Nav: Home > Coffee >

Few Coffee Brands Can Resist Selling Alcohol! Luckin Coffee is No Exception!

Published: 2026-01-28 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/28, For more professional coffee knowledge and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex Following Starbucks, Seesaw, Mstand... Luckin Coffee is also joining the alcohol sales trend.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Cafe Style (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

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

Luckin Coffee Joins the Alcoholic Beverage Industry

Following Starbucks, Seesaw, M stand... Luckin Coffee is also entering the alcohol industry! According to Tianyancha APP, on November 8th, Luckin Coffee established a new company in Xiamen—Luckin (Xiamen) Catering Co., Ltd., with the legal representative Lu Xiaojie and a registered capital of 10 million RMB. The business scope includes: catering services; food sales; alcohol operations; food internet sales, etc. The company is 100% owned by Luckin Coffee (China) Co., Ltd.

Public information shows that Luckin Coffee (China) Co., Ltd. was established on March 28, 2018, with the legal representative Guo Jinyi and a registered capital of 1.625 billion US dollars. Its business scope includes catering services; food sales; publication internet sales; publication retail; construction engineering, etc. The company is 100% owned by Luckin Coffee (Hong Kong) Limited. Currently, the company has 62 external investment enterprises, including Luckin Coffee Information Technology (Xiamen) Co., Ltd., etc.

Luckin's involvement in alcohol may not be impulsive. As early as April 11th this year, Luckin Coffee (China) Co., Ltd. began applying for multiple "Luckin Ouqi" trademarks, with international classifications covering beer and beverages, convenience foods, and food products. The current trademark status shows as registered. It is reported that "Ouqi" is internet slang referring to wealth or luck.

Coffee Brands Enter the Alcohol Market

In fact, crossing over into the alcohol business is no longer uncommon in the beverage industry. In April 2019, the world's largest coffee chain brand, Starbucks, opened its first Starbucks Reserve Coffee Bar—Bar Mixato in China, which can serve alcoholic beverages, thus pioneering a new model combining coffee and bar. In addition to coffee, the store also offers various wines, craft beers, aperitifs, and classic cocktails.

To date, Starbucks has opened multiple Bar Mixato bars across the country, including in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wuhan... It's clear that Starbucks has already incorporated bars as a new business format into its brand system.

Last year, the coffee chain brand Seesaw opened its first "Good Idea Hub" day-coffee-night-alcohol experience store in Shanghai. M stand, another coffee chain brand from Shanghai, is also trying the "day-coffee-night-alcohol" concept. It is understood that it has currently launched five M Stand day-coffee-night-alcohol themed stores in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Ningbo.

Even Cotti Coffee, newly opened by Luckin's former chairman Lu Zhengyao some time ago, sells more than just coffee. It plans to create an all-day dining concept, offering coffee and Italian biscuits as accompaniments in the morning, meals at noon, snacks in the afternoon, and alcoholic beverages in the evening.

Other Beverage Brands Enter the Alcohol Market

In addition to coffee brands, other beverage brands are also entering the market. In June 2021, the international giant Coca-Cola Beverage (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. officially announced on its official Weibo "Coca-Cola China": "We've started selling alcohol," calling it a breakthrough attempt for Coca-Cola Company to formally enter China's alcoholic beverage market.

Following closely, Genki Forest Company and Beijing Guanyun Technology Co., Ltd. (associated with Guanyun Baijiu) also underwent business changes, with Genki Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. added as a new shareholder, holding 25.8%. At the same time, the company's registered capital increased from 11.0733 million RMB to 13.0539 million RMB, an increase of approximately 17.89%.

According to Tianyancha data, as of October 2022, 1.1 million new alcohol-related enterprises have been established nationwide this year, and it is expected that the total number of new establishments this year will surpass last year, setting a new growth record.

It is understood that from 2012 to 2021, alcohol-related companies with "alcohol" in their name or including alcohol in their business scope saw 6.22 million new establishments over the decade. This means an average of over 620,000 new establishments per year, or nearly 1,700 new establishments per day.

Challenges of Cross-Industry Alcohol Sales

Regardless of the brand, cross-industry alcohol sales actually pose great challenges for both the industry and the brands. When well-known companies cross over into different industries, their every move attracts attention. Entering the alcohol industry is a focus point, and leaving the alcohol industry remains a focus point. Has Luckin really prepared well for this foray into alcohol?

Image source: Internet