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Chagee, Mixue and Luckin won the market. Sustaining their edge is the harder part

The latest earnings from China’s beverage giants show that it’s not about store count now, but the quality of scale

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    • Chagee's flagship store at VivoCity. The milk-tea brand is pivoting away from a franchise-heavy structure towards greater direct ownership.
    • Chagee's flagship store at VivoCity. The milk-tea brand is pivoting away from a franchise-heavy structure towards greater direct ownership. PHOTO: TAY CHU YI, BT

    Lee Kok How

    Published Wed, Sep 9, 2026 · 07:00 AM

    CHINA’S beverage chains have become superb at opening stores, but are they becoming better businesses?

    This matters beyond China. For Singapore beverage and even retail operators, it raises a familiar question: when does expansion start cannibalising?

    Luckin Coffee’s latest results capture this contradiction. In the second quarter of 2026, revenue rose 28.5 per cent year on year, while the firm added 2,714 stores to make up a total of 36,310.

    ChinaBeveragesFood industry

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