According to Pandaily, a Chinese tech media website, Cotti’s management team includes Lu of Luckin Coffee and employees of Chinese car rental companies UCar and Car Inc, in which Lu holds shares.
Cotti Coffee’s first branch is located in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. The company offers coffee and Italian desserts in the morning, meals at noon and dinner and wine in the evening. The brand has also launched a food ordering and delivery feature on WeChat, with more than 40 products priced between $2.48 and $4.41.
The coffee chain will launch two shop formats: a 50-square-metre takeaway mini-shop and a larger standard space with a stronger in-shop experience. Cotti Coffee will also become an official sponsor of Argentina’s national football team and will offer co-branded drinks in China during the World Cup next month.
From what we can see of the branding, they have gone with a feminine touch using soft pastel colours and with the tagline ‘every day @ Cotti’, perhaps indicating the demographic and place they want to occupy in the mindset of their target consumer.
Lu left Luckin Coffee in 2020 following the $340 million fabricated sales scandal. Shortly after, the controversial coffee chain was delisted from Nasdaq, although it has since made a startling recovery under new management.
According to Chinese monitoring and research company iiMedia Research, China’s coffee industry will grow by 27.2% annually and reach $137 million in 2025.
Details about the new coffee chain were first reported in September this year. Lu hopes Cotti Coffee will be able to capitalise on China’s growing coffee scene. Coffee culture is rapidly gaining traction in the country, with local coffee chains expanding to take a bigger market share from Luckin and Starbucks, which plans to open 6,000 outlets in the country by the end of 2022.
