Beverage brands see robust holiday sales

A surge in tourists during the recent Spring Festival holiday has boosted sales of leading coffee and tea brands, with popular destinations seeing significant growth in consumer traffic and retail performance.

According to a Spring Festival consumption report by lifestyle services company Meituan, top travel destinations, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Guangzhou in Guangdong province, saw a sharp rise in domestic visitors.

Typically, a surge in travel leads to strong sales at coffee and tea outlets in scenic areas and transportation hubs.

Starbucks China experienced notable success in the coastal Hainan province, where revenue grew by over 20 percent compared to the previous year. The company operates 77 stores in the province, and has benefited from both the broader tourism boom as well as the strategic development of Hainan Free Trade Port.

The company's efforts to integrate local culture and festive marketing into its offerings played a key role in this growth. The brand launched a Year of the Horse-themed activity across 25 stores and created five festive-themed check-in locations, including popular spots at the CDF Sanya International Duty Free City and the Dadonghai area in Sanya.

The increase in sales is related to the booming tourist numbers recorded in the coastal province.

Data from the Hainan government show that during the Spring Festival holiday, the province received 12.32 million visitors, generating total tourism revenue of 18.36 billion yuan ($2.67 billion). Compared to the same period last year, these figures represent increases of 28.9 percent and 30.7 percent, respectively.

Nationwide, tea brands also saw massive increases in sales during the holiday.

Chagee, a major tea beverage chain, reported a 200 percent surge in sales at key stores in tourist spots and highway service areas. Top-performing cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu saw significant uptick, while stores in cities like Zhanjiang in Guangdong, and Guigang of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, recorded daily sales surpassing 2,500 cups.

No Yeye No Tea, a Wuhan, Hubei province-based brand, capitalized on the holiday rush by selling over 9 million cups nationwide, a 70 percent increase compared to the previous year. The brand's Lychee Ice Brew and gardenia drinks each sold over 1 million cups, with its new "Yichang Tangerine" series emerging as a standout, approaching 1 million cups in sales.

Molly Tea saw its nationwide GMV rise by over 130 percent, with some stores experiencing growth rates of up to 790 percent. The brand sold nearly 10 million cups during the Spring Festival holiday, driven by strong sales in major cities like Shanghai, Chengdu, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. Additionally, stores in third — and fourth-tier cities and tourist areas saw significant growth.

ChaPanda, another tea beverage chain, saw sales in some scenic area stores increase by as much as 4,500 percent, while franchisees across the country reported substantial revenue gains.

Meanwhile, Naisnow Tea and Bakery reported strong sales in both domestic and international markets, with its most popular products — Slim Green Bottle and Fresh Strawberry Snow — catering to health-conscious family gatherings. Naisnow's airport and scenic area stores saw significant growth, with its New York store setting a record for single-day sales, hitting nearly 100,000 yuan.

Coffee and new-style tea drinks have become the two most popular core categories among the new generation of consumers. Their sustained high vitality is being driven by the continuous demographic dividend of the younger generation, and the ongoing robust growth of the domestic tourism market, according to Zhu Danpeng, an independent food and drink analyst in Guangzhou.

The shift in retail network — from being mainly concentrated in major cities, clustered in high-traffic areas such as CBDs and communities, to scenic spots and popular travel destinations now — reflects the change in how chains compete in market coverage, said Zhu.

"The rivalry is no longer isolated or localized," said Zhu. "It has been brought to a new stage, with a deeper and more extensive reach in the market."