The accompanying text in the circle of friends is full of blood: “coffeeThe Dreamer team is on a journey again.” Cudi Coffee also announced that it has become the sponsor of the Argentine National Football Team in China.
At present, only one store of IFC Fuzhou International Financial Center is open for Cudi Coffee, but the brand ordering and takeaway mini-programs have been launched on WeChat. Opening the menu, the reporter found that Kudi Coffee has launched more than 40 products, mainly composed of coffee, tea, smoothies and other drinks. The current “Internet celebrity coffee” varieties such as raw coconut latte and raw cheese latte are all listed.
In terms of price, all products are priced between 18 yuan and 32 yuan. Among coffee products, the price of American coffee is about 25 yuan, and the price of latte is about 30 yuan. During the trial operation, all products are priced at 9.9 yuan.
According to the brand information obtained by the reporter, the brand of Cudi Coffee will be “not just another coffee”. “Coffee, roasting, light meals, bars… COTTI COFFEE will always find a latitude associated with your life.” According to media reports, Kudi Coffee will “mainly focus on full-time catering”, that is, it will provide users with coffee, Italian biscuits and other accompaniments in the morning, meals at noon, snacks in the afternoon, and wine in the evening.
Judging from the current menu dominated by coffee and tea, Kudi Coffee is far from the concept of “full-time dining” planned by Lu Zhengyao. At the same time, according to the real photos taken by netizens on the spot, the Fuzhou Kudi Coffee store is only a stall next to the escalator, and it is still questionable whether it has the conditions for food production and wine supply.
From the perspective of enterprise operation mode, Kudi Coffee may take the asset-light franchise route. According to the promotional materials, the corporate vision of Kudi Coffee is: “Building a business support platform based on Internet technology, integrating the advantageous resources of brands, products, supply chains and operational services, helping associates to easily become coffee dreamers, so that the world is not difficult to open. coffee shop.”
Ruixing that cannot be avoided
Whether Cudi Coffee can replicate Luckin’s success is unknown, but Cudi Coffee seems keen to evoke its relationship with Luckin.
The ultra-low price of 9.9 yuan during the trial operation period mentioned above, the emphasis on online sales and delivery services, and the planning of light food products are all enough to awaken the memory of Ruixing’s rapid development. At the beginning of the business, Luckin Coffee adopted the strategy of “new customers get a 50% discount coupon for the first cup”, and strategies such as “50% discount into light food” have impressed consumers and investors.
In fact, this coffee brand, which will focus on “high cost performance & high convenience”, will tell you its close relationship with Ruixing in the first item of the promotional materials: “Cudi Coffee is owned by Qian Zhi, the founder of Ruixing Coffee. Ms. Ya and the original core team of Ruixing Coffee were founded with a registered capital of 200 million US dollars.”
The reporter inquired about the industrial and commercial registration information and learned that the operator of Fuzhou Cudi Coffee Store, “Fuzhou Wanglong Cudi Coffee Co., Ltd.”, is owned by “Cudi Coffee (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.” (referred to as “Tianjin Cudi Coffee”) Wholly owned. Tianjin Cudi Coffee was established on May 19 this year. The only shareholder is Cudi Coffee Co., Ltd. registered in Hong Kong, China. The current legal representative is indeed Qian Zhiya, but the registered capital is 100 million US dollars. There are discrepancies in the data.
Interestingly, although the registration time is only 5 months, Tianjin Kudi Coffee has undergone many important industrial and commercial changes.
For example, at the beginning of its establishment, Tianjin Kudi Coffee was named “Huiyi Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.”, and its business license project was drug retailing. Later, it added food sales, inspection and testing services in July, and finally opened its doors in August. It changed its name to Tianjin Kudi Coffee only in the month.
For another example, Qian Zhiya just changed to the executive director, manager and legal representative of Tianjin Kudi Coffee 5 days before the opening of the first store of Kudi Coffee (October 17). Previously, the aforementioned position was held by Wang Baiyin. It is worth mentioning that Wang Baiyin also has a close relationship with Lu Zhengyao. According to media reports, Wang Baiyin is Lu Zhengyao’s EMBA classmate at Peking University and once participated in the transaction of Baowo Automobile.
Since quitting Luckin Coffee, Lu Zhengyao’s entrepreneurial projects have hardly left the catering industry. However, whether it is the small noodle brand “Fun Small Noodles” or the pre-made food chain “Bite of the Tongue”, the operation is deserted, far less successful than Ruixing Coffee.
Now returning to his hometown of Fujian, returning to the coffee industry, and using similar strategies and entrepreneurial teams, can Lu Zhengyao make Kudi Coffee replicate the business miracle of Luckin’s first year of opening 2,073 stores? We can wait and see.