On April 23, Chabaidao officially landed at HKEx. After Naixue's tea, the market finally came to "the second share of new tea", and also "the first share of joining in tea making". The prospectus shows that, The operating revenue from franchise stores accounts for more than 99% of the total revenue of Chabaidao in 2023 。 In the fierce industry competition, is it thousands of franchisees who support the listed milk tea brand?

How to become a tea franchisee? Paid 300000 yuan, and still needed 300000 yuan

The prospectus shows that the performance of Chabaidao in the past few years is quite impressive. From 2021 to 2023, the company's revenue will be 3.644 billion yuan, 4.232 billion yuan and 5.704 billion yuan respectively. In these three years, the annual compound growth rate of net profit of Chabaidao reached 21.6%.

The franchise mode is obviously the key factor for the rapid growth of Chabaidao's business and scale. The financial report shows that by the end of 2021, 2022 and 2023, there are 5070, 6352 and 7795 franchised stores in the network of tea 100 stores, accounting for more than 99% of the total number of tea 100 stores at that time. By the end of 2023, Chabaidao will have 5538 franchisees, and 595 franchisees will operate more than two stores. In contrast, the number of direct stores is only 6.

From the perspective of income structure, about 95% of Chabaidao's income in the last three years came from selling goods and equipment to franchisees. Including about 4% of the royalties and franchise fees, the franchisee group contributes most of the revenue to Chabaidao—— They have made great contributions to the listing of Chabaidao, and they are also the real "customers" of this company.

How much does it cost to join a tea company?

According to the joining policy released by Roottea Baidao WeChat public account, Franchise fees mainly include brand authorization fees, equipment, training fees, initial distribution fees, comprehensive opening service fees, etc., which together require at least 282000 yuan 。 It is worth noting that this price does not include store rent, water and electricity, decoration, labor wages, etc. The management fees and comprehensive operation service fees of the take away platform need to be paid annually or monthly. If the store is closed, the official refund of Chabaidao is only 10000 yuan.

According to the 2023 White Paper on China's Commercial Real Estate Development, in the first half of 2023, the average rent of Baijie shops is 24.33 yuan/square meter/day. It is known that the one-sided area of Chabaidao is generally more than 30 square meters, so the annual rent is 266400 yuan. According to the staff of Chabaidao's official hotline, Chabaidao has cooperative decoration companies in most areas, which can provide unified drawings and decoration services. The average decoration cost of a 40-50 square meter store is about 100000 yuan.

In addition, according to the prospectus data, the average annual salary of employees in the tea market in 2023 will be 49300 yuan. If a store is equipped with at least 4 employees, the annual labor expenditure is about 147900 yuan.

Even a rough estimate, The cost of opening a tea franchise store in the first year also needs 600000 to 700000 yuan.

With sufficient funds, it is not necessarily possible to become a tea franchisee. In addition to the basic age limit (20-45 years old) and the requirements of bringing their own stores, the Chabaidao prospectus also mentioned that "because of our strict screening procedures, only 7% of the franchisee candidates could pass the screening and eventually become our franchisees during the past record period." A Chabaidao franchisee with two stores told the Blue Whale reporter“ After online application, I have to go to Chengdu for an interview. There are about 10 out of 100 people. It is not so simple to have requirements for capital, experience, experience and management ability. ”

According to the Daily Economic News, Chabaidao has also set up 16 training centers and a regional supervision team composed of about 570 people. In addition to the regular patrol inspection of the store three to four times a month, the headquarters and the regional inspection team conduct daily random inspection. A number of franchisees reported to the Blue Whale reporter that the inspection and management of Chabaidao is rigorous in the industry.

Or because of the combination of the above, The closing rate of Chabaidao franchise stores will be 0.2%, 1.1% and 2.3% respectively from 2021 to 2023, which is far below the industry average 。 But it is also obvious that the closing rate of Chabaidao franchise stores is increasing, and the number of closed franchise stores has increased from 13 to 76 to 220 in the past three years.

Is it profitable to open hundreds of tea courses now? Some stores earn 30000 yuan a month, while others say, "It's better to work"

Do you still make money by opening 100 franchise stores? Several franchisees expressed similar views: It depends on the position and admission time.

