风味咖啡是否能成为奶茶转型的救命稻草？Can flavored coffee become a lifesaver for the transformation of milk tea?

Our reporter Yuan Chuanxi

Entering the coffee market is becoming the direction for new tea beverage companies to transform. However, when faced with the flavor coffee that often has 400 calories launched by milk tea shops, how will consumers choose? Can flavored coffee become a lifesaver for the transformation of milk tea enterprises?

Regarding this, Zhu Danpeng, Vice President of Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association, told Securities Daily reporters that flavored coffee relies on zero cost reuse of milk tea supply chain and catering to the public's sweet taste preferences, which can indeed fill the gap in morning customer flow and alleviate short-term business pressure of stores. However, it cannot break through the homogenization competition and cannot comply with the trend of low calorie consumption among the whole population. Therefore, for all sinking milk tea brands, it is not realistic to rely on flavored coffee to complete the transformation and breakthrough.

Milk tea brands are entering the coffee market one after another

According to data from Zhuoshi Consulting, it is expected that the compound annual growth rate of freshly ground coffee in China will reach 19.8% from 2023 to 2028, making it the fastest-growing sub category in the Chinese freshly made beverage market.

Looking at the new tea beverage industry, some companies are facing pressure from single store revenue and high closure rates to survive. Faced with the high growth expectations of the coffee industry in the freshly made beverage market, laying out the coffee track has become the best choice for new tea beverage enterprises. Among them, brands such as Meixue Bingcheng, Chabaidao, Guming, and Hushang Auntie have identified coffee products as their second growth curve.

Taking Guming as an example, in late May, Guming announced at its partner conference that it plans to invest an additional 400 million yuan in the coffee category and position coffee as the second growth curve. At the same time, Gu Ming stated that she will further increase the proportion of coffee revenue from the previous 10% -15% to 20% -25%.

Zhan Junhao, founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consulting, stated in an interview with Securities Daily that Gu Ming's increase in coffee and setting revenue targets is a comprehensive layout that balances innovation and income growth. The fusion of its flavored coffee with tea beverage seasoning ideas is an innovative product form that fits the original user taste; Simultaneously reusing existing stores, supply chains, and manpower, diluting operating costs, extending operating periods, and effectively increasing single store revenue, is a pragmatic expansion based on its own channel advantages.

However, the reporter noticed that Guming entered the coffee industry by choosing a path of "flavored coffee", avoiding low gross profit and high user education costs of pure black coffee, and focusing on thick milk, dessert, and fruity flavored coffee. For example, launching products such as the "Bitter Gan Lai" latte has good synergy with Guming's existing supply chain.

It is reported that Guming currently has cold chain warehouses and national pre warehouses that already reserve milk tea ingredients such as milk caps, flavor syrups, and thick milk bases. The store only needs to install one coffee machine, without the need to add new warehouses or restructure personnel training systems.

In fact, while Guming High Heat Tea Cafe quickly became popular on the market, it also sparked controversy among consumers. Brands only focus on catering to consumers' shallow needs for sweet and fragrant flavors, using information gaps to hide high calorie risks, relying on existing supply chains to expand products at low costs, seemingly completing the transformation of the coffee business, but in fact, it is just continuing the old path of internal competition in tea drinks

In Zhan Junhao's view, the layout of flavored coffee in new tea drinks is a routine exploration for seeking growth, but it is not the optimal solution for transformation. This type of product follows the logic of milk tea ingredients, with high calorie content, which contradicts consumers' perception of coffee's health and can easily lead to a reputation gap. It can rely on its existing customer base to achieve short-term traffic, but it is difficult to break away from the tea drinking mindset and truly establish professional coffee competitiveness, which limits its long-term development.

High calorie "flavored coffee" is difficult to become the "protagonist"

Under the consumption concept that drinking coffee is healthier than drinking milk tea, "flavored coffee" has become a new choice for consumers. However, the reporter interviewed multiple consumers and learned that they also chose products because "coffee is healthier than milk tea", and did not know that sugar free coffee has much more calories than ordinary milk tea.

A cup of 'Bitter Orange Latte' has 402 calories without sugar, which is equivalent to eating a double layered cheeseburger. In addition, the calorie content of tiramisu latte and vanilla seed Vienna latte also exceeds 400 calories. "These data were fermented online.

Choosing branded coffee as a tea beverage means assuming that it is healthier than traditional milk tea, and never predicting that sugar free coffee would surpass dessert milk tea in terms of calories, "a consumer told reporters.

In Zhu Danpeng's view, the functionalization and healthiness of beverages have become the development direction and mainstream label of the entire beverage industry. In the era of stock, new tea drinks can only peel off traffic gimmicks, return to the underlying logic of product health, and guide the industry from "formula internalization" to "health transparency". This is not only the institutional bottom line for protecting consumers' health rights, but also the only way to promote the high-quality and sustainable development of China's freshly made beverage industry.

Zhan Junhao further stated that the transformation of new tea drinks into coffee requires finding the right positioning. On the one hand, optimize the formula, launch low calorie and light burden models, label calories to dispel consumer concerns; On the other hand, differentiate product lines, balance special flavors with basic pure coffee, and create differentiation. Relying on existing advantages, we will take the path of integrating tea and coffee, not blindly benchmarking professional coffee brands, synchronously strengthening coffee ingredients and production processes, and steadily cultivating user mentality.

(Editor Guo Zhichen)