"I'm also considering turning my cafe into a 'daily coffee and night wine' to increase income and extend the business hours." Xiao Zhong, who runs a coffee shop in Beijing, recently saw that some cafes have alcoholic products on the shelves. With the idea of ​​expanding the coffee shop business.

  Coffee is becoming more and more popular in the Chinese market, and more and more coffee brands have entered the consumer's field of vision.

With the rise of the "day coffee and night wine" model in many cafes, coffee and wine, two categories with clear boundaries, now appear in the same store.

  Industry insiders believe that, from the perspective of coffee brands, increasing the business category can attract more consumer groups. Except for music and lighting, the environment of cafes and bars is similar, which makes it more convenient for cafes to switch to the "day coffee and night wine" model. for easy.

But on the other hand, for cafes to produce alcoholic products, supply chain issues must be considered, and there are certain requirements for site selection. Staff training is also an expense.

Many brand layouts

  Post Office Coffee, the country's first "day coffee and night wine" concept store, will open in Fuzhou, Fujian in November 2022 at the Youth Association.

Under the new mode of "day coffee and night wine", the store connects day and night, and switches between coffee shop and bar.

  The so-called "day coffee and night wine" means that the same store sells coffee during the day and wine at night.

This concept has gradually been extended by young consumers as "morning C and evening A", that is, "early coffee (coffee) and late alcohol (wine)".

Although cafes and bars seem to be two unrelated businesses on the surface, the consumer groups of the two overlap to a certain extent. These consumers like to drink coffee during the day to refresh themselves, drink some wine after get off work, and hope to sleep soundly. .

  Post Office Coffee is not the first coffee brand to deploy "day coffee and night wine".

In October 2022, the Canadian coffee brand Tims opened two "Day Coffee and Night Wine" stores in the Chinese market, adopting the "Day Coffee and Night Wine" model, serving beer, snacks and other products after 5 pm every day. There are 31 types of beer to choose from, including fruit wine and wheat.

  Yuanyang Coffee launched by the new tea brand Chayanyuese also announced that it will launch the "Yuanyang Night Wine Series" in all stores, and only dine-in orders are available.

A reporter from the Beijing News logged into the Yuanyang Coffee applet and saw that the order page clearly marked "minors are prohibited from drinking alcohol". In the alcohol product category, there are several columns such as night special recommendation, wine shop, and night wine. For the preparation of wine, the price is between 17.8 yuan and 19.8 yuan.

  Starbucks has already experimented with selling alcohol in its select stores.

In August 2020, as Starbucks' first flagship store in mainland China, the Beijing Sanlitun Taikoo Li flagship store was upgraded to a Zhenxuan store.

A special bar was added on the second floor of the store, which can provide consumers with more than 30 creative special cocktails, wines and craft beers.

  For coffee brands, the increase of alcohol products is expected to improve store efficiency and extend business hours.

Wang Zhendong, chairman of Shanghai Coffee Yue Investment Management Co., Ltd., believes that the concept of "daily coffee and night drinking" is not a new concept. This model has been tried in Japan, South Korea and some European countries, where the distinction between coffee shops and bars is not so clear.

"The most important thing about coffee is its refreshing effect. If you drink too much or drink it late, it is easy to cause insomnia. Therefore, the general consumption of coffee is before four o'clock in the afternoon, and the purchase amount after that is very small. Therefore, for As far as coffee shops are concerned, if you want to have business after six o’clock, choosing wine is a matter of course.”

Exploration of new formats

  In the Chinese market, with the rise of young consumer groups, the consumption of coffee and cocktails has gradually become popular, and many players have poured into the coffee track.

How to stand out is a question for every brand at the moment.

  As a lifestyle that has risen rapidly in the past two years, the "day coffee and night wine" model is loved by young consumer groups.

According to the "2020-2021 Young People's Alcohol Consumption Research Report" and "Coffee Industry Segmentation Insights", the post-90s, post-95s, and Generation Z are the mainstream consumers of alcohol and coffee in China, and have become "daily coffee and night coffee". The main force of alcohol consumption.

The report pointed out that in terms of consumption preferences, young people are more inclined to low-alcohol fruit wine and beer, and healthy and slightly drunk is one of the important keywords at the moment.

  Different brands have their own considerations about why they get involved in "day coffee and night wine".

Tims Coffee said that it hopes to bring consumers a more diverse and immersive experience by exploring more consumption scenarios and formats.

  Some brands will consider the expansion of consumer groups.

The relevant person in charge of Yuanyang Coffee told the Beijing News reporter that compared with the previous daily coffee model, at night, customers will consider the impact of caffeine, and sales will decrease. The launch of the night wine series has enriched the product structure and attracted some consumers. In the evening, try Yuanyang Coffee's Chinese cocktails.

  Xiao Zhong's coffee shop is located near the Drum Tower in Beijing, where tourists often visit, and the coffee shop has accumulated many loyal fans.

