Bubble tea could have began as a playful drink, but it surely has grown into an trade price billions.
The worldwide bubble tea market dimension will develop from $2.83 billion in 2025 to $4.78 billion by 2032, based on a report from Fortune Enterprise Insights.
This 12 months, three Chinese language bubble tea chains — Mixue Group, Guming Holdings and Auntea Jenny — listed in Hong Kong, and raised greater than $700 million as buyers wager on China’s fast-growing client market.
“That is the fitting place on the proper time,” stated William Ma, chief funding officer at Develop Funding Group, stated in an interview with “CNBC Explains.”
“Loads of international buyers try to spend money on sectors much less delicate to the U.S. tariffs. So home consumption, youthful technology consumption, is a extra secure or much less weak sector,” Ma added.
Mixue has emerged because the sector’s heavyweight, working greater than 46,000 shops worldwide by the tip of 2024. That makes it the world’s largest food-and-beverage chain by outlet depend — forward of McDonald’s, Starbucks and Subway. Its ultra-low pricing and high-volume mannequin lean closely on franchising.
“In 2024, they’re rising at round 22% when it comes to new retailer progress,” Ma famous.
Franchising is central to the bubble tea trade. Most giant bubble tea chains do not run the outlets themselves. Practically each outlet is franchised. Mother or father corporations earn from supplying components and tools, and gathering charges, whereas franchisees shoulder the prices of hire, labor and utilities.
That mannequin fuels fast progress however comes with trade-offs: sustaining high quality and avoiding retailer cannibalization will get more durable as retailers multiply.
“The traditional payback interval for the enterprise proprietor, for the franchisee, is between 18 to 24 months,” stated Ma, estimating retailer closure charges at roughly 20% throughout the market.
However abroad enlargement isn’t any assure of success. CNBC’s China reporter Elaine Yu famous that replicating the home system overseas comes with added challenges.
“Provide chains are more durable to regulate, and client tastes differ from metropolis to metropolis. That is why manufacturers are adapting to regional flavors and completely different retailer codecs to win over native clients,” Yu stated.
Market saturation at residence, rising prices and intense worth wars are additionally testing the resilience of those manufacturers. Whether or not they can maintain their valuations will depend upon their capacity to stability scale with profitability — and show they will construct greater than only a fad.
Watch the complete explainer by clicking the video on the high of the story.
