Minimum 1.42 yuan per cup! Auntie in Shanghai offers a 9.9 yuan weekly card to fiercely compete in the coffee market

After Wallace launched a promotion offering 210 cups of coffee for 9.9 yuan, another tea beverage brand, Shanghai Auntie, also entered the price war. Recently, Shanghai Auntie introduced a back-to-school special coffee weekly card, priced at only 9.9 yuan for 7 coffees, equivalent to just 1.42 yuan per cup, quickly attracting consumer attention.

On March 12, a reporter saw on a third-party platform that this package includes four medium-sized products: Orange C Apricot American, Stronger American, Red Apple American, and Super Berry American. The card is only valid at some campus stores, supports only full-order refunds, and has a validity period of 15 days.

In addition to the weekly card, the reporter noticed that Shanghai Auntie also launched a monthly coffee card for campus stores, priced at 19.95 yuan after discount for 15 coffees, with a per-visit cost as low as 1.33 yuan. The product set also offers four American options, and over 1,000 units have been sold so far.

It is worth noting that the popularity of the coffee weekly card has been very high, and it has now been gradually taken off shelves. On March 12, a third-party platform showed that the “9.9 yuan for 7 coffees” card was sold out, with over 3,000 units sold. On another platform, the promotion had already ended, but the sales of this card exceeded 200,000 units.

Shanghai Auntie’s recent earnings forecast shows that the net profit for 2025 is expected to be between 495 million and 525 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50% to 60%. The adjusted net profit is estimated to be between 560 million and 590 million yuan, up 34% to 41%. Despite these impressive results, there is still a gap compared to leading tea brands like Mixue Bingcheng and Gu Ming.

In fact, although Shanghai Auntie has over 10,000 stores, it relies heavily on franchising, with very few directly operated stores. In the context of the overall growth dividend in the tea industry reaching its peak, seeking new growth points has become an inevitable choice, and coffee is precisely the breakthrough they are targeting.

However, competition in the coffee sector has already become fierce. Not only are affordable specialty coffee brands like Luckin Coffee and Cudy expanding continuously, but mainstream milk tea brands have also almost all entered the coffee category. Fast-food giants like McDonald’s and KFC are also making coffee a standard offering, making the market highly competitive.

Currently, Shanghai Auntie has not only officially added coffee products to its menu but also previously launched a sub-brand, “Hu Coffee,” to test the coffee market independently. Data from Narrow Door Restaurant shows that as of February 11 this year, Hu Coffee had 2,307 operating stores, with an average spending of 14.4 yuan per customer.

Industry insiders point out that leading tea brands are all transforming into “comprehensive beverage providers.” Whether exploring independent stores, sub-brands, or leveraging existing stores to incubate coffee businesses, the underlying logic is to expand product lines to gain incremental growth. Using existing stores to test coffee operations involves relatively low costs, usually just upgrading or adding equipment. These strategic adjustments are positive; developing coffee can increase morning traffic and improve store efficiency.

Xiaoxiang Morning Post Chili Finance Reporter Li Xuanzi

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