"Coffee with you", there is someone who can no longer continue to accompany you.
July 26, a sad news for the coffee industry from South Korea - known as the "King of Coffee," South Korea's KH representative Kang Hoon (voice) committed suicide.
Kang Hoon's life curtain fell slowly, and he built the famous chain brand "coffee with you", since around 2015 in China into the "store closure crisis", seems to have disappeared from the public opinion.
On July 27, a "Coffee With You" signboard hung on the side of a not-so-obvious office building near the coach terminal. The small store is still clean, but it is obviously not in line with the dreamy, romantic Korean style.
Perhaps because of the midday, there are no other customers in the store except the reporter, there is no business, from the boss to the clerk looks a bit listless, playing with their own cell phones. The reporter asked the clerk about other stores, and got a somewhat vague answer, "It's not the same as our store." The reporter's cup of coffee lasted half an hour, during which time not a single customer came to the door.
If you turn the clock back two or three years ago, the "coffee with you" situation is far from today's cold.
"Coffee with you" first landed in China in 2012, and the first store opened in Wangjing, Beijing. 2013 around the time of "Coffee with you" large-scale beach in Jinan, in a short period of time, Quancheng Road, Honglou, Bayi Overpass and other popular shopping districts appeared more than one. The company has also launched a new business center in the city, which is located in a popular shopping area.
A wave of "Coffee with you" franchisees swept across the country. "Coffee with you" franchise number of geometric progression of rapid growth, "Coffee with you" and even ambitious shout, to 2016, "Coffee with you" will become China's casual Coffee chain first, operating 3,500 stores, turnover of more than 5 billion ......
Unfortunately, the good times do not last long, "joining the tide" has not yet faded, a wave of the same swept across the country, "shutdown tide! "Let" coffee with you "deep in the whirlpool of public opinion, a large number of franchisees have closed, unpaid wages, leaving the storm. Jinan has not been spared, in 2015, Jinan, six "coffee with you" store fell out of the Shimao store and Huaneng store two. Today, through the public comment, word of mouth and other websites, you can still find several "coffee with you", but the year's "pioneers", only Honglou store and other individual stores in support.
2015 for "coffee with you" can be called a disastrous year, and this "coffee with you" of the trader passed away, I do not know what it means?
"Coffee with you" situation is not an isolated case, similar style of diffuse coffee this year in Suzhou and other places into the "store" storm, Zhengzhou, Beijing and other places of the Zoo Coffee, has also been frequently reported store closures, franchisees run, stored value card null and void, etc. Negative news. The reason, the franchise system this "double-edged sword" power can not be underestimated. Enterprises to open the market in the short term, the use of franchise system can accelerate the dissemination of the brand, reduce costs, earn more lucrative profits. But as a light catering coffee industry, there is not much choice in product differentiation competition, coupled with light catering consumption iteration frequency is too fast, once the brand management can not keep up with the lack of product innovation and commercial culture, under the pressure of the capital chain, inevitably fall into the tangle with the franchisee, and end up with a lose-lose situation.
The China Catering Report (White Paper 2017) shows that in 2016, China's cafes closed 14,807 stores throughout the year, and 90% of the store closures occurred in the second half of the year. The foundation of China's coffee market is weak, and the opening rate of personalized cafes has exceeded the growth rate of the customer base.
Business is gone. Can think of another way, but life only once.