Manner Coffee Takes a Small Stake in Tea Brand Ama Handmade

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on July 9, 2022.

As tea chains continued investing in and incubating coffee brands, a coffee chain moved in the opposite direction.

On July 8, 2022, Manner Coffee took a stake in tea chain Ama Handmade. Manner held 1.2% of the company, while Manner CEO Jin Binbin held 0.5%, bringing their combined holding to 1.7%.

Before Manner’s entry, Ama Handmade had already received investment from Greater Bay Area Common Home Investment and Maxing Investment. FoodBud viewed Manner’s participation as the introduction of a strategic investor.

Ama Handmade’s Store Footprint

According to Ama Handmade’s official website at the time, the brand had 21 stores nationwide:

• Shenzhen: 11 stores
• Nanning: 6 stores
• Shanghai: 1 store
• Liuzhou: 2 stores
• Guilin: 1 store

Founded in 2018, Ama Handmade positioned itself around Guangxi ingredients, freshly cooked components, and in-store preparation. Its ingredient set included Guangxi Lipu taro, Bama glutinous rice, brown sugar, grass jelly, buffalo milk, and organic tea.

The brand’s defining feature was “handmade ingredients.” Items such as rice mochi and longan balls were cooked and prepared in stores rather than assembled from semi-finished industrial inputs.

Its first store opened in MixC Nanning. Within one week, the brand gained attention for its handmade approach, store experience, and natural ingredients. Monthly sales reportedly exceeded RMB 1.4 million in its opening month.

After three years of market development, Ama Handmade entered MixC Shenzhen. Its peak daily cup volume reportedly exceeded 3,000 cups, with average monthly sales above RMB 1 million.

Why Manner’s Move Matters

For a tea brand of Ama Handmade’s size, remaining a small, focused brand was one option. But large-scale store expansion would likely require growing with industry partners.

FoodBud noted that coffee chains had tried tea before. Luckin Coffee previously incubated the tea brand Xiaolu Tea, but the effort was not very successful, underscoring that each subcategory requires specialized operating teams.

Manner’s stake in Ama Handmade was small, suggesting a trial move to learn more about tea chains and the broader freshly made tea market. The ready-to-drink tea-shop category was larger than freshly made coffee, and as more tea brands entered coffee, competition in coffee was also intensifying.

FoodBud argued that, rather than wait passively, Manner appeared to be exploring the playbook and dynamics of tea beverages directly.

Category Matrix Building

Among emerging chain brands in tea and coffee at the time, FoodBud said Heytea had built one of the more complete brand matrices.

Building such matrices ultimately depends on capital operations. In 2022, Manner Coffee was rapidly expanding outside Shanghai and had also begun developing delivery operations. According to Narrow Door Dining Eye, Manner Coffee had reached 418 stores.

Whether Manner would later increase its stake in Ama Handmade or make a heavier bet on tea remained to be seen.

Note: All investment, store-count, sales, and expansion figures are historical, based on the article’s July 2022 context.