Boutique coffee costs only 9.9 yuan. is it messing up or breaking it up?

Since entering the Chinese market, as a refreshing functional drink, the price of boutique coffee has reached a world wide.

But things seem to be changing.

Three years ago, Seesaw, founded in Shanghai, reduced the price of boutique coffee to 25 yuan, causing controversy in the industry.

Now, with the posture of "spoiler", Never Coffee in Beijing has pushed the price of its boutique coffee to 9.9 yuan, wantonly arousing the nerves of its peers.

Is this a prelude to a price war in the coffee industry, or a premeditation to break the price circle?

First, there is a catfish in the boutique coffee world.

The cafe, called Never Coffee, has been in operation for half a year.

It is now the biggest customer of Chinese boutique coffee suppliers.

At most, it uses 960 kilograms of boutique coffee beans a month-a typical boutique cafe, which is usually less than 20 kilograms.

Founder Liu Zuofei is a young trader.

After graduating from the Doctor of Law in the United States, he had a short career as a lawyer. Just last year, he successfully sold a fruit juice brand for a good price.

Cross-border people usually have a more barbaric attitude towards the rules of the industry. They go on a rampage, stirring up the water of the industry like catfish and wantonly stirring up the nerves of their peers.

Never Coffee is exactly like this. It lowers the price of a cup of boutique coffee from 50 yuan to 9.9 yuan.

The product is very simple: with more than 80 points of boutique beans, through the filling production line, produce boutique coffee that can be heated in the microwave oven. Each set of 6 bottles, there are 6 different flavors, such as Yega snow coffee, Manning and so on.

This product has been unexpectedly popular since it was launched in the middle of the year. On the first night of launch, Liu Zuofei's team sold 1950 sets of more than 10000 bottles.

This is also far more than the Never Coffee team expected-they only prepared 100 sets of products.

Liu Zuofei told Ka Men that Never Coffee now sells about 5000 bottles a day. According to the calculation, the amount of running water in a month is nearly 1.5 million.

This is equivalent to the performance of three Starbucks.

Second, start with the most sensitive prices of consumers.

The astonishing price of 9.9 yuan was decided after repeated quarrels between Liu Zuofei and his partner Kang Jin.

The latter, who runs two cafes in Beijing all the year round, is now in charge of Never Coffee's product line and is known as "Master Kang" in the industry.

Long-term experience tells Kang Jin that the reasonable price of a cup of boutique coffee is 50 yuan, which is also recognized by the industry.

Liu Zuofei disagreed.

His long life in the United States made him think more about the price circle of coffee: this is a profiteering industry.

"the cost of a fancy cup of coffee without milk is 40 cents, which is 22 yuan for a small cup and 28 yuan for a large one. Starbucks sells 600 cups of coffee a day at an average price of 30 yuan and 500000 yuan a month. Excluding operating costs, Starbucks coffee is at least 10 times profitable. "

On the other hand, the more expensive boutique cafes on the market are forced to maintain high prices because of the high operating costs of individual stores.

The team finally decided to break through the price circle by starting with the most sensitive prices of consumers.

Never Coffee aims at consumers who have a rigid demand for coffee in the market.

"there is such a group of consumers in the market, although the base is not very large, but they are already dependent on coffee. They have no requirements on the consumer environment, but 30 yuan a cup of coffee is pressure, and do not want to drink instant, our products and sales model, targeted at this group. "

Third, large traffic to save low profits

In Liu Zuofei's design, the cafe is placed at the end and is currently closed to the public.

In order to maintain profits, Never Coffee simply omitted the scene consumption of the cafe. The three new stores under preparation all offer take-out drinks without tables and chairs in order to reduce the cost of renting.

Another way is to buy in bulk. Never Coffee purchases in Ethiopia, Sumatra, Brazil, Honduras, Yunnan and other places, each order of magnitude is about 5 tons, to be transported in containers. The bargaining power gained from bulk purchases makes it nearly 30% cheaper than independent boutique coffee shops.

Start from the price of the most sensitive products of consumers, provide high-quality products with the lowest operating cost, and then rely on performance-to-price ratio to grab consumer flow and make profits.

This is the business logic of Never Coffee.

It is worth mentioning that on the third day of online sales of Never Coffee, we finalized the 3 million yuan angel round investment of "Hongtai Fund" created by Yu Minhong and Sheng Xitai.

Is there a future for the industrialization of boutique coffee?

Boutique coffee has a "4321" theory, that is, the quality of a cup of boutique coffee depends on 40 per cent beans, 30 per cent roasting, 20 per cent equipment and 10 per cent manual technology.

Coffee into bottled products, a large number of online sales, such a complex process, how to ensure the quality of boutique coffee?

Thanks to his familiarity with the fruit juice production line, Liu Zuofei and his partner started from the equipment to try to realize the industrialization of fine coffee.

Due to the blank market of related equipment, they had to develop an industrial extractor and a semi-automatic filling production line.

This set of equipment covers an area of more than 200 square meters in tons. "although the appearance is ugly, it relies on a controllable form to ensure the stability of the quality of every bottle of boutique coffee."

At present, the production line has a capacity of 5000 bottles a day, which is a bit inadequate for the growing sales. Liu Zuofei's plan is to import a professional industrial extractor to Japan when sales grow to the next stage, and then find OEM to solve the production capacity.

As soon as this industrial coffee product was born, it caused controversy in the industry. Can this kind of bottled, low-cost, mechanized coffee be regarded as boutique coffee?

Some colleagues even came to the door to kick the restaurant, telling the history of starting from the bar to winning the champion of baked beans, denouncing them as "messing around" and "vicious price war".

Of course, there is no shortage of appreciators for this new catfish in the boutique coffee world.

Zheng Songmao, chairman of quality Coffee, told Ka Men that he paid attention to the young brand Never Coffee as soon as it was launched, and was very interested in their different model.

Zong Xinkang, founder of Seesaw, told Ka Men that it is good to have a team to innovate and try on the model in terms of the stage of boutique coffee in the Chinese market.

But at the same time, both mentioned that whether this model is successful or not, the result still needs to be proved by profit.

Liu Zuofei is psychologically prepared for this.

"I don't know how to make coffee, but it's cruel to understand the market. This project may die or become a front-runner. But in any case, it's worth trying.