This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on September 30, 2022.
According to CASE SHOWCASE, Grid Coffee was a newly established Beijing specialty coffee chain positioned around single-origin espresso and drip-style products. The brand was invested in by Kan Yun Holdings Group, the parent company of Yuanfudao, and was presented as one of the group’s post-education-policy diversification bets.
Grid Coffee used green as its core brand color and emphasized the line “Coffee is Coffee.” Its target customers were people already comfortable with coffee, with the team expecting China’s mass-market coffee education by brands such as Luckin Coffee and Lucky Coffee (幸运咖) to expand the pool of habitual coffee drinkers.
Unlike most chain coffee brands, Grid Coffee focused only on single-origin coffee rather than blended beans. CASE noted that while single-origin products were common as a premium line at mainstream brands, there was not yet a scaled chain dedicated to the format.
The positioning came with higher ingredient requirements and higher costs. A cup at Grid Coffee was priced at about RMB 25-30, slightly above Manner Coffee.
Grid Coffee offered only classic coffee categories:
It avoided coffee-tea or coffee-fruit hybrids that many local brands used for faster product innovation.
Grid Coffee’s founder and operator Chen Ziyu, formerly co-founder of curated food e-commerce platform ENJOY, told CASE that the brand hoped to benchmark Blue Bottle Coffee from the United States, but in a faster, more portable format.
Blue Bottle had just opened its first China store in Shanghai at the time of the article, and was described in the source as a specialty coffee brand known for selling beans roasted within 48 hours.
Chen described Grid Coffee as closer overall to Manner Coffee in operating model, but more aligned with Blue Bottle on the brand side.
Because Beijing has fewer street-front small shops than Shanghai, Grid Coffee planned to build around office buildings and commercial real estate.
Its mainstream store format was expected to be about 20-30 square meters. Stores displayed coffee bean samples at the ordering counter to reinforce the single-origin positioning, had no dining tables, and were staffed by only 2-4 baristas.
The team argued that better beans allowed baristas to make strong coffee with semi-automatic drip coffee machines, improving labor efficiency.
At the time of the article, Grid Coffee had opened two Beijing stores, in Wangfujing and Wangjing. It did not yet offer delivery. Customers ordered through a mini program and picked up in-store. Brand lead He Fan told CASE that the company was still looking for delivery methods that could preserve flavor, and would not rule out delivery once that was solved.
Chen estimated that under the existing store model, a store could become profitable at an average of 200 cups per day.
Grid Coffee planned to open 20-30 stores in Beijing in 2023, while also researching other cities. The stated approach was to expand to other cities after the model had been proven.
CASE framed coffee as an attractive business because of repeat purchase behavior and habit formation, but noted that scaled specialty-coffee targets remained limited. Manner Coffee, the closest comparable brand, had more than 80% of its stores in Shanghai and had opened only 17 Beijing stores since entering the city in 2019, leaving perceived room for Grid Coffee.
The article also warned that the pace could not be too slow because premium mall and office-building locations are limited. It cited Starbucks’ then-stated plan to add 3,000 stores across 300 Chinese cities over the next three years, at an average rate of one new store every nine hours.
After China’s “double reduction” education policy, major online education companies pursued different transformations. CASE cited Gaotu’s move into adult education, Zuoyebang’s focus on smart hardware, New Oriental’s move into agricultural products through livestream commerce, and Yuanfudao’s broader exploration across digital publishing, enterprise services, and consumer businesses.
From the fourth quarter of 2021, Kan Yun Holdings created an internal team to study the coffee market. CASE reported that the Grid Coffee team operated independently, had more than 30 people, and that its core management came mainly from ENJOY. Some mid- and back-office R&D and operations staff came from Yuanfudao.
Yuanfudao founder Li Yong reportedly met with management once a week, focusing less on operating details and more on long-term brand building, brand keywords, and user understanding.
On why Wangfujing was the first formal store, Chen said it was not meant to be a high-profile flagship, but one of many future standard stores. He said the store would have opened half a year earlier if not for the pandemic. He also cited the office-building renovation above the site, a new subway station below, and views toward Wangfujing Catholic Church as reasons for the location.
On why consumers would choose Grid Coffee when Manner had similar positioning and lower prices, Chen said the answer was brand. He pointed to single-origin beans as an ingredient upgrade and said coffee should have clearer boundaries and a stronger professional spirit.
On why single-origin coffee could work as a chain model, he said the two were not contradictory. Single-origin coffee was already available in many coffee shops, usually at a price about RMB 5 higher than other coffees. Grid Coffee’s idea was to raise the baseline ingredient quality and turn what was usually a premium product line into a standalone brand. He also argued that fewer ingredients and a simpler supply chain could reduce costs.
Grid Coffee had launched eight types of beans. Chen said the company used popular bean types but with different emphases, such as a darker-roasted Yirgacheffe rather than the lighter floral and fruity profile common in the market. He said each bean was single-origin and had a clear character: lighter roasts were more acidic, darker roasts were fuller-bodied, and specially processed beans could show fruit flavors from targeted fermentation. He also said all of the beans had a relatively sweet aftertaste.
On new product cadence, Chen said Grid Coffee would have regular quarterly launches and customized launches based on operating needs. A recent Sanlitun pop-up had featured a Yunnan series pointing to “Eastern flavor.” But he argued that a brand needing constant creativity to survive may not be a good business, because it may suggest the product is not a strong necessity.
On brand building, Chen said his background in content made him see branding as similar to writing a headline: one sentence should tell customers what the company wants to do and employees what they are working on. “Coffee is Coffee” was described as an internal consensus and a spiritual direction for the team.
On defensibility, Chen said competitors lacked Grid Coffee’s patience. He argued that most coffee brands were focused on current traffic and popular concepts, while Grid Coffee wanted to focus on long-term market judgment and deeper work. He also said the company was not enthusiastic about collaborations, even though they were popular in coffee marketing.
On whether Grid Coffee would bring in outside capital, Chen said it would do the right thing when the timing was right.
Note: store-opening targets, Starbucks expansion figures, capital comments, and profitability expectations are historical statements from 2022.