Posted:25-July-2023
GONG CHA OPENS 10 STORES IN 24-HOURS TO REACH 2,000TH STORE MILESTONE
Gong cha, one of the world’s fastest growing tea brands, is delighted to announce its 2,000th store opening after launching 10 stores in 9 markets around the globe in a single 24-hour period.
Kicking off in the Southwestern Pacific, Gong cha began the day by opening its latest store in New Zealand. This was followed by openings in Australia*, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Canada, and Mexico, before a final store opening in Boston, USA – one of Gong cha’s largest and most strategically important markets with more than 200 stores.
To mark the occasion, Gong cha celebrated with its ‘Global Tea Party’ – the first-of-its-kind, around-the-world celebration of bubble tea. Across four continents and 23 markets, hundreds of thousands of cups of Gong cha’s high-quality, freshly brewed bubble teas made with premium ingredients, were served. The Globa Tea Party, which was one of the largest bubble tea drinking occasions ever, provided an opportunity for both new and returning customers to deepen their understanding of Gong cha’s values, offer, and brand.
Gong cha’s 2,000th store opening is a significant milestone in the Group’s history. After expanding internationally via master franchise agreements in 2011, Gong cha has established a truly global footprint thanks to its highly scalable and innovative offer. In the last two years, the Group has opened more than 450 net new stores, while like-for-like sales have increased 6.2% in 2022 as bubble tea, and the Gong cha brand, becomes increasingly popular.
As consumer demand for bubble tea accelerates – by 2027 the global bubble tea market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% to be worth £3.5bn[1] – Gong cha is executing an ambitious international expansion strategy that is targeting the opening of a new store, every day, in 2023**. By the turn of the decade, the Group is aiming to fulfil its vision to grow to more than 10,000 stores, with a significant proportion of the new openings coming from Europe.
Paul Reynish, Global CEO of Gong cha, said: “We are proud to celebrate a monumental day in Gong cha’s history. The Gong cha Global Tea Party wasn’t just an opporuntiy to give back to our loyal customers around the world, but also enabled us to introduce more people to our unique, premium tea products that our customers love.
Now, with 2,000 stores globally, and growing consumer demand for bubble tea, we have a really strong platform to unlock our growth potential. In the long-term, we believe we can scale Gong cha to more than 10,000 stores by 2030, with a large proportion of that growth coming from the UK, Europe and the USA. To unlock this growth, we have recently bolstered our global leadership team and are now relentlessly focused on delivering against our ambitious international expansion strategy. We look forward to sharing more details in the months ahead, and introducing more consumers to Gong cha as we grow.”
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