFFEE”标识。

肯悦咖啡从诞生之初就选择了依托肯德基门店网络扩张，大量门店与肯德基共址或相邻。三年时间，门店数推至3300家。百胜中国首席财务官丁晓在业绩会上表示，肯悦咖啡的5000家门店目标的达成时间，已经从原计划的2029年提前至2027年。

门店快速增加的同时，肯悦的门店网络也在频繁调整。

茶咖观察发现，过去7个月，肯悦咖啡新开1600+家店，关闭或暂停营业660+家门店，几乎每开两家，就要关掉一家。

01、7个月开1600+店

壹览商业数据显示，过去7个月，肯悦咖啡累计新开1687家门店，仅次于瑞幸、库迪和挪瓦，位居咖啡赛道扩张速度前四，其中7月单月开店523家，创下周期内最高纪录。

华东与华南地区是主阵地。华东地区新增门店593家，占比35.15%，华南地区新增384家，占比22.76%。除此之外，华北、华中新增门店占比也均超过10%，拓店相对活跃，而东北地区占比仅为3.08%。

肯悦咖啡的高速扩张，与百胜中国尤其是肯德基成熟的门店网络高度相关。截至7月底，肯德基全国13732家门店中，超六成位于高线城市，肯悦咖啡新增门店也明显向高线市场集中，在49个二线及以上城市共开设了1128家门店，占新店比例的66.86%。

两者在市场分布上的高度重合，为肯悦复用肯德基已有点位提供了基础。茶咖观察发现，肯悦咖啡还依靠肯德基门店网络进入了校园、高铁站、医院及机场等高客流点位。壹览商业数据显示，近7个月，肯悦咖啡的新增校园店数与地铁站店数位列行业第二，火车站及机场店数位列第三。

比如，今年以来肯悦咖啡新入驻杭州东站、宁波站等16座火车高铁站，怀德地铁站等12座地铁站，以及昌北机场等7座机场。西南石油大学、杭州师范大学等49所高校也新开设了门店。从可核对的门店地址看，所有门店位于肯德基店内或与肯德基共址。

另外，肯悦咖啡还在陕西省人民医院、佛山和祐医院等至少5家医院完成入驻，鸣沙山月牙泉、云冈石窟、张掖七彩丹霞等至少9家景区也已布局。

这些特殊渠道的价值，在于它们通常具备较高客流稳定性，但同时对品牌资质、运营能力和供应链稳定性提出更高要求。

对一个成立时间不长的咖啡品牌而言，肯悦能够在短时间内进入大量特殊渠道，很大程度上受益于百胜中国多年积累的物业合作和运营资源。

肯德基解决了肯悦“快速去哪里开”的问题，但随着门店越来越多，另一个问题也开始出现：肯德基已有的消费场景，是否都适合咖啡生意？

02、7个月闭店660+店

高速扩张的另一面是门店快速汰换。

早期，肯悦咖啡大量门店沿用了肯德基已有的点位和消费场景，当规模扩大后，部分场景与咖啡需求之间的匹配程度也开始接受检验。

壹览商业数据显示，过去7个月，肯悦咖啡关闭或暂停营业662家门店，高峰出现在1月，达208家。

从城市看，今年以来肯悦咖啡关闭或暂停营业门店数排名前十的城市，均为二线及以上的高线城市。广州数量最多，占关闭或暂停营业门店总数的17.22%；上海有60家，深圳有48家，三个城市合计占比超三成。

按门店场景划分，今年前7个月内共有73家高校店关闭或暂停营业，约占关店总数的十分之一。以上海为例，关闭或暂停营业的校园店共5家，全部位于肯德基门店内。

一边进入新高校、一边关闭既有校园店，说明校园场景仍处于持续筛选阶段。学生对价格敏感度较高，寒暑假又会造成明显的客流波动，不同学校的人口规模、校内商业环境和竞争密度，都可能影响单店表现。

开在肯德基店内的景区门店则呈现较强的季节性特征。以河北省张家口为例，滑雪场景点门店全部关闭，包括太舞、雪如意、云顶3家滑雪场，且时间与雪季结束基本重合。

被视为扩张新进展的交通枢纽，同样在边开边关，且无一例外都依托肯德基开设。关店名单中有13家交通枢纽门店，包括成都天府机场T2店、石家庄正定机场安检内店、兰州机场T3店、天津西站店等。

