Tims Coffee China Stores Exceed 500, with Half-Year Revenue Growth Over 70%!

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

Recently, Tims Coffee's 500th store in China officially opened in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. This marks another milestone for Tims Coffee following its official listing on Nasdaq on September 29th.

Earlier, Tims had just opened two "Coffee & Beer" stores in Shanghai, featuring a "day coffee, night alcohol" model. Despite being impacted by the pandemic, Tims has continued to expand. Now with its 500th store, although it hasn't yet achieved large-scale dominance, this is just the beginning.

Tims China's Expansion Strategy

Founded in 1964, Tims is a Canadian coffee brand. In 2018, Tim Hortons' parent company RBI and Cartesian Capital established a joint venture for Tims China. The following February, Tims China's first store opened at Shanghai People's Square. It is a chain restaurant enterprise with numerous cafes offering freshly prepared warm food, mainly providing freshly brewed coffee, tea, cakes, and baked warm food. When initially announcing its entry into the Chinese market, Tims China's goal was to open 1,500 stores in 10 years, but after establishing itself in Shanghai for two years, they adjusted their target to achieve 2,750 profitable stores by 2026.

The confidence to increase store opening targets likely comes from continuously growing performance. From 2019 to 2021, Tims China achieved revenues of 57.257 million yuan, 212 million yuan, and 643 million yuan respectively. Although 2022 was significantly impacted by the pandemic, Tims still achieved revenue of 404 million yuan, a year-over-year increase of over 70.2% compared to 237 million yuan in the first half of 2021. These data indicate that Tims Coffee has become a formidable new force in China's coffee market, and it is accelerating toward its 2026 goals.

Dongguan Flagship Store

The first Dongguan store opened this time continues Tims Coffee's consistent warm style. Located at 200 Hongfu Road in Dongguan City, the store consists of a two-story building with a semi-open facade featuring a spacious terrace. The iconic maple leaf pattern integrates harmoniously with the vibrant vitality of the southern Chinese city.

Investment and Market Potential

Tims China has consistently received long-term support from numerous major shareholders. Besides Cartesian Capital, brand owner RBI, Tencent Investment, Sequoia China, and Zhongding Capital are among its institutional shareholders. Among them, Tencent has not only invested twice but also provided multiple operational cooperation and support.

In March this year, Tims China announced a total of $194.5 million from existing shareholders and other renowned institutional investors, along with SPAC listing-related investment commitments. Looking at the broader landscape, coffee remains one of the hottest consumer sectors, while China is the world's fastest-growing coffee market.

According to data, China's coffee market had a compound annual growth rate of 13.8% from 2015 to 2020, ranking top in the beverage industry. The compound annual growth rate is expected to be 17.2% from 2020 to 2025, with growth rates significantly leading other soft drink categories, reflecting the extremely high prosperity of the coffee industry's development.

Future Expansion Plans

While deeply cultivating first, second, and third-tier cities, Tims China is also considering sinking into lower-tier markets. Current stores are predominantly standard stores, typically ranging from 130-150 square meters, which are considered large-scale stores that require substantial capital investment. As they continue to penetrate lower-tier markets, will the 60-80 square meter flexible and quick TimsGo model become an important store format for their expansion?

China's coffee consumption is transitioning from niche to mainstream. Medium pricing that balances brand quality and consumer affordability might be the path to capturing a large, high-quality consumer base. Tims China has effectively captured the mid-price segment of the coffee market, offering coffee priced at 15-30 yuan per cup, combined with warm food to attract consumers across various price ranges to try entering Tims stores. For example, Tims offers a breakfast combo where adding 9.9 yuan gets you a bagel with your beverage.

After successfully listing on Nasdaq with ample funding, Tims will inevitably accelerate its expansion pace. Earlier, Tims China CEO Lu Yongchen stated that although the Chinese market is growing rapidly, it still has a long way to go before reaching maturity. It's currently difficult to see a ceiling, and incremental development should be feasible for decades to come.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473