/PRZWT/In the domestic catering industry, "millions of stores" is a significant milestone for a brand. It signifies a major breakthrough in the scale of operation within its respective niche market and is a crucial turning point for the brand as it moves from "becoming larger" to "becoming stronger".
When it comes to China's numerous restaurant brands, Ruijin stands out as an "unconventional" example. While others are striving to open 10,000 or 20,000 stores, it has already stepped into the 30,000-store era.
On February 8th, the 30,000th store of LUCKIN Coffee was officially opened in Shenzhen Longgang District, Star World. It became the first chain coffee brand in China to exceed 30,000 stores.
This store is named "Original Origin Flagship Store". In terms of its overall design, it is highly creative. Through wall art installations, regional flavor star maps and interactive tasting spaces, it artistically conveys the global flavor journey from a single grain of bean at the origin to a cup of beverage at the store.
Carefully observing, at the milestone of 30,000 stores, which is worthy of being recorded in the history of Chinese coffee, each step taken by Ruike has been quite meaningful. For instance, choosing Shenzhen as its location allowed the "Ruike Efficiency" to converge with the world-renowned "Shenzhen Speed"; another example is the use of semi-automatic coffee machines, the establishment of origin-specific blended laboratory and master spaces, which created a new professional height and a completely customized experience. Of course, the naming of "Origin" is also significant. This not only expresses Ruike's quality of "Drink Origin if You Want to", but also reveals that after the scale expansion, the Chinese coffee industry has entered a new stage of competition at the upstream of the global industrial chain.
In summary, standing at the juncture of 30,000 stores, what we see is not only a Ruijin that is adept at "taking the lead" and leading the way, but also the surging tide of the Chinese coffee industry throughout its history.
From ten thousand to thirty thousand:
The ultimate efficiency behind scale leadership
According to the "Blue Book on the Development of Chain Coffee Stores in 2025", in 2025, domestic chain coffee brands will open over 36,000 new stores, which is 2.25 times that of 2024. 77% of chain coffee brands will expand their store scale in 2025. Among them, Ruijin opened approximately 8,000 stores throughout the year, once again winning the title of "Store Opening King".
At present, there are over 20 ready-made coffee chain brands in China. However, only Rongxin Coffee has opened more than a quarter of the new stores, making a significant contribution to the large-scale development of the industry. From the far north of Mohe to the tropical city of Sanya, from the easternmost Fu'uan to the western border city of Kashgar, Rongxin Coffee has covered 32 provincial administrative regions and over 300 cities across the country. Among them, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu have even reached the status of having a thousand stores each. While consolidating its domestic base, Rongxin Coffee has also extended its reach overseas, entering the markets of Singapore, Malaysia and the United States in the past two years.
Among the jewels adorning the crown of "King of Store Opening" at Luckin Coffee, the most eye-catching one is called "Peak Efficiency". During its early stages of development, Luckin was neither overly successful nor particularly sluggish. It took approximately six years to reach the 10,000-store mark. However, after that, Luckin's rapid expansion was like having an in-game boost. From 10,000 to 30,000 stores, it only took about two and a half years, almost following the "10,000 stores per year" pace. How impressive is this? When compared horizontally, it took the catering giant KFC 36 years to reach 10,000 stores in China.
Apart from the speed of store opening, the "extreme efficiency" of Lulun is also reflected in many other aspects. For instance, the product launch that directly affects consumers' experience. According to official data from Lulun, the frequency of new product launches by Lulun far exceeds the industry average. In the past few years, the number has been over 100 each year. In 2021, there were 113 new products, in 2022, it reached 140, and in 2023 and 2024, there were 102 and 119 respectively.
Obviously, compared with the situation where previous foreign brands, due to arrogance and insufficient localization, experienced slow product launches, Ruike's frequent iterations are better able to meet the taste expectations of young consumers and ensure that the market always maintains freshness.