从社区、高校到景区、交通枢纽，肯悦一边继续进入新的消费场景，一边关闭部分既有门店，在高速扩张中重新筛选哪些场景更适合咖啡生意。

不过，关店并不意味着肯悦咖啡整体经营表现同步走弱。百胜中国首席财务官丁晓在业绩会上表示，随着现制饮品外卖竞争趋于理性、消费者品牌认知增强，肯悦咖啡目前的日均销售杯数已经高于“外卖大战”前。

百胜中国二季度业绩材料还显示，肯悦咖啡为与其共享资源的肯德基门店带来了中个位数的销售增量，模块利润率也在改善。至少从整体表现看，“肩并肩”模式仍然具备经营价值。

与此同时，终端经营情况仍存在一些不同声音。小红书上有网友发帖称，个别肯悦咖啡门店存在店员“刷单”的情况。由于目前公开信息仅涉及个别用户，尚无法判断是否具有普遍性，也不能据此推断其对品牌整体销量数据的影响。

图源/小红书

但从经营逻辑看，日均销售杯数本身也只是衡量门店表现的一个维度，租金、人效、客流质量以及不同场景下的消费频次，都会影响一家门店的经营效果。

因此，相比单纯讨论门店数量和销量变化，肯悦当前更值得关注的，是高速扩张之后能否筛选出更稳定的点位模型。

当肯悦咖啡开始主动筛选更符合咖啡消费逻辑的场景，“肩并肩”模式本身的边界也开始变得明显。

对于这类门店而言，可选择的点位首先取决于附近是否已有肯德基，以及现有门店是否具备可供肯悦使用的经营空间。肯德基成熟的网络提高了肯悦早期扩张的效率，却也意味着它无法完全按照一家咖啡店自身的面积需求和消费场景自由选址。

肯德基通常需要100至200平方米的经营空间，而咖啡店仅需20至50平方米，小面积模型不仅降低了物业要求，也让独立后的肯悦咖啡能够进入更多写字楼、商业街区、社区等咖啡消费密度更高的区域。

从目前布局看，合肥、沈阳等城市已经出现多家不依托肯德基物理空间开设的肯悦咖啡门店。

不过，独立运营后，肯悦咖啡需要自己寻找消费者、建立消费习惯，并验证单店盈利能力。

换句话说，独立门店给了肯悦咖啡更大的选址空间，同时也把此前由肯德基承担的一部分问题重新交还给了肯悦自己。

03、结尾

过去三年，肯悦咖啡证明了依托肯德基成熟网络能够迅速做大规模；而过去7个月的调整则说明规模扩大之后，仅仅“跟着肯德基开”已经不足以回答所有门店经营问题。

现在的肯悦，一方面仍然在借助肯德基网络高速扩张，另一方面也开始通过关店重新筛选社区、高校、景区、交通枢纽等不同消费场景。独立门店，则把这种筛选向前推进了一步。

所以，肯悦真正需要摆脱的并不是肯德基本身，百胜中国的供应链、物业和运营能力依然是它的重要资源，它真正需要减少的，是对肯德基点位和自然客流的单一依赖。

合肥、沈阳等地的独立门店，正是第一批验证样本。它们能否在没有肯德基门店贴身导流的情况下跑通选址、获客和单店模型，才是肯悦咖啡什么时候能够真正“断奶”的关键。

Observation of Lei Jun in Tea Caf é

Editor | Meng Jiayi

It's time to let go of Kenyue Coffee, which grew up sticking to KFC.

Next to KFC at the entrance of the community, across from KFC on the ground floor of the office building, and not far from KFC on the first floor of the shopping mall - you can always see the red and white "K COFFEE" logo.

Since its inception, Kenyue Coffee has chosen to expand by relying on the KFC store network, with a large number of stores co located or adjacent to KFC. In three years, the number of stores has been expanded to 3300. Ding Xiao, Chief Financial Officer of Yum! Brands China, stated at the performance meeting that the target of 5000 stores for Kenyue Coffee has been advanced from the original plan of 2029 to 2027.

