Tim Horton Tim Hortons, Canada's largest coffee chain, announces its move into China

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Blessed are the foodies! Because of a report on CNN's financial channel on the 11th, Tim Hortons, a well-known Canadian coffee chain, announced on the same day that it would enter the Chinese market.

Tim Hortons of Canada has concluded that its coffee shop will resonate in China. The coffee chain has expanded into the Philippines, the UK, Mexico and Spain through two years of overseas expansion, and breaking into the Chinese market will be the company's largest overseas operation to date.

According to the Globe and Mail of Canada, Tim Hortons' parent company, Canadian Restaurant Brand International, said on July 11 that they plan to open at least 1500 Tim Hortons stores in China over the next decade-almost three a week.

China's coffee culture is on the rise, but Tim Hortons needs to face strong competition from Starbucks and China's cutting-edge companies. Starbucks has been operating in China for about 20 years, opening 3300 stores in 141cities. In May, Starbucks said it planned to open an average of nearly two stores a day for the next four years, bringing the total to 6000. The Seattle-based coffee chain expects China to eventually become its most important global market with 10,000 stores.

Peter Skera, an analyst at Bank of Montreal Capital Markets of Canada, believes that the success of Tim Hortons' overseas expansion remains a variable. Unlike Burger King, another well-known restaurant brand owned by the parent company, the Tim Hortons brand has "limited recognition" outside Canada. In recent years, Burger King has entered the world and entered the Chinese market.

"We believe that opening up the Chinese market represents a major development opportunity for Canadian food brand international companies, but in view of the company's poor development in the United States in the past, we are still concerned about its prospects in China," Scara wrote in a report on July 11. "

Canadian Food Brand International will rely on the strength of its joint venture partner Carter Xi'an Capital Group. Catsien is a New York private equity firm with many investment projects and rich investment experience in China.

Canadian Restaurant Brand International will take a minority stake in Tim Hortons' joint venture in China and will mainly play the role of franchisor. Peter Yu, managing partner of Carter in Xi'an, said he believes Canadian values of openness and quality can attract Chinese, but it is important to have a new retail model.

"Chinese consumers are post-modern consumers: they are knowledgeable, demanding, open-minded and versatile," Peter Yu wrote in an email. Any successful product, including Tim Hortons, must grasp these characteristics. "

Luckin Coffee is one of the representatives of change. The Beijing start-up, which opened more than 500 stores across the country in less than a year, announced this week that it had just raised $200m, valuing the company at $1 billion. Luckin Coffee's core operation is a smartphone, which allows users to place orders and make payments without using cash.