With Taiwanese handmade beverages “shaking up” the world, La Kaffa International Co. subsidiary Chatime expands worldwide at a blistering rate of 1.5 stores opened per day. Yummy Town subsidiaries including “Happy Lemon” sell over 100 million cups of beverages annually.

According to a report conducted by Allied Market Research on the global handmade beverage market, tea beverages originating from Taiwan have been carried forward to the world, with China being the primary market in the Asia-Pacific region in addition to the constantly-expanding markets of North America and Europe. The market size is projected to reach 3.214 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.3%.

La Kaffa Chatime’s increased overseas expansion rate has resulted in stores being opened in Paris, Australia, London, New York, Oman, Hangzhou, Yokohama, Tokyo and Daegu this year. With this expansion occurring over 4 continents, an average of 1.5 new stores are opened every day.

With La Kaffa benefiting from various aspects including global expansion, beneficial mergers and acquisition, the industry entering its peak season has built up strong growth momentum that netted a record-high 1.08 billion NTD in revenue over the past 4 months.

Looking forward to 2018, La Kaffa stated that it will continue to deepen and expand the market share of the Chatime brand. This year’s brand overseas development will have a market emphasis on European and Central-South American countries.

In addition, La Kaffa and Hangzhou’s Re Light Management Co., Ltd. launched an equity cooperation at the end of the last year. This year, La Kaffa aims to achieve an expansion goal of 1,600 stores in the Chinese tea beverage market. Combined with Chatime’s international mapping, the number of stores worldwide looks to exceed 2,500 this year, making Chatime the leading brand for handmade tea beverages.

Yummy Town has noticed that within a setting where China has an overall upgrade of its general consumption, the Chinese hand-made tea beverage industry has officially entered a new era with an emphasis on “healthiness,” and “appearance.” For younger consumers, individuals born in the 90s and 2000s, a good drink must also provide added brand value such as taking photos and check-ins.

Yummy Town, with various subsidiaries that include “Happy Lemon,” Teaopal,” and “Hi!PPO BOBA TEA,” primarily focuses on the Chinese market and sells nearly 100 million beverages a year. In addition to employing massive data to facilitate precise design of strategy, Yummy Town will continue plan its expansion policy towards Europe, the U.S., Japan, Korea, ASEAN and the Middle East.

During this year’s Q1, Yummy Town achieved a consolidated revenue of 526 million NTD, an annual increase of 14%. With continuous expansion and benefit of the take-out e-commerce business, Yummy Town achieved its highest single-season revenue record.

Optimistic about the growth trend of the tea beverage market, Yummy Town will continue to increase the rate of expansion, opening physical stores and plan for the take-out e-commerce business. This will lay down a decent foundation for the upcoming summer peak season of tea beverage consumption.

At the end of last year, Yummy Town had more than 800 stores around the world, and is confident that the milestone of 1,000 stores will be reached this year with a challenge of having 2,000 stores by 2020.

May 19, 2018 19:43 CNA Written in Taipei on the 19^th

Wang Yao-Hui, Chairman of La Kaffa and Founder of Chatime. United Daily News Group Information Photo/Taken by Reporter Cheng Chao-Wen