Affected by the epidemic, the income of cafes has been lower than in previous years, which made Xiao Zhong think about changing.

"I know some colleagues who have successfully switched to 'day coffee and night wine', extending the business hours and making the stores more distinctive, attracting more consumers to come and check in."

  Wang Zhendong believes that young people now spend differently on bars than before.

"In the past, young people liked to go to bars like clubs, places where they could dance and socialize. But in recent years, more and more consumers like to go to quiet bars for consumption. They don't necessarily have to drink spirits such as whiskey. For cocktails, it’s fun to chat with friends. Therefore, the coffee shop is not too big and relatively quiet, which is more suitable for night wine products.”

  The coffee track has been upgraded to a competitive and innovative track. Since last year, raw coconut latte, fruit extract latte and other products once ignited the coffee industry. Now coffee companies are also considering the characteristics of wine products.

  The person in charge of Yuanyang Coffee said that Yuanyang Coffee is different from other alcohol consumption scenarios. For example, Yuanyang Coffee’s night wine series is mainly Chinese-style cocktails, combining traditional Chinese rice wine, rice wine, and white wine with Western vodka and dragon tongue. It is also different from the form of cocktails that have to be drunk at the bar. "What we want to make is a cocktail that is deeply drinkable, so Yuanyang Coffee's cocktails can be bought and left just like milk tea and coffee. Drink as you go."

  According to the person in charge of Tims Coffee, its "Day Coffee Night Wine" store not only puts the coffee store's well-received star product portfolio on the table, but also includes low-alcohol fruit wine and beer that young consumers love on the menu.

Consumers can not only taste the classic products of Tims Coffee "coffee + warm food", but also have a drink and experience the joy of blending the strong aroma of coffee and the malt aroma of beer.

problems faced

  From single coffee to "coffee + wine", the performance has grown accordingly.

In the view of Yuanyang Coffee, the increase of alcohol products and business market will increase the performance. "The night wine series has enriched the product categories, and wine and coffee have also attracted different consumers to come to consume." Tims coffee related person in charge People also said that the layout of the "day coffee and night wine" market will not only create a new consumption scene of fashionable and avant-garde life for young users, but also improve the efficiency of stores and create a second growth curve.

  With profitability, can this model always work?

  Although cafes and bars overlap to a certain extent in terms of consumption scenarios and consumer groups, baristas and bartenders are different professions, and the supply chain of cafes is also different from that of bars.

How to ensure the simultaneous operation of the two formats is a difficult problem for cafe owners.

  Wang Zhendong believes that the operation requirements of cafes and bars are completely different. People who run coffee shops and people who run bars have different temperaments and different technical requirements. Staff training is required for bartending and coffee making.

For example, it takes an average of ten days for a barista to go from a novice to an easy-to-use barista, but it is still difficult to train a bartender in ten days.

On the other hand, there are differences in product lines. In addition to coffee during the day, cafes can also sell desserts, but at night, desserts are not the first choice, and snacks need to be added.

  Xiaozhong believes that the most difficult part of selling wine in cafes is to achieve the fusion of coffee and wine.

"In addition to the products themselves, these two types of products also need to make corresponding changes in the overall environmental style."

  Wang Zhendong also holds the same point of view, "The environment is actually very important to a bar, which requires corresponding lighting, table and chair layout, and customers also have requirements for music. On the whole, it is the change of the operating scene, which requires an overall store. Planning and designing the layout."

  In terms of professional training, Yuanyang Coffee introduced, "As a start-up brand, how to make our own characteristics is a question we have been thinking about. We are constantly learning from the excellence of other predecessors in the industry. The night wine series is expanded by existing stores. Partner production, no separate bartender recruitment.”

  The location of the coffee shop also limits its shift to the "day coffee and night drink" model.

The 2022 coffee trend report released by Dianping shows that the search volume of coffee on the platform in 2022 will increase by 452% compared with the same period last year.

Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu rank among the top three cities for the number of independent coffee shops, and the location of coffee shops is gradually showing a trend from shopping malls to communities. Drinking a cup of coffee at your doorstep has gradually become a reality.

  The layout of coffee in shopping malls is essential, but for coffee shops, it is difficult to convert stores in shopping malls into "day coffee and night wine".

Wang Zhendong believes that many coffee shops in commercial and office buildings may not be suitable for bars at night, because office buildings usually close early at night, and it is inconvenient to enter and exit, and shopping malls also have such problems.

In addition, if there are residents living above the store, they may also receive complaints, so not all cafes are suitable for "day coffee and night wine".

  Although "Day Coffee Night Wine" is still under development, the brands involved are relatively optimistic.

According to Tims, the "day coffee and night wine" mode is still in the experimental stage, and the response is good so far, and there may be more explorations in the future.

Yuanyang Coffee said that at this stage, it is more about running the "day coffee and night wine" model smoothly in the existing stores, polishing its own service and quality, selling coffee one cup at a time, and providing one-by-one service. This is a continuous effort. direction.