While the number of stores is rapidly increasing, Kenyue's store network is also undergoing frequent adjustments.

Tea coffee observation found that in the past 7 months, Kenyue Coffee has opened over 1600 new stores and closed or suspended 660+stores, almost closing one for every two stores opened.

01. Open 1600+stores in 7 months

According to business data from Yilan, in the past 7 months, Kenyue Coffee has opened a total of 1687 new stores, second only to Luckin Coffee, Kudi Coffee, and Novah Coffee, ranking among the top four in terms of coffee expansion speed. Among them, 523 stores were opened in a single month in July, setting a record for the highest number of stores in the cycle.

The East and South China regions are the main strongholds. 593 new stores were added in the East China region, accounting for 35.15%, and 384 new stores were added in the South China region, accounting for 22.76%. In addition, the proportion of newly added stores in North China and Central China exceeds 10%, and store expansion is relatively active, while the proportion in Northeast China is only 3.08%.

The rapid expansion of Kenyue Coffee is highly related to the mature store network of Yum China, especially KFC. As of the end of July, over 60% of KFC's 13732 stores nationwide are located in high tier cities, and Kenyue Coffee's new stores are also clearly concentrated in the high tier market. A total of 1128 stores have been opened in 49 second tier and above cities, accounting for 66.86% of the new stores.

The high overlap in market distribution between the two provides a foundation for Kenyue to reuse KFC's existing locations. Tea coffee observation found that Kenyue Coffee also relies on the KFC store network to enter high traffic points such as campuses, high-speed railway stations, hospitals, and airports. According to Yilan Business Data, in the past 7 months, Kenyue Coffee has ranked second in the industry in terms of the number of new campus stores and subway station stores, and third in terms of the number of railway station and airport stores.

For example, since the beginning of this year, Kenyue Coffee has newly settled in 16 high-speed railway stations such as Hangzhou East Station and Ningbo Station, 12 subway stations such as Huaide Subway Station, and 7 airports such as Changbei Airport. 49 universities including Southwest Petroleum University and Hangzhou Normal University have also opened new stores. From the verifiable store addresses, all stores are located within or co located with KFC.

In addition, Kenyue Coffee has settled in at least 5 hospitals including Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital and Foshan Heyou Hospital, and has also laid out at least 9 scenic spots including Mingsha Mountain Moon Tooth Spring, Yungang Grottoes, and Zhangye Colorful Danxia.

The value of these special channels lies in their typically high customer flow stability, but at the same time, they place higher demands on brand qualifications, operational capabilities, and supply chain stability.

For a coffee brand that has not been established for a long time, Kenyue is able to enter a large number of special channels in a short period of time, largely benefiting from the property cooperation and operational resources accumulated by Yum China over the years.

KFC has solved the problem of "where to quickly open" for Kenyue, but with more and more stores, another problem has also begun to emerge: are all the existing consumption scenarios of KFC suitable for the coffee business?

02. Closed 660+stores in 7 months

The other side of rapid expansion is the rapid replacement of stores.

In the early days, a large number of Kenyue Coffee stores used the existing locations and consumption scenarios of KFC. As the scale expanded, the matching degree between some scenarios and coffee demand began to be tested.

According to Yilan Business Data, in the past 7 months, Kenyue Coffee has closed or suspended 662 stores, with a peak in January at 208 stores.

From a city perspective, the top ten cities with the number of closed or suspended stores of Kenyue Coffee since the beginning of this year are all second tier and higher tier cities. Guangzhou has the largest number, accounting for 17.22% of the total number of closed or suspended stores; There are 60 in Shanghai and 48 in Shenzhen, accounting for over 30% of the total.

Divided by store scenarios, a total of 73 university stores closed or suspended operations in the first seven months of this year, accounting for about one tenth of the total number of store closures. Taking Shanghai as an example, there are a total of 5 campus stores that have closed or suspended operations, all of which are located within KFC stores.

Entering a new university while closing existing campus stores indicates that the campus scene is still in the continuous screening stage. Students are highly sensitive to prices, and winter and summer vacations can cause significant fluctuations in customer flow. The population size, business environment, and competition density of different schools may all affect the performance of individual stores.