A tea franchisee told the Blue Whale reporter that his shop is in a good position. At present, there are more than 30000 profits every month, and it has paid back more than a year. A super franchisee he knows has 25 stores, and this boss entered the market early, At that time, the first store earned about 10000 yuan a day, and returned to its capital in three months. As for the statement that "thousands of franchisees support hundreds of ways of tea", this shopkeeper is particularly open-minded: The company earns the company, and I earn mine.

Not all franchisees can catch up with the good times and good positions.

Xiaolan, a member of Chabaidao, calculated a more detailed account for us. The cost of opening her store is about 600000 yuan, the profit in 22 years is about 350000 yuan, and in 23 years it will be reduced to 200000 yuan. She thought it was too late to enter the arena“ Now the market is saturated, and there are more than 8000 light tea brands. Although there is a protection distance of 50-400m, what's the difference between this and a knife rest on my neck 。”

According to the prospectus, in the past three years, the proportion of takeout and meal orders is about 6:4. For a long time, Chabaidao has focused on small store mode and take away business. On the one hand, it has more cost advantages and relatively low requirements for capital investment. But on the other hand, The proportion of takeaway is too high, and platform commissions, subsidies, streaming and distribution costs will greatly squeeze the profit space 。 Xiaolan, the shopkeeper, revealed that, The takeout business in her store is only about 61-63%.

Even if it is a hall meal, guests will also prefer more affordable voice coupons. "The customer price of more than 20 yuan is just a running price, and it will only be more than 10 yuan when we get there. To be an enterprise, we need to see how much money we actually get." Xiaolan showed the background data of her store to reporters, There are nearly 5000 orders with a total of more than 120000 in a month, and the paid in amount is only about 90000, of which more than 30000 are preferential.

In addition, Xiaolan revealed that the materials of Chabaidao are relatively expensive, and the basic performance of 100000 yuan should be matched with 40000 yuan of payment for goods. This is also the major part of the tea revenue in the prospectus mentioned above, including the sales of dairy products, tea, fruit and other tea making materials, ingredients, packaging materials and equipment.

It is worth mentioning that although the franchisees have paid a lot of fees to Chabaidao, the gross profit rate of the company's business is not high - only about 32%. One data that can be used for comparison is that the proportion of royalty and franchise fee income is only about 4%, and the gross profit rate is as high as 92%. The reason why the above businesses do not account for a high proportion is that, unlike the Meixue Ice City, which produces 100% of its core ingredients, Chabaidao relies on purchasing all kinds of raw materials and packaging materials from other suppliers, and then selling them to franchisees to earn a price difference.

Returning to the core profit problem, the franchisee's real profit is only 10% of the revenue, taking into account the rent, artificial water and electricity, which account for about 30% of the revenue. Since last September, the monthly profit of Xiaolan Store has been about 10000 yuan. "It took me more than two years to return to the capital, and it may take me 3-5 years or more to open a store later. It is better to earn more than to work as a part-time worker."

The situation of franchisee Xiaolan can represent a considerable number of franchisees.

With the decline of brand potential and intense competition in the industry, the single store data of Tea 100 has shown a downward trend. From 2021 to 2023, the average daily retail sales of each store will be reduced from 7414.1 to 6887.2 yuan.

In order to win franchisees and expand market share, many tea brands, such as Xicha, Chabaidao, Naixue's tea, Shuyishaoxiancao, have successively launched preferential measures in the first half of this year. Take Chabaidao as an example, if a new franchisee signs a store, RMB 40000 can be exempted; If you sign two stores, you can deduct 180000 yuan accumulatively.

Even so, brands and franchisees may have realized that, Slowing growth is a dilemma for the whole industry 。 According to Frost Sullivan's report, the compound growth rate of the scale of China's current tea shop industry from 2018 to 2023 is 25.2%, and the compound growth rate from 2024 to 2028 is expected to be 15.4%.

The capital market has always been sensitive. On the first day of listing, Chabaidao opened 10.06% lower on the first day of listing. The intraday decline once expanded to 38%, and finally closed down 26.86%. Now it is reported at HK $12.8 per share, with a total market value of HK $18.914 billion.