Guming's Prospectus: China's #2 Tea Chain and Its Cold-Chain Moat

This is an English adaptation of a FoodBud historical article originally published on December 15, 2024.

Guming's (古茗) updated HK prospectus profiles China's #2 freshly made tea chain — a franchise model whose edge is a cold-chain supply network reaching lower-tier cities and townships.

Scale (as of/through Sep 30, 2024)

• 9M 2024 GMV RMB 16.6 billion (+20.4%); 9,778 stores across 200+ cities; 2023 GMV RMB 19.2 billion (+37.2%). By 2023 GMV, Guming ranked #2 in China freshly made tea (9.1% share) behind Mixue, ahead of ChaPanda, Chagee and Auntea Jenny.
• Franchise-led: 7 directly-managed stores; franchised stores are ~99.9% of GMV. Mini-program members reached 135 million (from 94 million), with quarterly active members 43 million+ and a 53% average quarterly repurchase rate (vs. an industry sub-30%).

The lower-tier and township tilt

• ~80% of stores are in tier-2-and-below cities (highest among the top five); 40% are in towns and townships (also highest among peers). Per-store GMV in tier-4-and-below cities was RMB 2.3M (2023); townships RMB 2.4M.
• Franchisee single-store operating profit was RMB 376,000 in 2023 at a 20.2% margin (vs. an industry 10–15%); 99% of pre-2023 stores were profitable, and 98% of newer stores reached breakeven.

Products

A ~30-SKU menu across fruit tea (41% of cups in 9M 2024), milk tea (47%) and coffee/other (12%), refreshed with 85–130 new products a year. Hero drinks include Super-A Cheese Grape (180M+ cups, 11 recipe upgrades), the classic Guming Milk Tea (436M+ cups) and Yunling Jasmine Light-Milk — all delivered consistently across ~10,000 stores via supply-chain capability.

The supply-chain moat

• 2023 sourcing covered ~85,000 tons of fresh fruit across 36 varieties, often direct from origin (e.g., ~4,000 tons of perfume lemons, 89.9% of that fruit's purchases) at below-market prices (mango ~30% under market).
• 22 self-run warehouses (~220,000 sqm, 60,000+ cubic meters of multi-temperature cold storage); ~76% of stores within 150 km of a warehouse; 362 owned temperature-controlled vehicles. Guming runs the largest cold-chain network among Chinese tea chains and is the only top-ten brand frequently delivering short-shelf-life fresh fruit and milk to low-tier stores — at warehouse-to-store delivery cost under 1% of GMV (vs. ~2% industry). Three (now four) processing plants, mango ripening loss cut to 10% (vs. ~20% industry), and China's largest tea-industry HPP-juice processing.

Franchise terms and management

Initial franchise fee RMB 98,800 (RMB 73,800 brand/operating support + RMB 25,000 training); monthly support fee of RMB 500 fixed plus 15–20% of store purchases; total upfront investment (ex-rent) can exceed RMB 330,000. A ~470-person team plus system monitoring (matching sales to ingredient orders) audits franchisees, with graded penalties and internal-competition limits (no new store within a set radius). Leadership added external hires (COO ex-Qunar/Bianlifeng; CTO ex-Luckin). Franchisee churn rose to 11.7% in 9M 2024 amid a slowing, more competitive market. Prospectus figures are historical (Dec 2024).