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Cool Designs, Food & Beverage Insights and China Trends 


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Within this past year we’ve been riddled with coffee news. Starbucks opened their infamous Shanghai Starbucks Roastery in December, announced plans to double stores to 6,000 outlets by 2022, and began offering delivery last month. Luckin Coffee, the latest in tech unicorn startup, opened up 500+ stores within six months and threatened to sue Starbucks. McDonald’s jumped on the delivery bandwagon and Canada’s token donuts and coffee shop Tim Horton’s announced they were entering China and will open 1,500 outlets over the next 10 years. Oh and let’s not forget Coca Cola bought Costa Coffee for a whopping USD 5.1 billion dollars.
 
China’s coffee market is looking to grow from RMB 60 billion to RMB 79 billion by 2022 and trends from America and Europe find its way to Shanghai in a heartbeat. Want a coffee cocktail? No problem, head to Bitter. Craving coffee tonic? Check out Seesaw Coffee. Want nitro coffee? Make your way to Peet’s Coffee or if you really want something interesting, swing by Griffin Coffee for their coke and espresso mix. Options galore in a city where there’s an estimated 6,500 coffee shops.
 
It’s also not uncommon to see high-end retail brands open their own café. In 2016, we helped Mercedes launch their first lifestyle café, restaurant and bar in Beijing’s Sanlitun. Last year, Chanel’s Coco Café pop-up had people waiting in line for 2+ hours to try a few product samples, receive a free cup of coffee and of course snap a perfectly styled selfie. This bean grinding coffee fuelled market has a lot of big players throwing their cash around, so who’s next?

WHAT'S NEW CHINA?

How Luckin Coffee is reforming China’s coffee culture

Forget Starbucks and the 'third space', Luckin is going for price and convenience to capture the market. 
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Coca-Cola could spoil Starbucks's momentum in China

Coca-Cola’s purchase of the U.K.-based coffee chain Costa Coffee could slow down Starbucks momentum in its hottest market: China.
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Why Bill Ackman and Coca-Cola are betting big on coffee in China

Billionaire investor Ackman’s Pershing Square fund recently took a $900 million stake in Starbucks Corp. because of its “growth opportunity” in the world’s second-largest economy.
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The coffee coup brewing in Puer, China’s famed tea-growing region

As young Chinese turn away from tea, coffee cultivation in Puer – a southern China city known for its fermented tea – has almost doubled in seven years.
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Ratio, a robot-powered cafe chain, is challenging Starbucks

There are no baristas to be seen at a coffee shop called Ratio in downtown Shanghai – and no cash desk queue.
Read More 

Three opportunities in out-of-home hot coffee


Kantar Worldpanel’s global out-of-home (OOH) survey measures what people buy and consume away from their home. Take a closer look at the cultural habits, patterns and differences that arose. 
Read More 

GOOD LOOKIN' DESIGNS

Balzacs Coffee Roaster,
Ontario, Canada

Hutch and Waldo,
New York City, USA

Yours Truly,
Cape Town, South Africa

Deluca Coffee,
NSW, Australia

SUSTAINABILITY

‘The situation is not sustainable’: Is the coffee boom leaving producers behind?

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in developed markets, but the price of coffee beans reached its lowest in 12 years. There is broad agreement that this situation is unsustainable: but what is the solution?  Read More 
 

What goes around: How coffee waste is fuelling a circular economy

Most coffee lovers don’t give much thought to their spent grounds, but these black, sodden remains of pulverized coffee seeds have inspired the freshly caffeinated imaginations of scientists, entrepreneurs and social innovators.  Read More 
 

Plastic recycling: Why are 99.75% of coffee cups not recycled?

It's gradually becoming common knowledge that it's not as easy to recycle your takeaway coffee cup as people may have thought. Read More 

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