If we take it a step further, we can discover that behind the "ultimate efficiency" lies the "digital moat" that Luckin has built from the very beginning. This is not only the digital R&D system that runs through the front-end business and the back-end management, as well as the support this system provides for product innovation, but more importantly, the full-process digitalization from supply chain management to store operations, which has truly achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and has also enabled Luckin to fulfill its service commitment of "high quality, high convenience, and high cost-effectiveness" one by one.
Not long ago, Li Hui, the chairman of Lixin Coffee, specifically mentioned in an interview with "China Entrepreneur" magazine: "Nowadays, many people ask, what exactly is the advantage of Lixin? Some say it's about scale. But I think it's not just a matter of scale; it's also about the improvement of the overall system efficiency."
Overturning and Reconstruction
From a market challenger to a cultural leader
Obviously, when observing Starbucks Coffee, the first things we notice are usually the popular products such as the "Fresh Coconut Latte" and the "Orange C Americano", as well as the rapidly growing user base and store scale that follow. However, from the perspective of the entire industry, behind the 30,000 stores of Starbucks Coffee lies not only an efficiency revolution, but also a profound consumption revolution. It reflects the changes in Chinese coffee consumption and also mirrors the disruption and reconfiguration of the entire coffee industry.
Before 2017, the Chinese custom-made coffee market was almost monopolized by foreign brands. While dominating the market, they also defined the initial Chinese coffee culture, such as the concept of "third space" and "exquisite luxury", which had a relatively high-end nature. However, with the emergence of Ruijin and its leading role in the new consumption wave, local Chinese coffee brands rapidly rose, breaking some established patterns and perceptions, and successfully achieved three "reconstructions".
First and foremost, the most crucial transformation in the consumer segment is the reconfiguration of the target audience. The main consumers of coffee have shifted from business elites to ordinary workers and young students. Research data shows that white-collar workers and students together constitute the main force of the current Chinese coffee consumption market. Among them, the student group is particularly prominent, accounting for as high as 28.1%. Additionally, according to data released by Goldman Sachs, as early as 2021, 16% of Starbucks' stores in Beijing were located in universities. It can be said that they were the first to perceive and lead this consumption trend.
Of course, to bring coffee back from a niche lifestyle product to a common daily consumption item, the most important thing is to lower the "exorbitant" prices. This is the second, the most impactful price reconfiguration for consumers, reducing from the usual 40 yuan to within 20 yuan, or even as low as 9.9 yuan. At the same time, under the cost-performance offensive of local coffee brands, foreign coffee brands, unable to hold on any longer, also followed suit and cut prices. According to Red Restaurant Big Data, the average consumption of coffee and beverage products across the country has gradually decreased from 41 yuan in September 2023 to 26 yuan in September 2025; the proportion of coffee and beverage stores with an average consumption of less than 15 yuan has increased from 29.8% in September 2024 to 36.9% in September 2025.
The third aspect is scene reconstruction. It shifts from the third space with social attributes to the current infinite scenarios. According to the "2025 Coffee Beverage Industry Development Report", the popularization of coffee consumption has given rise to more fragmented consumption scenarios. Among them, the office scenario contributes 45% of the sales, the growth rate of community coffee shops has reached 38%, and the proportion of emerging scenarios such as in-vehicle coffee and camping coffee has increased to 15%. In this regard, the 30,000 stores of Ruijin undoubtedly serve as the best illustration of the "infinite scenarios". From core commercial areas to university campuses, from surrounding communities to subway stations, local brands represented by Ruijin are making coffee truly ubiquitous.
When coffee ceases to be a "ticket" for a certain group or a label of a certain atmosphere, the upward growth of coffee consumption truly gains its driving force. During this rapid and profound transformation, Ruijin Coffee has achieved the leap from being an initial market challenger to a cultural leader. From these two perspectives, the unprecedented achievement of 30,000 stores is not only a milestone for Ruijin itself, but also a vivid portrayal of the reshaping of the market pattern and the reconstruction of the core of local culture in the Chinese coffee industry.
