711, FamilyMart, Suning…Convenience store coffee has emerged as a new force and its momentum continues

When Starbucks opened its first store in Beijing 20 years ago, no one was sure whether Chinese consumers would buy freshly ground coffee. Now, various data prove that China's coffee consumption market is growing rapidly, especially the coffee shop market, and Chinese consumers are increasingly fond of buying coffee outside.

However, the performance of major players in the market is not the same. Although chain coffee shops - Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Pacific Coffee, etc. - have taken on the responsibility of educating Chinese consumers, the most outstanding performance in the past year may be convenience store coffee.

1. FamilyMart Coffee

When FamilyMart first launched Paike Coffee in 2014, it consciously built it as an independent brand.

Pai Ke Coffee has applied for its own brand, with its own logo and design, which is not available in any FamilyMart product. In 2017, FamilyMart invited Chen Yihan to be the spokesperson for Pai Ke Coffee, not FamilyMart. Currently, the large-screen advertisements for Pai Ke Coffee seen in Shanghai do not emphasize that it is a FamilyMart product.

The coffee beans of Pai Ke Coffee come from Antigua Guatemala, located in the central part of Central America, built in the Panchoy Valley at an altitude of 1,500 meters, close to the peaks of the Agua and Fuego volcanoes. The coffee beans produced here have a caramel taste, with a distinct cocoa and chocolate flavor in the aftertaste, and are rich and sweet.

The milk used for Italian coffee is Weiquan fresh milk. The coffee beans are processed by semi-washing method, and the beans are roasted in the coffee bean warehouse (the color is generally city+ roasting degree), the cocoa flavor is very strong with a slight smoky feeling. The overall strength and lightness of the brewing ratio are well controlled, and the taste is still good.

2. 7-11 Coffee

The store-made coffee of Shanghai 711 is the best, with a Swiss Ergo fully automatic coffee machine worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. In comparison, Lawson uses a low-end commercial model of WMF, and FamilyMart's Paike coffee cannot compare with 711 in terms of the number of cups produced and the stability of taste.

This is mainly due to the transplantation of the original City Cafe product by Taiwan's 7-11. As the earliest convenience store brand to enter Taiwan, 7-11 has become the convenience store brand with the largest number of stores in Taiwan.

7-11's coffee is made from 100% Arabica coffee beans, and the milk is Meiji's catering fresh milk. It tastes strong, suitable for heavy tasters, and the aroma of coffee is still very strong. Compared with other convenience store coffees, 7-11's coffee has achieved a higher standard of balance between aroma and bitterness.

3. Lawson Coffee

Lawson's coffee is the cheapest among these convenience stores. A standard cup of hot American coffee costs only 8 yuan, which is more cost-effective than drinking milk tea.

It uses 100% Arabica coffee beans and the milk used is Asahi Vipshop Green Source fresh milk. The taste of the coffee is very light and really not very outstanding.

4. Suning Coffee

On October 10, Suning Xiaodian’s first coffee shop opened for trial operation in Nanjing. The store adopts a "convenience store + coffee" model combination and targets a user group mainly consisting of office workers.

In addition to the core coffee series, the store also launched "Su Xiao Tea", "Su Xiao Shuang", "Su Xiao Pao" and "Su Xiao Bing", totaling 27 drinks in five categories. The categories cover classics such as American coffee, latte, cappuccino, caramel macchiato, as well as emerging products in recent years such as fruit tea, milk cap, sparkling water, smoothies, etc., with prices ranging from 12 yuan to 28 yuan.

Among them, "Su Xiaoka" uses Arabica coffee beans, which have a low caffeine content, a soft smell, a fresh and slightly sweet taste, and a slightly pleasant sour taste. The store's signature coffee "Orange American" uses the citrus spice smell contained in the coffee beans themselves. It is refreshing and has a fresh fruity aroma, and the taste is endless.

What are the advantages of convenience store + coffee? ▶

When it comes to coffee, the coffee closest to working people is not the large chain coffee shops like Starbucks, COSTA, and Pacific Coffee, but the low-priced coffee sold in convenience stores on the streets.

Price is an important advantage of convenience store coffee. FamilyMart's Americano costs only 10 yuan, a medium latte costs 12 yuan, and coffee in convenience stores such as 7-Eleven and Lawson is also priced at less than 20 yuan.

In addition to price, there is another important advantage, which is convenience! FamilyMart once bundled sandwiches with coffee, but found that the effect was not ideal. Most office workers in China pair their coffee with steamed buns! As a large consumer group, office workers often buy a cup of coffee when they go to a convenience store to buy breakfast, and the market demand is very considerable.

What convenience stores are selling is not coffee culture, but a cup of caffeinated beverage with a decent taste to satisfy people who are in urgent need of caffeine.

◀ How does convenience store coffee survive?

The consumable costs of a cup of coffee come from coffee beans and milk, coffee machines and their wear and tear, labor costs, etc.

Coffee Beans

In order to ensure the flavor of coffee, convenience stores are not inferior in the selection of coffee beans. FamilyMart uses Arabica coffee beans from Guatemala, which is located at the junction of North and South America and is one of the major coffee bean producing areas in the world with high quality control standards; 7-11 coffee uses the same coffee beans as Starbucks; Lawson's coffee beans are supplied by the Japanese coffee brand UCC.

Coffee bean procurement, roasting and grinding all require a large-scale and efficient industrial chain to optimize costs. The scale of convenience stores makes it possible for them to cooperate with large coffee producers, thereby improving cost-effectiveness.

milk

Convenience stores may be more willing to spend money on milk than chain coffee shops. The milk used in convenience store coffee is mostly refrigerated milk from brands such as Wei Chuan, Meiji, and Asahi.

According to a well-known research organization, 57% of Chinese consumers prefer milk coffee, while only 27% prefer black coffee. Most Chinese consumers are currently able to accept coffees with a milder and mellower taste, such as latte and cappuccino. In order to meet consumer demand, the aroma of milk and the quality of milk foam seem to have become more important than the taste of coffee beans themselves.

Coffee machine + manual service

The coffee machines used in convenience stores are also under control. They are fully automatic coffee machines. Although the price is relatively high, the brewing time and proportion can be adjusted, which ensures the quality of the product while being convenient.

You can also adjust the machine according to your own coffee recipe to ensure that the coffee tastes the same in every store. The clerk only needs to press a few keys to make a cup of coffee. There is no need to hire a new barista. A clerk can make coffee and pay for customers at the same time.

At the same time, according to Mintel data, the popularity of coffee drinks in the Chinese market is from high to low: latte, cappuccino, mocha, Americano, flavored coffee and cold brew. Chinese consumers currently prefer milk coffee to espresso and Americano.

In addition, coffee mixed with plant protein milk is still a relatively new concept for Chinese coffee consumers, and only 22% of freshly brewed coffee consumers have purchased such coffee drinks. In the future, oat milk with lower calories may be more popular among health-conscious people.