Industry Beverages Headquarters Zhubei, Taiwan | Genre Bubble tea | |
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Founded Zhubei in Hsinchu County, Taiwan (2003) Number of locations 1,002 in 30 countries (January, 2017) Area served Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam | ||
Chatime (日出茶太) is a Taiwanese global franchise teahouse chain. It operates 1,002 outlets in 30 countries. In 2006, it opened its first store outside of Taiwan in California, and it has since expanded to Malaysia, Canada, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, India, Dubai, China, Japan and Korea, among others. Its expansion and growth model is through franchising.
Contents
- History
- Expansion
- Listing
- Products
- Locations
- Collaborations
- Brand ambassadors
- Counterfeit
- Legal Dispute
- References
Its parent company, La Kaffa International Co Ltd (六角國際事業), debuted on the Emerging Stock Market (興櫃市場) in December 2012 at NT$168 per share. It is expected to list on Taiwan’s Gre Tai Securities Market in the second half of 2013. It is the only public-listed bubble tea company in Taiwan.
History
Henry Wang Yao-Hui founded Chatime in 2005 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, under the parent company, La Kaffa Coffee. He modernised traditional tea making culture by producing tea machines that could make quality fresh teas that were consistent, using a variety of flavors, fruits and toppings, in order to stand out from the many competitors in the market. The company has its own tea plantation in Nantou, Taiwan.
Expansion
The company opened its first outlet outside of Taiwan in California in 2006, followed by Australia in 2009, where it currently has over 40 stores. This was followed by Malaysia in 2010. Its Malaysian operations currently account for just under 50% of its global revenue.
In 2012, the brand opened its first store in India, a traditional tea drinking country, in New Delhi.
After its two stores in New York, its third store in the United States opened at Mall of America in March 2012. The Chatime store in London is located on Old Compton Street.
In the Philippines, it planned to open 50 stores by 2014, while in Malaysia, it opened its 100th store in 2013, with plans to open up to 250 stores within a three to five-year period.
As of August 13, 2015, the brand has 12 locations throughout Ontario, Canada.
Listing
Chatime's parent company, La Kaffa International Co. Ltd., debuted on Taiwan's Emerging Stock Market (興櫃市場) in December 2012 at NT$168 per share under the stock code 2732. It is the only public-listed bubble tea company in Taiwan.
Products
The brand's best-selling drink is its signature Chatime "pearl" milk tea. The brand has a variety of drinks under categories such as milk tea, fresh tea, fruit tea, "oriental pop tea", "QQ" jelly, "mousse", juices, smoothies and coffee, with stores carrying anywhere between 30 and over 90 flavours. Its products are available with less sugar.
Typically, Chatime products come with a variety of toppings such as "pearls", while "QQ" jelly is a mixture of "pearls" and nata de coco.
Some products are only available in certain countries. For example, in Malaysia, Chatime introduced three flavours in collaboration with Horlicks from GlaxoSmithKline.
Locations
As of 2017, Chatime is present in 30 countries and territories.
Collaborations
In 2012, AirAsia announced that it would offer Chatime on its flights and claimed that is would be the "world's first and only in-flight bubble tea". The airline said that two speciality bubble tea drinks, Roasted Milk Tea with Red Bean and Mango Green Tea with Rainbow Jelly, were available on flights operated by Malaysian AirAsia with the airline code AK to 48 destinations, which include India, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines. The collaboration was organised by Chatime Malaysia's CEO, Bryan Loo.
Chatime became the first beverage company in Malaysia to host an official account on WeChat. To mark the collaboration, Chartime gave away 1 million cups of drinks worth over RM6 million/US$2 million through digital coupons made available via the WeChat platform.
Other collaborations include partnerships with McDonald's, Horlicks from GlaxoSmithKline, and biscuit brand Julie's.
Brand ambassadors
Chatime announced in 2012 that award-winning Taiwan actress Ariel Lin would serve as its brand ambassador.
The following year, the brand announced that Crystal Lee had become the lifestyle tea provider's first “Chatime Friend”. The announcement was made soon after Lee became the youngest actress ever to have won the award for Best Actress at the 16th Shanghai International Film Festival.
Counterfeit
In South Korea, Chatime said it would take legal action against a store which sold similar products and was recruiting potential franchises.
Legal Dispute
In Malaysia, the master franchisee agreement was terminated on 5 January 2017 by La Kaffa International due to contractual dispute with its country master franchisee, Loob Holdings. This legal dispute attracts local medias and is currently before arbitration in Singapore. La Kaffa held a press conference in Kuala Lumpur announcing it would be taking over the Malaysian Chatime business operations and development with immediate effect. This however appears to be largely incorrect with Loob Holdings rebranding 161 out of 165 Chatime outlets to Tealive brand on 17 February 2017.