Nayuki Reopens Its International Playbook With a Bangkok Store

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on December 3, 2023.

On December 1, 2023, Nayuki opened its first Thailand store for soft launch in Bangkok, inside the newly opened Emsphere shopping center on Sukhumvit.

The move marks a restart of Nayuki's overseas expansion. The chain previously opened international stores in Singapore in 2018 and Japan in 2020, but those locations later closed due to the pandemic.

Thailand as a Test Market

Several Chinese tea chains had already entered Thailand before Nayuki's arrival, including Mixue Bingcheng and Chagee. Mixue had been accelerating expansion in Thailand in 2023, and by mid-year its local store count had passed 100.

FoodBud's read on Nayuki's Thailand pricing is that it sits close to After You, a local tea-and-coffee chain whose stores are mainly concentrated in Bangkok.

Local contacts had told FoodBud in Q2 2023 that Nayuki was recruiting in Thailand. By year-end, the store had formally landed.

The Operating Context Behind the Relaunch

According to Nayuki's interim report, the company turned from loss to profit in the first half of 2023, an important milestone for the chain.

A major shift for both Nayuki and Heytea in 2023 was lower average product pricing, alongside more automation in product preparation. This was tied to store-model optimization and changes in labor structure.

For Nayuki, both labor and rent costs declined. Store operating profit margin rose from 10.4% in the first half of 2022 to 20.1% in the first half of 2023.

Market data cited in the article said that in November 2023, partly helped by greater investment in fresh milk tea, a category with stronger winter hot-drink performance, same-store revenue improved slightly month-on-month and outperformed usual seasonal expectations. Fresh milk tea accounted for about 30-40% of beverage revenue at that time, up from roughly 10-20% in prior years and in the first half of 2023.

Standardization, Franchising, and Going Abroad

For chain operators, scale depends on standardization and continuous improvement in store operating efficiency, including the use of automation equipment. These capabilities also underpin franchising and international expansion.

Nayuki disclosed that it added a net 166 franchised stores in Q3 2023. The company expected its franchised store base to reach 2,000 stores across the following two years.

Alongside continued expansion of directly operated and franchised stores in China, overseas exploration was presented as a natural next step, especially as competition in the domestic market continued to intensify.

Nayuki also still had liquidity after listing in Hong Kong during a stronger capital-market window. As of the end of June 2023, the company held RMB 670 million in cash and cash equivalents, plus RMB 1.9 billion in bank time deposits.

Note: Store targets, capital-market references, cash figures, and operating metrics are historical figures from the 2023 source article.