China Post puts Starbucks, Costa on notice with coffee shop, could tap vast network to outsell overseas giants
- Post provider opened its first coffee shop last week in the coastal city of Xiamen
- ‘China Post, which can bank on its staggering number of outlets, has an edge when it comes to building a big coffee chain’
It opened its first coffee shop last week in the coastal city of Xiamen in China’s eastern Fujian province. But China Post began testing the waters last year, when in September it opened a coffee shop at a post office on Tianping Road in Shanghai’s bustling Xuhui district.
“China Post, which can bank on its staggering number of outlets, has an edge when it comes to building a big coffee chain,” said Zhou Shiyu, a senior official with Shanghai Join Buy, one of the city’s biggest commercial property operators. “But operating a coffee chain is not easy because it requires expertise in branding, marketing and logistics,” he added.
China Post could not be reached for comment. It has a network of 54,000 post offices around the country, from downtown areas in mainland China’s first-tier cities to remote rural villages, and could easily eclipse any competitor in terms of a sales network.
An employee at the coffee shop in Xuhui district, which China Post established with Qiao Jia Shan, a well-known Shanghai restaurant brand, said it was an experiment by the two parties involved to gauge consumer demand.
The store sold about 20 cups of coffee, priced from 20 (US$3.15) to 30 yuan each, in about 20 minutes on Tuesday afternoon. “It has a great location and good deco,” said Yu Jiaqi, a customer who bought a cup of Latte at the shop. “I felt it was worth trying China Post coffee, and it tastes good.”