Wang Jingli wangjingli0715@163.com A GROWING number of coffee shops are emerging in Shenzhen while some established brands proceed with their expansion plans despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Official data shows that Shenzhen now has more than 10,000 coffee-related enterprises. In the past year, not only more Western coffee chains such as Peet’s Coffee and Lavazza but also local coffee brands like Morse opened new outlets in Shenzhen. Morse launched its upper-range brand, Morse Coffee Roastery, at a shopping mall in Nanshan District in December, bringing its total number of shops operating in Shenzhen to four. Established in 2018 with its first shop in Nanshan, Morse, which says it focuses on providing a more holistic coffee experience, didn’t experience an immediate expansion of the business until in July 2020 when the brand opened its second outlet amid the pandemic. “While the pandemic was still serious at that time, we sold coffee beans to customers via parcels. But many of them expressed a strong wish to enjoy a cup of coffee at our offline shop. These were moments that made us to open the second store even during the time when the pandemic did not end but was well controlled in Shenzhen,” Tony Chen, co-founder of Morse Coffee, told Shenzhen Daily in an interview. The name Morse was derived from Morse code, a method of connection using unique sets of dots and dashes. Morse is hoping to become a kind of connection for people, especially amidst the stressful, repetitive motions of modern life, according to Chen. China’s coffee consumption volume stood at around 100 billion yuan (US$15.68 billion) in 2019, according to a research conducted by the market intelligence agency Mintel. The huge potential attracted an increasing number of coffee giants and entrepreneurs to join the battle, resulting in a highly competitive market in the country. Facing the competition, Chen however exuded confidence rather than pressure. “The competition is actually a good thing as it can help attract more attention to the coffee industry so that more people will get a chance to know about coffee,” said Chen, adding that “it helped us to understand and confirm our positioning in the market.” Compared to other cities that have a longer history of coffee culture, Chen saw instead more possibilities in Shenzhen’s coffee market. “I discovered that independent coffee shops in Shenzhen, big or small, have their own styles and cultures. When a market is not fully shaped yet, it in fact offers more opportunities for players to develop freely,” said Chen. |