Seesaw Coffee Zong Xin Kuang: popularize "Fine Coffee"

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[exclusive interview in Shanghai] Seesaw Coffee Zong Xinguang: popularize "boutique Coffee"

Under the general trend of consumption upgrading in recent years, the competition in the coffee and beverage industry in the mainland has become more and more fierce. On the streets of Shanghai, you can see all kinds of "online celebrity coffee shops" with very different decoration styles, "new retail" coffee shops that focus on online sales, as well as eye-catching new tricks such as making coffee with robotic arms. Even Starbucks, the ancestor of the traditional coffee shop, finally couldn't help it, and Alibaba's takeout platform ele.me opened a delivery coffee service to get new customers.

The first store of Seesaw is located in Jing'an District, Shanghai. The fashionable decoration style attracts all kinds of hipsters to clock in. (photo by Lin Wenjie, a reporter based in Shanghai)

As one of the earliest "online celebrity" coffee shops, Seesaw Coffee caught up with this wave of consumption escalation. Since its establishment in 2012, Seesaw has opened 20 stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and other places. In addition to the fashionable decoration style to attract young people to "clock in", Seesaw is also the first to bring the concept of "boutique coffee" to domestic businesses.

"in order to standardize the taste, traditional coffee chains roast coffee beans so deeply that they can only drink bitter and smoky taste, which loses the personality of each kind of coffee bean, while boutique coffee bakes each kind of coffee bean's unique flavor according to the origin, freshness, grindness and extraction ratio of coffee beans," Zong Xinguang, founder of Seesaw, said in an exclusive interview with the Economic News Agency.

When Seesaw opened its first store in Shanghai six years ago, only a few consumers knew how to distinguish between different flavors of coffee beans. To get customers to embrace the concept of "boutique coffee" more quickly, Seesaw tried to simplify the name of coffee, such as turning lattes into milk coffee; Ethiopian coffee beans have a floral flavor, and Seesaw will mark "floral" coffee beans on the price list to guide consumers to make choices.

In the past few years, Zong Xinkuang found that consumers not only began to improve the quality of coffee, but also tended to be more rational when consuming, and would not regard Starbucks as the only coffee choice. but to look for coffee that is more in line with their individual needs. According to the change of customers' consumption habits, Seesaw constantly adjusts its strategy and location, such as closing stores with poor sales and opening stores in key shopping malls. At present, Seesaw stores have an average daily volume of 400 to 500 cups, and weekend sales can double. But Zong Xinkuang did not disclose Seesaw's current profitability.

Seesaw has planned to develop on a large scale since its early days, with the goal of opening up to 100 stores in China. Zong Xinkang said: "although this sounds contradictory, because boutique coffee originally pays attention to personality, after the scale, it seems to have lost the taste of 'specialty'." The key to keeping the boutique lies in the people who run the coffee shop. Everyone put their own understanding of coffee into this drink, then each cup of coffee has a unique taste. "

Seesaw completed 45 million yuan (RMB) last year. Round A financing, valued at 200 million yuan, is invested by Baifu Holdings, which is the investment management platform of Hony Investment in the catering industry. At present, the second round of financing is under way.

Seesaw Coffee Shop uses the design of an open coffee making platform to make the coffee clear to guests at a glance. (photo by Lin Wenjie, a reporter based in Shanghai)

Shanghai boutique coffee shops are highly competitive, but they still have great potential.

Zong Xinkuang, who was originally engaged in the IT industry, was not an experienced coffee enthusiast. He just learned about the concept of "boutique coffee" in casual chat with friends and thought it had great potential for development. After deciding to open a shop, he went to South Korea to study coffee production and coffee shop operation. Now, coffee has become a part of his life.

Zong Xinkang said: "the development of the Korean coffee market gives me great confidence. In South Korea, local coffee brands grew rapidly in the years from 2006 to 2010." There are many brands that may have only 10 stores in 2006 and 500 to 600 stores in 10 years. "

By contrast, although the number of coffee shops in Shanghai has soared in recent years, and most of them are seizing the "boutique coffee" market, the number is far from saturated, and there is not a truly recognized "boutique coffee" brand. Zong Xinkuang believes that with the changes in people's spending habits in the future, a new generation of coffee shops will continue to emerge.

When it comes to the challenges faced by the industry, Zong is unfocused. At present, it is mainly due to a shortage of talents, because there are no training courses for baristas in the mainland, and there are only some amateur training courses, so it is not easy to find outstanding talents. Seesaw has set up a special training course called "Coffee Dream Factory" to solve the talent problem, introducing a full set of overseas coffee courses. In the early days, it used preferential prices to attract young people to come to study and practice, but now it is completely internal training.

Although it is inevitable to encounter the problem of brain drain, the staff turnover of Seesaw is generally stable. In Zong Xinguang's view, the competitiveness of Seesaw lies in the conscientious attitude of employees and the cohesion of the team. On the one hand, this strength comes from the employees' love of coffee; on the other hand, it is the professional knowledge and practical ability accumulated in the training process.

For the next step of development, Seesaw is also constantly exploring. Recently, when Zong Xinkuang discovered that coffee and beer have something in common in the brewing process, Seesaw began to study craft beer and added coffee beans to the brewing process, highlighting the unique taste of Seesaw beer. In the future, Seesaw also hopes to make a series of new products with coffee elements.

Of course, Seesaw has not stopped expanding, except that it hopes to open hundreds of stores in China; overseas, Seesaw tried to open a pop-up store in New York at the end of last year, which was quite effective; and it also partnered with Yunnan coffee plantations to introduce domestic coffee beans to the United States for sale.

Author: Lin Wenjie, a reporter based in Shanghai

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