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QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Business -> 
Tencent helps Tim Hortons expand in China
    2020-05-14  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

CANADIAN coffee chain Tim Hortons has secured an undisclosed amount of investment from Internet giant Tencent, in the latest crossover between the tech industry and coffee foodservice in China.

The iconic Toronto-based brand announced the investment on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site.

Its China unit will use the funds to accelerate its digitalization, expand its tech infrastructure, and open more outlets throughout the country.

Tim Hortons China — a joint venture between Tim Hortons owner Restaurant Brands International and New York’s Cartesian Capital Group — currently runs about 500 stores in the country. The company said the investment from Tencent will help it to hit its target of 1,500 China branches sooner than the 10-year timeframe originally set when the joint venture was formed in 2018.

Tim Hortons opened its first store in the country in Shanghai in February last year.

Convenience coffee is big business in China, and tech has transformed the segment.

As of 2018, China still ranked fairly low in per-capita coffee consumption, at three cups a year versus 363 cups in the United States. But total consumption grew at an average of 16 percent per year, much higher than the 2 percent global average, according to the International Coffee Organization.

Luckin Coffee is among the first homegrown players to have adopted a “digital-first” model, allowing customers to order via a mobile app and engage with the brand online before heading to the brand’s brick-and-mortar stores.

In late 2018, Luckin made another tech play when it partnered with Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping, China’s largest on-demand app, to enable rapid doorstep delivery of its coffee and other food products to Meituan users.

Tencent archrival Alibaba quickly responded by partnering its food delivery platform, Ele.me, with U.S. coffee giant Starbucks to enable on-demand delivery.

Starbucks has been busy on other tech fronts in China, too. The country is its second largest market after the United States, playing host to 3,521 directly operated stores as of last September.

Last month, the coffee chain unveiled an alliance with VC firm Sequoia Capital, under which the two will make “strategic co-investments” in emerging, tech-driven food and retail businesses “created in China, for China.”

Starbucks has also dipped its toe into China’s nascent alternative proteins market.

(SD-Agencies)

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