[Should I Start a Business?] Gongcha "Over 170 Stores Despite COVID-19... Stable Operation Through Delivery"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] There is a tea beverage franchise that means offering premium quality tea (茶) that could only be tasted in the Chinese royal court. Gongcha, which first started in 2006 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is leading a new tea (茶) culture through various attempts and combinations centered on original tea made from carefully selected top-grade tea leaves.

Gongcha Korea established its Korean corporation in November 2011 and opened its first store in Hongdae in January 2012, introducing Gongcha to the Korean market. In the saturated domestic cafe market dominated by coffee specialty stores, Gongcha has expanded its presence by creating a new sensation with differentiated concepts and menu strategies. Using brewed leaf tea as a base, Gongcha offers new and diverse tea beverages by adding milk, toppings, and more, breaking away from the traditional, static, and difficult image of tea and leading a tea beverage culture that anyone can enjoy healthily and deliciously.

Despite the full onset of COVID-19, Gongcha steadily increased the number of its stores through stable business operations, adding 170 stores from February last year to September this year. As of the end of September, the total number of stores stands at 759.

Gongcha cited differentiated concepts and menu strategies, as well as competitive delivery services, as reasons for the continuous increase in the number of stores.

Gongcha offers a representative service of customization where customers can order tea, sweetness level, ice amount, and toppings according to their preferences, capturing the tastes of the 20s and 30s generation who have a strong desire to express their own preferences. Customers can enjoy beverages with up to 600 different combinations depending on their tastes, and if choosing is difficult, they can receive recommendations for the optimal Gongcha recipe (standard sweetness & ice level) from Gongcha tea masters.

Another strength of Gongcha is launching more than six new tea-based products annually. They develop and release new products by discovering ingredients that pair well with tea, considering the balance of a beverage in terms of seasonality, taste, texture, aroma, throat feel, and temperature. Gongcha proposes new tea beverages and leads trends by utilizing ingredients that are enjoyable on their own, such as strawberries, mangoes, sweet corn, and chocolate.

Since March last year, Gongcha has actively introduced delivery services to compensate for the reduced in-store visits due to COVID-19. Gongcha strengthened the competitiveness of ‘Gongcha Delivery’ through four major strategies: developing delivery operations, securing new delivery channels, conducting regular delivery promotions, and focusing on managing delivery sales. To support franchisees’ delivery tasks, Gongcha developed and established training manuals for its own easy and convenient delivery operations, unlike other companies, and quickly caught new delivery channels to proceed with store entries.

Inside Gongcha Korea Daegu Daegok Branch.

Regular promotions are held monthly across various delivery channels. Stores with high delivery sales are intensively analyzed, and the know-how is applied to stores with low sales. Additional LSM (Local Store Marketing) is also conducted to help activate sales, resulting in high satisfaction among franchisees regarding delivery services.

In addition, to coexist with franchisees, Gongcha supports new store opening promotions and provides headquarters settlement funds during company-wide promotions, offering support measures for both new and existing franchisees.

Due to Gongcha’s stable and franchisee-friendly business operations, cases of existing franchisees operating multiple stores through additional openings or opening new stores through recommendations from acquaintances are increasing.

Min Hyojung, a franchisee operating the Gangnam-gu Office store, said, “I was worried about which brand franchise to start with, but a friend who operates a Gongcha store with good business results strongly recommended it, so I started. Now, after six months, I am operating the store stably and am very satisfied.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.