Scenic area stores located within KFC stores exhibit strong seasonal characteristics. Taking Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province as an example, all ski resort stores, including Taiwu, Xueruyi, and Yunding ski resorts, have been closed, and the time basically coincides with the end of the snow season.

Regarded as a transportation hub for expansion and new progress, it is also opening and closing at the same time, and without exception, it relies on KFC. There are 13 transportation hub stores on the store closure list, including Chengdu Tianfu Airport T2 store, Shijiazhuang Zhengding Airport security check store, Lanzhou Airport T3 store, Tianjin West Station store, etc.

From communities and universities to scenic spots and transportation hubs, Kenyue continues to enter new consumption scenarios while closing some existing stores, re screening which scenarios are more suitable for the coffee business in the high-speed expansion.

However, closing the store does not mean that the overall business performance of Kenyue Coffee will weaken synchronously. Ding Xiao, Chief Financial Officer of Yum! Brands China, stated at the earnings conference that with the competition for freshly made beverage takeout becoming more rational and consumer brand awareness increasing, the daily average number of cups sold by Kenyue Coffee is now higher than before the "takeout war".

Yum China's Q2 performance materials also show that Kenyue Coffee has brought mid single digit sales growth to KFC stores that share resources with it, and module profit margins are also improving. At least in terms of overall performance, the "shoulder to shoulder" model still has business value.

At the same time, there are still some differing opinions regarding terminal operations. A netizen on Xiaohongshu posted that some Kenyue coffee shops have employees brushing orders. Due to the fact that the current public information only involves individual users, it is not yet possible to determine whether it is universal, nor can it be inferred from this whether it has an impact on the overall sales data of the brand.

Image source/Xiaohongshu

However, from the perspective of business logic, the daily average number of cups sold is only one dimension to measure the performance of a store. Rent, personnel efficiency, customer flow quality, and consumption frequency in different scenarios all affect the operational effectiveness of a store.

Therefore, compared to simply discussing changes in store quantity and sales volume, what is more worth paying attention to at present is whether Kenyue can screen for more stable point models after rapid expansion.

When Kenyue Coffee began actively selecting scenarios that better fit the logic of coffee consumption, the boundaries of the "shoulder to shoulder" model itself began to become apparent.

For such stores, the available locations first depend on whether there is already KFC nearby and whether the existing stores have operational space available for Kenyue to use. KFC's mature network has improved the efficiency of its early expansion, but it also means that it cannot freely choose a location according to the area requirements and consumption scenarios of a coffee shop.

KFC usually requires a business space of 100 to 200 square meters, while coffee shops only need 20 to 50 square meters. The small area model not only reduces property requirements, but also allows independent Kenyue Coffee to enter more office buildings, commercial districts, communities and other areas with higher coffee consumption density.

From the current layout, there are already multiple Kenyue coffee stores in cities such as Hefei and Shenyang that do not rely on the physical space of KFC.

However, after independent operation, Kenyue Coffee needs to find consumers, establish consumption habits, and verify the profitability of individual stores on its own.

In other words, independent stores have given Kenyue Coffee more space for location selection, while also returning some of the issues previously undertaken by KFC to Kenyue itself.

03. Conclusion

In the past three years, Kenyue Coffee has proven that relying on KFC's mature network can quickly achieve large-scale production; The adjustments in the past seven months indicate that after the expansion of the scale, simply "following KFC" is no longer enough to answer all store management questions.

At present, Kenyue is still rapidly expanding with the help of KFC's network, while also starting to re screen different consumption scenarios such as communities, universities, scenic spots, and transportation hubs through store closures. Independent stores have taken this screening one step further.

So, what Kenyue really needs to get rid of is not KFC itself. Yum China's supply chain, property, and operational capabilities are still its important resources. What it really needs to reduce is its single dependence on KFC locations and natural customer flow.

The independent stores in Hefei, Shenyang and other places are the first batch of validation samples. Whether they can run through site selection, customer acquisition, and single store models without the close proximity of KFC stores is the key to when Kenyue Coffee can truly "retire".