Deeply cultivate the original region
From global purchasers to flavor value co-creators
What is particularly worth exploring is the naming of the 30,000 stores by Luckin Coffee. The "origin" part of the name holds the secret to Luckin's "accelerating progress". By comparison, the 20,000th store of Luckin located in Zhongguancun, Beijing is named "In Hand", conveying the brand proposition of "luck in hand"; while the 30,000 stores this time are named "Original Origin Flagship Stores", which is more straightforward and easier to understand.
So, what does this "down-to-earth" name really mean? The first layer of meaning is quite clear, conveying Starbucks Coffee's commitment to consumers that "if you want to drink it, drink the product from the original place of origin". However, if we delve deeper, we will find that behind naming it "original place of origin" lies a change in the competitive logic of the entire industry - when the scale has become large enough, the industry is prone to fall into the predicament of internal competition. At this time, meticulous cultivation of quality control and supply chain integration capabilities will become the decisive factor in the second half of the industry competition. And this time, the continuously leading Starbucks Coffee has "taken the lead".
China's large-scale and highly growth-oriented consumer market has a natural appeal for global resources. Local customs data shows that in 2025, as the two main ports for China's coffee raw bean imports, Kunshan imported a total of 2.56 billion yuan worth of coffee raw beans, with a year-on-year growth of 56.4%; Hainan imported a total of 9,110.6 tons of coffee beans and products, with year-on-year growth rates of 5.6 times and 8.3 times respectively.
Behind the multi-fold growth is the promotion by local coffee brands, especially Ruike. While achieving rapid scale expansion, it also took the initiative to build a "quality moat". In recent years, Ruike has accelerated its cooperation with global high-quality production areas such as Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Yunnan in China, establishing a global origin layout covering core raw materials such as high-quality coffee beans, coconuts, and tangerines, achieving comprehensive quality control and large-scale procurement.
Among them, Luckin Coffee signed a five-year memorandum of coffee bean purchase agreement with Brazil in 2024, with a total purchase volume of 240,000 tons. They also established a grower support center and high-quality planting bases. Currently, Luckin Coffee's coffee bean purchases from Brazil account for 60% of Brazil's coffee exports to China. In addition, Luckin Coffee has set up an office in Ethiopia, and the bean hunters go deep into the fields to control the quality of coffee beans at the planting stage. In China, they have built an eco-friendly fresh fruit processing plant in Yunnan Province and launched the "Luckin Train" coffee special train in January this year, truly completing the entire industrial chain from planting to transportation and processing. Of course, there is also something that consumers are particularly fond of. Last year, Luckin Coffee "acquired" an exclusive coconut island in Indonesia and planned to purchase 1 million tons of coconuts over five years.
What is more worthy of attention is that Luljin proposed the consumption proposition of "Drink only from the original place" last year and launched the "Drink from the Original Place Festival" campaign. This indicates that while establishing its global brand of original place flavors, Luljin is upgrading from a global flavor purchaser to a global value co-creator that is deeply tied to the core production areas and jointly defines the flavor standards. A new stage where the global coffee industry chain is being shaped by the reverse influence of the Chinese market is about to arrive.
Conclusion:
In just a few years, "origin" has become the most deeply-rooted quality label for Ruike. And the 30,000 stores serve as a "doubling amplifier" of quality, making it easy for every consumer to find and access it.
During this process, we witnessed the awakening of Chinese consumers' awareness, and freshly-made coffee has returned to its status as a daily consumption item. We also observed the collective rise of local Chinese brands, shaping a new landscape and narrative for China's coffee industry. Moving forward, starting from the 30,000 stores of Ruijin, we hope to see a global "counterattack" of Chinese coffee, achieving reverse exports of business models and coffee culture, and redefining the power map of the global coffee market.
