I'm telling you, coffee brands don't make money from coffee.

When coffee is associated with taste and culture, it moves from the catering industry to the cultural and commercial fields. Investing in coffee shops is becoming the most popular area for investors nowadays. At present, coffee brands in the domestic market are mainly divided into European and American coffee, Korean coffee and Taiwan coffee. No matter what kind of coffee is invested, the start-up capital needs millions of yuan to start. However, the return on investment of millions of yuan does not start with the sale of coffee.

Sell membership cards and coffee peripherals

European and American: Starbucks

Number of stores in Beijing: 75

Mode of operation: direct operation + authorized operation

Today, there is still no brand that can fully challenge Starbucks. However, coffee is no longer the core profit point of the coffee giant. It is understood that Starbucks makes money for membership cards and coffee peripheral products. According to a former Starbucks employee, Starbucks has certain requirements for daily membership card sales, but it doesn't care so much about the number of coffee cups sold.

Starbucks named the membership card as Starbucks Card, the price is 88 yuan, giving coffee invitation coupons, cups and other multiple discounts. Members can get a star as points for every 50 yuan spent. When the number of stars reaches 25, the membership card will be upgraded to a gold card with a member's signature and enjoy a free cup of coffee for every ten times of consumption. However, Starbucks card points will be cleared regularly, and you need to keep spending at Starbucks in order to keep your membership level and more discounts. Take gold card members as an example, a card needs to spend a total of 1250 yuan a year to maintain its membership level the following year. In order to maintain the grade, when multiple coffee brands appear, Starbucks members will unconsciously choose one cup of Starbucks to abandon other brands.

Starbucks is facing multiple challenges as Korean coffee expands and convenience stores, restaurants and bakeries enter the coffee industry. On the one hand, Starbucks has a deficiency in takeout; on the other hand, for Chinese consumers with a weak coffee culture, a cup of coffee that costs more than 30 yuan and a cup of freshly brewed coffee in a convenience store costs about 5 yuan. Sometimes the price will attract them to choose more affordable goods. However, Starbucks still has the advantage that it represents not only the coffee brand but also the taste in the minds of Chinese consumers.

Earn the money of the franchisee

Han Shi: coffee with you

Number of stores in Beijing: 31

Mode of operation: joining + direct operation + cooperative operation

Input / output: 3 million-5 million yuan

Loose joining allows coffee to accompany your brand to rise rapidly, but because of its harsh joining and sharing conditions, it is difficult for franchisees to make money.

Entering the Chinese market in 2012, coffee accompanies you to become the fastest coffee brand. When you first enter the coffee market, coffee accompanies you to rapidly expand the market by relying on a variety of modes of operation. According to the person in charge of joining your brand with coffee, the common way for coffee to join you is for the franchisee to pay the full franchise fee at one time and directly own all the management rights of the store. Take a 200m2 storefront in Beijing as an example, the franchise fee is about 3 million yuan. Plus store decoration (an average of 3000 yuan / square meter), equipment purchase and other costs, the total investment in the early stage is about 3 million-5 million yuan.

The huge upfront investment has deterred many franchisees. For this reason, coffee accompanies you to launch an equity partnership store, that is, franchisees and coffee accompany your company to invest at a proportion of 49% and 51% and distribute the income after making a profit. At the same time, coffee accompanies you to choose to cooperate with the bank, and the franchisee can choose to borrow money from the bank to join your brand. However, some franchisees said that although this investment model reduced the early investment, but the later benefit distribution franchisee is still very difficult to make a profit. In fact, no matter which form to join coffee to accompany you, the coffee company will charge a management fee of 4% per month. As for the return on investment cycle, coffee accompany you did not reply, its website declared that "coffee accompany you is the most reliable money-making partner."

Although the way coffee accompanies you to join allows investors to quickly enter the coffee industry, there is no strict management and cultural export of direct coffee shops in brand management.

Take down the regional agent.

Korean: diffuse coffee

Number of stores in Beijing: 19

Mode of operation: regional agents join

Input / output: 2 million yuan / annual capital recovery

Although Man Coffee is allowed to join, it is difficult for most investors. The pre-site selection process is particularly critical, not only to ensure passenger flow, but also to have a low rent price to ensure storefront space.

The spacious coffee is a popular coffee brand among consumers in Beijing in recent years. A bear is provided after the coffee order, and consumers just need to sit down and play with the bear for a while and wait for the food to be delivered. It is understood that Man Coffee was founded by Korean Xin Zixiang in China and is not a Korean brand in the impression of consumers. Diffuse coffee and coffee accompany your brand to join different ways, diffuse coffee to implement the regional agency model, that is, generally have 4-5 agency capacity of partners can join the coffee. This also makes it very difficult for individuals to join Man Coffee.

It is understood that in the Beijing area, Man Coffee requires that the location must be the best location in the park, college or community, and requires an area of at least 400-500 square meters of upper and lower two-storey properties. According to the regulations of Man Coffee, the Man Coffee Company and the franchise partner need to account for 25% of the store equity, 35% and 65%, respectively. The start-up capital of each coffee shop is more than 2 million yuan. As for the return on investment cycle, Xin Zi Xiang has said publicly that most franchisees recover their costs in about a year.

Although Man Coffee is allowed to join, the ability of one person to open five stores deters investors, and the increase in the difficulty of investment slows down the expansion of Man Coffee. However, the raising of the threshold for joining is conducive to the maintenance of brand image. The location of Man Coffee tends to parks, colleges, communities and other places to avoid competition with Starbucks and other established coffee brands.

Make a light meal by heart

Taiwan: Shangdao Coffee

Number of stores in Beijing: more than 100

Mode of operation: join + direct operation

Input / output: 1.8 million yuan

With the emergence of new coffee brands, Shangdao Coffee, which specializes in fast food and coffee drinks, has lost its competitive edge. It takes enough courage and patience to invest in Shangdao Coffee.

Shangdao Coffee currently has more than 1000 stores across the country, including more than 100 in Beijing. The mode of operation of Shangdao Coffee is similar to that of Korean Coffee, most of which are franchised to recruit franchisees, and some are direct stores. A person in charge of Shangdao Coffee franchise told Beijing Business Daily that joining a Shangdao coffee store with an area of about 200 square meters in Beijing requires 1.8 million yuan of start-up capital.

According to the person in charge, the start-up capital of 1.8 million yuan does not include the funds for housing lease, but only includes the franchise fee of 390000 yuan for four years, the cost of house decoration (an average of 1600 yuan per square meter), the daily expenses of employees, and the cost of equipment related to coffee production. The official said that as long as it has a start-up capital of 1.8 million yuan and a house of 200,250 square meters, Shangdao Coffee will send relevant responsible persons to inspect and evaluate the site and finally determine whether individuals can be allowed to join in their names. According to the person in charge, the return on investment cycle should be determined by multiple factors such as the location of the store and the surrounding environment.

Shangdao coffee is mainly aimed at entertainment and leisure people, in order to facilitate food needs, simple meals and set meals are the main products, coffee is not its main business. As a result, Shangdao Coffee has also become a coffee shop specializing in fast food in the industry. Investment in Shangdao Coffee has less start-up capital. However, because its main business hovers between fast food and coffee business, its positioning is ambiguous and is less competitive with the new coffee brand.

(the article is from the public account Rhone Coffee on Wechat.)