Tim Hortons, which is favored by Tencent, adds a new music theme store! Investment between Tims and Tencent

Tims Coffee announced on its official account that it was "causing trouble" with Tencent Music on May 6.

Tim Hortons opened a new music theme store, but for many people, this move is no longer a special thing.

Since Tim Hortons won the favor of Tencent, Tim Hortons has been "crazy" in the domestic coffee market, and even Tim Hortons has said that it plans to open 1500 cafes across the country in the next few years. For the short term 2021, it plans to add more than 200 cafes, including standard stores, Tims Go stores and theme stores.

It is understood that Tims Coffee Cross-border in conjunction with Tencent QQ Music to create China's first music-themed coffee shop called "plop theme Coffee Shop", has now opened on the first floor of Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Cultural Center.

Plop theme coffee shop set up a large number of plop dolls, but also specially designed an artist hand-painted plop theme wall, in addition, there is the only limited QQ Music radio star gold sentence cup.

In terms of products, Tims Coffee Mini Program jointly launched a limited edition product composed of three popular Tims Coffee products and QQ Music luxury green diamond gift bag, as well as official song list, theme player skin and other joint content.

According to a message posted on Weibo by Tim Hortons, on the opening day, Tim Hortons also invited artist Jonathan to act as an one-day store manager to prepare the new Tims coffee quartet Fuyun latte.

As for the accelerated layout of the store scene, Tims Coffee said: the offline consumer experience is also very important. While developing online digitization, it will also expand the offline coffee drinking scene, and the theme store is one of the key points of its expansion scene.

As one of the main expansion scenarios, Tim Hortons has far more than one or two theme stores.

Tim Hortons has aroused the "collective" curiosity of the public because it was "accidentally attracted" by Tencent. Since then, Tim Hortons has been actively exploring different forms of cooperation with Tencent.

Earlier, when Tims Coffee received investment from Tencent, it said that the cooperation with Tencent will also be reflected in the cooperation between store location, e-sports and QQ Music, so it is not a sudden surprise for Tim Hortons to cooperate with Tencent QQ Music to open a theme store.

In November 2020, Tim Hortons also opened with Tencent the first Tencent Esports scene theme store that is popular with young e-sports groups. The store is also an extension of the e-sports scene, strengthening social interaction and optimizing interpersonal relationships with coffee, providing users with a new "e-sports + Coffee" life scene with strong social attributes.

On July 3, 2020, Tim Hortons chose "ice hockey" as its theme at its Hangzhou store, which focuses on cool white, wood and metal, and carries the concept of "hockey" throughout.

On July 24, 2020, Tim Hortons adopted the theme of "Jingyun" in its flagship store in Beijing, which is also very approachable with elements such as the Great Wall and Peking Opera Facebook.

By October 2020, Tim Hortons, which has been making great strides in its new stores, said: China has ushered in a hundred stores, of which the 100th has opened in Shanghai.

Tim Hortons has not officially entered the Chinese market for a long time. On February 26th, 2019, Tim Hortons opened its first store in Shanghai. For a story about the Tim Hortons brand, check out this article: coffee brand Tim Hortons's 100th store in China is coming! )

So why can Tim Hortons attract big investment from Tencent?

As a Canadian national coffee brand, Tim Hortons, also known as "North American Legend Cafe", currently has more than 5,000 stores around the world, of which Canada accounts for 4000, accounting for 63% of the market.

The main reasons why Tim Hortons is liked by Tencent are as follows

Strength of the brand itself

Tims is part of RBI Group, which owns global fast food chains with a long history, including Burger King and Pais. In 2017, RBI also bought US brand Popeye Popeyes Fried Chicken for $1.8 billion. In May 2018, Tims parent company RBI and Descartes Capital Group (Cartesian Capital Group) jointly established Tims China. In February 2019, Tims officially entered the Chinese market.

Although it is not well-known, Tims has long had a group of followers in the Chinese market. After more than a year of precipitation, Tims China has nearly 1 million members. At present, Tims has more than 100 stores in the Chinese market, and among the stores opened at present, Tims coffee has achieved overall profits. It is obvious that Tim Hortons has a certain audience and applicability in the Chinese market. In addition, the ambitious Tims tells you that it will expand aggressively in China.

Lu Yongchen, CEO of Tims China, used to be the CFO of Burger King. Lu Yongchen joined Burger King in 2012, with only more than 50 stores and now more than 1000. Burger King is also a foreign brand with good performance in China, so when Lu Yongchen proposed that the number of Tims with only a few dozen stores in a short period of time will increase to 1500 in the future, everyone will see the feasibility. At the same time, he is also full of confidence. Tencent naturally took a fancy to the chances of winning.

The potential of the coffee market

Before the potential of the coffee market has been fully tapped, coffee and coffee culture have become the focus of the market, and the arrival of more capital further shows that the demand for coffee in emerging markets, including China, is very strong. At this time, Tencent has no reason to give up the ambitious Tim Hortons of the coffee market.

In addition, Tim Hortons is more interested in the digital delivery scene of the Chinese market. At present, Tim Hortons has more than 1 million members in China, of which more than 1 million of the sales of Tim Hortons80% come from members. This is another reason why Tencent has a crush on Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons has a high return rate of loyal customers.

Of course, there is a reason for Tim Hortons to take a fancy to Tencent. After receiving the investment from Tencent at that time, Tim Hortons planned to use the funds to further expand the construction of digital infrastructure and cooperate with Tencent to explore the digital upgrade of online channels. The good resources behind Tencent meet the needs of the digital field of Tim Hortons layout. At the same time, Lu Yongchen said that Tencent will not specifically participate in the daily management of Tims. But it will give more online resources, and for Tim Hortons, which is determined to accelerate its digital development, Tencent's entry has made the project several times faster.

Generally speaking, whether Tencent has a crush on Tim Hortons or Tim Hortons has a crush on Tencent, in short, it is a win-win cooperation between the two sides.

Finally, although Tim Hortons is backed by Tencent, a powerful ally, it will take time to verify whether it will be possible to open 1500 stores as scheduled.

* Photo Source: QQ Music Weibo Network