Bubble tea concept Chatime has aggressively expanded its footprint across Canada growing to 100 stores since it opened its first location in 2011 in downtown Toronto.
And the sky is the limit for future growth for the popular concept.
Kenton Chan, Co-Founder and CEO of the Kevito Group which operates the brand in the country, said the company hit its 100th location with the opening recently at The Well development in Toronto.
Chan said Kevito only manages the Ontario and British Columbia markets at the moment but Chatime is pretty much in every Canadian province.
Thomas Wong, Co-Founder and President, said the company has always had an intuition that the product was going to have a massive opportunity with Canadians.
“I think it’s being borne out by the data and the trends that you are seeing. You can see our product is part of a broader cold beverage category which is just growing phenomenally,” said Wong.
“On the backs of it, a number of trends, including demographically, it’s just more popular among younger demographics, the beverages themselves are also very photogenic. They let people really express themselves. You can really customize our products. Chatime comes in very many different types of flavours, and formats and colours. It’s just something we think the market is really interested in right now.”
Chan said one of the big reasons why Kevito Group has been successful and why Chatime has been able to hit 100 locations, while other brands have not seen that same level of success, is the company’s commitment to quality and consistency.
“That’s what sets us apart. We only use high quality ingredients and for the most part imported directly from Asia,” he said. “Just to ensure that consistency is there with every single cup and meets our standards.
“Innovation has played a huge part in our success as well. We’ve introduced many trend-setting (drinks) not just in Canada but worldwide trend-setting drinks.”
Some drinks Chatime has partnered with other companies such as Red Bull and Kit Kat.
“In terms of brand awareness, that’s really put us out in the forefront,” added Chan.
In a previous Retail Insider story, Wong said: “We see Chatime as the leader in the bubble tea market. The bubble tea market has been historically an ethnic concept that has originated from Asia historically but it’s now becoming a worldwide phenomenon. What we’re finding is that in markets around the world there’s an amazing receptivity to the concept. The best way I can describe it for Canadians who haven’t had bubble tea before, but probably have heard of it, is when you think about the kind of culture associated with coffee that we’ve historically had in North America and Europe, it sort of transcends just the beverage . . . It’s really associated with strong positive emotions.
“In the coffee case, it’s very much a comfort and a routine and a stability. For millions of people around the world Chatime represents that injection of happiness in their day. It’s really bringing that joy of the beverage and that experience. A lot of people come to Chatime certainly because they’re craving something but they’re really looking for also all the positive emotions that are associated with grabbing a couple of bubble teas during the day with friends and family. For a lot of people it becomes an incredible part of their lifestyle. It’s just something they look forward to every day. It’s bringing that joy of bubble tea to a really broad Canadian audience and that’s where we’re finding tons of opportunity.”
Wong said there are definitely more locations on the horizon.
Chatime Canada is part of the Kevito Group Canada which also has brands Bake Code, Chatime Atealier, and Chatime Innovation Bar.
The global Chatime brand is based in Taiwan. The brand exists in more than 30 countries with more than 1,000 locations.
The Kevito Group recently won the Best in Retail 2023 award at the CanadianSME Small Business Magazine Awards, presented by Google Canada.
“We continue to really innovate on the categories. With Chatime we’ve got into a lot of new more innovative, non-traditional formats . . . trying to expand Chatime much more into the professional crowd and more premium crowd that we haven’t previously had a lot of exposure to,” explained Wong.
“At Yorkdale Mall, we’ve got a Chatime Innovation Bar where we’re testing a new concept, really pushing our category forward.”
Wong said the brand has been expanding to many non-traditional locations such as universities and grocery stores. Its first store in a Walmart is coming up in Vaughan, Ontario.
“The broader Canadian population is really demanding and looking for Chatime. There’s amazing growth in non-traditional channels as well. If you ask us for a unit count, it’s easily doubling, quadrupling, I’m not exactly sure, but we’re going to get to a much larger footprint.
“We’re really excited in the Canadian market for all sorts of international food and beverage innovation and that’s something we’ve really tried to position the Kevito Group to be a platform for.”
Chatime Canada is launching a bold new brand campaign, positioning bubble tea as the ultimate beverage for every date and social occasion. Running from July 18 to September 1, the campaign is a celebration of modern social interactions and the connections people make over bubble tea.
“We’ve been listening to our audience and discovered that many couples have had their first dates at Chatime,” said Chan. “We’ve even seen couples come full circle, celebrating their weddings with a Chatime drink truck as a treat for guests. This campaign is about celebrating those connections and making every date special with our bubble tea.”
Here on the west coast there are enough Bubble Tea joints to sink a ship. Not sure how they think this will do well over the already dwindling sales and foot traffic into these places. Mind you, many are money laundering sites, so there is that….
Agree !
We are struggling and no helping