China's taste appeared in a foreign country again.
On August 4, HEYTEA (喜茶) announced the opening of its first UK store. This is another important overseas expansion move of HEYTEA following the establishment of its first overseas store in Singapore in 2018.
HEYTEA’s first store in London is located in Chinatown, adjacent to the Bank of China. The area is also home to many well-known Chinese restaurants such as Haidilao (海底捞) and ZHANGLIANG SPICY HOTPOT (张亮麻辣烫), as well as tea chains including CoCo (都可), Happy Lemon (快乐柠檬) and Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea (一芳台湾水果茶).
According to the "2022 New Tea Drinks Research Report" released by the New Tea Drinks Committee of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (中国连锁经营协会新茶饮委员会), from 2017 to the end of this year, the scale of China's new tea drink market is estimated to grow from CNY 42.2 billion to CNY 145 billion, while the number of young consumers will be as high as 200 million.
Due to the gradual saturation and increasingly fierce competition in China's tea drink market, many famous tea drink brands have begun to seek overseas markets. Around 2018, top brands such as MIXUE (蜜雪冰城), HEYTEA, NAIXUE (奈雪的茶), and Chagee (霸王茶姬) entered Southeast Asia, Japanese, and Korean markets. In June 2022, the number of overseas stores of MIXUE exceeded 1,000. As of July 24 this year, at least 6 Chinese tea drink chains were considering overseas IPOs. Among them, Chagee is reported to be cooperating with Bank of America and Citigroup to discuss the potential US IPO; ChaPanda (茶百道) is said to be considering an IPO in Hong Kong.
The opening of HEYTEA's new store shows that Chinese tea drink brands have begun to enter the markets of developed countries in Europe and the United States.
HEYTEA now has opened up partnerships in overseas markets including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United States, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. In the future, HEYTEA may plan to enter the US market.