The way of Cafe Management Independent Cafe returns to the Road of reason

How many people have entrepreneurial dreams, want to have their own coffee shop like carving time, can accompany the aroma of coffee every day, enjoy the leisure time brought by the coffee shop... In fact, independent coffee shop is a "looks beautiful" business, if the business is separated from the essence of the catering industry, blindly pursue literature and accent, or "copy" well-known chain brands without its law, bankruptcy is inevitable. However, the rationality of entrepreneurs and operators is increasing, and with the upward momentum of the overall market, the potential for independent cafes remains high.

Kan Tingting, a Beijing girl who once had 7 years of coffee shop operation experience in Australia, founded the coffee shop brand "BunnyDrop White Rabbit Sugar Coffee" in China last year. At present, she has opened 9 stores in Beijing, Shenyang, Chengdu, Qingdao and Taiyuan successively. This year's goal is to expand the total number of stores to 15.

Jiang Jie, who has been engaged in fine coffee industry in the United States for more than 5 years, has won many awards in coffee skill competitions. He also returned to China this year and plans to open a coffee shop. He is still considering the problem of site selection.

Entrepreneurs like kan tingting and jiang jie are growing in number. Since 2009, Bolan Coffee Academy has conducted an annual market survey of the coffee industry. This year's survey results show that the proportion of people choosing to start an independent cafe from scratch rather than joining reached an all-time high since 2009. The survey results also showed that the proportion of independent cafes with slight surpluses and break-even for current business conditions also increased significantly, while respondents who expressed full confidence and cautious optimism about the future dominated. In addition, according to this year's survey, the proportion of male bosses has increased compared with the past, which means that the coffee industry "returns to the rational spirit," said Qi Ming, founder of Platinum Coffee Academy.

There have been industry insiders said that nine out of ten independent cafes in China are literary youth or literary middle-aged, generally heavy feelings over rationality, pursuit of literary posture and poor management. "They have a problem with the starting point of entrepreneurship, too capricious. All those dead independent cafes were, so to speak,"damned."" Coffee industry senior practitioner Li Qiang admitted. "White Rabbit Sugar Coffee" also looks very fresh and artistic, full of fairy tale factory style is the main tone of decoration, the overall positioning of the cafe is "forest coffee factory in the city", intended to let those busy hearts in the city find a peaceful and comfortable home. Although the appearance of literary,"White Rabbit Sugar" entrepreneurial process is quite pragmatic. Despite rich experience in overseas operation and management, Kan Tingting and his team did not dare to move the Australia model back to China in the original shift, but spent more than a year conducting market research and product research and development in China, and exploring in business practice.

Kan Tingting said that according to market research, it is difficult to operate a cafe in China without cooking food. At present, the popular Korean cafe product line in China is relatively single, easy to copy, and the nutritional value of meals is not high. Some cafes are similar to tea restaurants, serving Chinese and Western food, and even selling covered rice, but the quality of coffee and drinks is not high.

"Chinese consumers are becoming more and more demanding of food. If they control costs instead of optimizing quality, consumers will not pay." Kan Tingting said.

"White Rabbit Sugar Coffee" takes the route of compound cafe. On the basis of insisting on promoting fine coffee culture, it has developed unique coffee series, healthy juice series, hot and cold tea series, etc.; the main products in terms of meals include handmade desserts, Italian country meals, etc. "For example, sandwich bread and pizza pasta are hand-made on the same day, so that the taste is completely different from frozen food. Moreover, the food focuses on using ingredients with high nutritional value, such as avocados." Kan Tingting told our reporter: Coffee shops will also design some unique meals according to different regions, such as Sichuan Fragrance Burger launched in Chengdu Store, barbecue series launched in Shenyang Store, to meet the needs of different time periods and different customers with diversified product lines.

In addition, the style and theme of each store vary according to different urban areas and main consumer groups. Take Beijing stores as an example, the three stores located in Haidian District are mainly aimed at students, and the decoration is more fashionable and interesting, and the beverage consumption accounts for 80% of the total turnover; a store located in the East Fourth Ring Road is adjacent to the high-end community, creating a soft and comfortable open space, attracting business leisure and family customers, and the proportion of food consumption is 65%.

Like many chain brands, the scale of "White Rabbit Sugar Coffee" is direct + franchise route, and its main development area is centered on Northeast China, North China and Southwest China (Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces). Kan Tingting said frankly,"The reason for choosing Southwest is that local cafes are relatively new industries, small cafes are more, fashion cafes on scale and standardized management are relatively few, and rent pressure is relatively small, so market opportunities should be seized." In the near future,"White Rabbit Sugar Coffee" will also enter Shanghai and enter this market with new product models and service models, and the spatial positioning will also create a new image. At the same time, the proportion of direct-sale stores of White Rabbit Sugar Coffee will remain at 30%~40%. "We do our products and operations in a down-to-earth manner. We don't want to lose control of management due to too fast expansion." Kan Tingting said.

Source: International Business Daily