This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on January 16, 2024.
In early January 2024, Singapore consumers began posting on social media that they could no longer buy Chagee in the market. According to those posts, Chagee stores in Singapore had been rapidly rebranded as “Amps Tea,” referred to here as Amps Tea.
The episode prompted speculation that Chagee had run into a dispute with its local franchise partner. Similar cases had previously hit other beverage brands in Singapore, including Gong Cha’s local conversion into Liho and llaollao’s replacement by Yolé.
Singapore consumer Fredy wrote on social media that the store locations, owner and staff appeared unchanged, while the signage and menu had switched from Chagee to Amps Tea.
The new Amps Tea menu appeared to carry over Chagee-style products, including fresh fruit teas and cold-brew teas. Pricing also remained close to Chagee’s level: Amps Tea averaged about S$6, or roughly RMB32, while Chagee had averaged about S$7, or roughly RMB37.
Chagee opened its first Singapore store in August 2020. Although the pandemic had affected retail, foodservice and other consumer sectors in Singapore at the time, the first store reportedly sold 450 cups on opening day, then reached daily sales of 600 to 700 cups. According to an October 2023 report by Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao, Chagee had 12 stores in Singapore. Some Singapore consumers later said that essentially all Chagee stores in the market had been converted to Amps Tea.
The social media groups previously used to promote Chagee were also renamed for Amps Tea. An account named Amps Tea Bugis+ posted in the former Chagee group that the business had decided to enter a new stage of development and launch the Amps Tea brand, with more advanced and innovative service. The post also said ingredients such as tea and milk had been upgraded to better and healthier quality.
The timing appeared abrupt. A social media account believed to belong to an Amps Tea store owner was still promoting Chagee products and branding in a video posted on December 23, 2023. By January 10, 2024, the same account had posted a promotional video for Amps Tea. Because the poster included the owner’s personal photo, FoodBud inferred that Amps Tea may have been a personal brand launched quickly after the cooperation with Chagee ended.
Consumers reacted with surprise, asking whether Chagee had given up on Singapore, what had required an overnight overhaul, and whether Chagee Singapore would return. There had been no official response on the reason for the rebrand. Industry discussion centered on two explanations: the local franchisee may have been unwilling to pay franchise fees and chose to rename the stores, or Chagee may have terminated all agreements with the franchisee and planned to reopen later at new locations.
According to Chagee’s official website, the domestic franchise fee in China was RMB69,800, with total investment across other items around RMB500,000. Overseas franchise fees vary by country and region. Reports cited in the article said Chagee’s franchise fee in Malaysia was around RMB200,000. The article did not identify the exact Singapore franchise fee, but some Singapore consumers said Chagee was even more expensive than Heytea in Singapore, arguing that high franchise fees would ultimately be passed on to consumers.
Price was not the only complaint. Some overseas consumers also criticized inconsistent product quality and poor staff service in Chagee’s Singapore stores. One comment cited in the article said Chagee Singapore was nearly twice as expensive as in Malaysia and China while offering weaker quality, and suggested the brand owner would not want its work damaged in one market.
Chagee was not the only beverage brand to see its Singapore presence replaced by a local operator’s new brand.
In May 2017, the disappearance of Taiwanese bubble-tea brand Gong Cha from Singapore also drew broad attention. Gong Cha had been introduced to Singapore in 2009 by RTG Holding. RTG Holding managing director Zheng Zhenliang told media that his contract with Gong Cha expired in 2016. Gong Cha requested a renewal, but after Zheng discovered that Gong Cha’s parent company, Royal Tea Taiwan, had sold the company to Korea’s Gong Cha, he decided to create his own brand. All Gong Cha stores in Singapore were then renamed Liho. As of the article’s publication, Liho still had more than 90 stores in Singapore.
Spanish frozen-yogurt brand llaollao entered Singapore in 2015 and frequently drew long queues. In December 2017, llaollao suddenly closed all 29 of its Singapore stores. Soon after, the locations were replaced by Yolé, which described itself as a European frozen-yogurt brand. llaollao later posted a statement on its official social media account saying the Singapore closures were a unilateral action by its local agent, that Yolé was the agent’s own new brand, and that Yolé was not from Europe. llaollao also said it would return quickly. As of the article’s publication, llaollao had 12 stores in Singapore.
Local franchise or agency disputes appear to have occurred repeatedly in Singapore’s beverage market. Whether Chagee could return to Singapore as quickly as llaollao remained uncertain at the time.
Outside Singapore, Chagee’s Malaysia business still appeared strong. The article said Chagee had more than 50 stores in Malaysia, ranked among the market’s top five brands, and had the highest average store-level GMV in the local market. In Thailand, Chagee had opened 2 stores.
For operators, the case highlights a practical risk in cross-border franchise expansion: local partners can control sites, staff, customer groups and near-term customer access, making brand continuity vulnerable when agreements break down.
Note: Store counts, prices, GMV ranking and franchise-fee figures are historical and reflect reporting available around the January 2024 publication date.