Performance Express | 17 million cups of Lychee Iced Milk were sold in 50 days, Chabaidao achieved "simultaneous growth in both quality and efficiency" in the first half of the year

Text | Yang Shuo 

On August 28, Cha Baidao disclosed its interim performance. In the first half of the year, its revenue reached 2.655 billion yuan, up 6.2% year on year; the profit for the period hit 345 million yuan, representing a 3.5% year-on-year increase.

At the performance meeting, the company's management attributed the growth to one core logic — instead of blindly pursuing the simple expansion of store numbers, it takes product innovation and supply chain efficiency as two core driving forces to promote the substantial improvement of terminal operation quality.

In the first half of this year, Cha Baidao intensified its investment in product R&D, and built a product category matrix around core raw materials including "fresh fruit, fresh milk, coffee".

Among its products, "Lychee Iced Milk" recorded cumulative sales of more than 17 million cups within a sales cycle of over 50 days. Relying on this popular category, Cha Baidao has successively launched a series of flavored iced milk products with guava, grape and lemon flavors, forming a clear matrix layout.

Cha Baidao's understanding of products is not limited to the single dimension of "good taste". Since 2026, the company has launched meal replacement products represented by "Solid Taro Dessert Bowl" and water replacement products represented by "Bergamot Lemon Water".

The launch of the two new categories has quietly changed the operation time attribute of its stores. At the current stage, Cha Baidao has obviously extended its business scope from the single traditional afternoon tea consumption scenario to diversified scenarios including "breakfast, light meal, daily hydration".

The continuous expansion of product boundaries puts forward higher requirements for the response speed of the back-end supply chain.

During the reporting period, the number of national warehouse distribution centers of Cha Baidao increased to 27, the unified distribution rate of fruits rose to 91%, and about 95% of its stores can get two or more deliveries every week. The efficient whole-process cold chain supply from origin to store not only guarantees the product and service quality at the store end, but also greatly reduces the trial-and-error cost of suppliers.

At the same time, while consolidating its basic market in first- and second-tier cities, the company is continuously expanding its footprint in lower-tier cities. As of the end of the reporting period, the total number of Cha Baidao stores increased to 8863, among which the number of stores in China's third-tier and lower cities increased by 7.2% year on year.

It is worth mentioning that based on its nationwide store network layout, Cha Baidao is actively promoting the coordinated development of the "tea drink + coffee" business, and has successfully launched a number of cost-effective coffee products. In the first half of the year, the fresh coffee machines of Cha Baidao have covered more than 2700 stores, exceeding the expectation set at the beginning of the year.

In terms of membership, the number of registered members of Cha Baidao has exceeded 200 million, which means the brand has a huge private traffic pool.

It is believed that in the future, with the coffee business entering the profit cycle and the continuous optimization of the membership system, the medium and long-term growth potential of Cha Baidao will be further enhanced.