Original title: investment 2.5 billion, layout 4000 + stores, McDonald's Corp's "Coffee ambition" Source: 36Kr Holdings

Editor's note: this article is from the official account "Ka Men" (ID:KamenClub) of Wechat, author: King, 36 Krypton released by authorization.

McDonald's Corp is not a new player in selling coffee, but this time, he played very much.

Recently, McDonald's Corp's McCoffee "flew solo". And plans to give away 10 million free lattes and invest 2.5 billion to do a comprehensive upgrade.

What are the highlights of this upgrade? What signals does the suddenly high-pitched McCoffee send to the coffee market? I went to Beijing to have a look.

McCoffee, which is about to invest 2.5 billion, what's so interesting?

On the morning of November 16th, McCoffee, McDonald's Corp's flagship store in Blue Harbor, Beijing, released the news of a new upgrade.

Outside the store, the yellow coffee cup sign-in wall is particularly conspicuous

At first glance, I saw the golden logo of McCoffee on the coffee bar, together with "fragrant" carvings and a whole row of paper menus on the wall to create a new scene experience.

Ordered a latte, got a small yellow cup, log color cup body with yellow cup cover, compared with the previous paper cup, the vision is more memorable, the name is catchy and easy to spread.

The little yellow cup has more memory.

The scene heard the barista repeatedly mentioned "M10 coffee beans", detailed inquiry found that this represents the wheat coffee from beans to the cup of 10 strict selection process.

After a sip, the barista told me that because in the original mix, especially coffee beans from Rwanda, there will be a bright and lively acid.

Coffee beans of McCoffee

My feeling is that McCoffee takes full account of Chinese consumers and increases the richness and hierarchy of the taste as much as possible on the basis of the preference for alcohol thickness.

In terms of price, after this upgrade, the core products are still maintained below 20 yuan / cup. Online orders can also enjoy buy four get one free, use the "Ke Changyue enjoy card", which can be as low as 10 yuan per cup, and there are 4 baking products with coffee, which can be obtained by adding 3 to 9 yuan.

This is a sincere price for consumers who have one cup of coffee a day.

For this upgrade, McCoffee will give away 10 million free cups of coffee in 17 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen from November 18.

In the next three years, they will invest 2.5 billion yuan to cover more than 4000 stores, so that "where there is McDonald's Corp, there is wheat coffee, and enjoy a good cup of coffee anytime, anywhere."

Compared with Ruixing, which entered the market with NT $1 billion in cash three years ago, McCoffee, which has a stronger financial strength and a stronger consumer base, is determined to make coffee this time.

I found a few details at the scene--

Seven details of McDonald's Corp selling Coffee

1. McCoffee "flies solo", with an independent order Mini Program.

Last Wednesday, there was a tweet entitled "the first day of McCoffee solo flight, miss it" on McDonald's Corp's official Wechat account.

After clicking on it, it was found that McCoffee set up an independent official account and Mini Program.

Compared with the dessert station in the corner of the store, McCoffee, which flies alone, obviously gets more resources, which shows how much McDonald's Corp attaches importance to the future coffee market.

2. There is a separate bar and a dedicated barista

Compared with McDonald's Corp in the past, buying hamburger fried chicken, ordering a cup of coffee by the way, and brand-new McCoffee have their own "territory" in the store, and it is quite big.

Independent bar, menu bar, coffee bar on a par with the dining bar, and online celebrity desserts with glass freezers-McCoffee is no longer a subsidiary sale of meals, but an independent existence that can drain each other.

In operation, unlike other convenient coffee, McDonald's Corp has an independent barista.

Instead of making fried chicken during the rush hour or coffee in their spare time, they are all exclusive baristas after 100 hours of training.

This is undoubtedly more able to give "soul" to the taste of coffee, but the decline in human efficiency will also be a problem that McDonald's Corp must quickly solve through the increase in the volume of cups.

3. Semi-automatic coffee machine

On the bar of McCoffee, a bright yellow three-headed coffee machine and a bean grinder of the same color attracted my attention. This is a semi-automatic coffee equipment that only appears in general boutique cafes-it shows its determination and investment in making coffee.

But even if McDonald's Corp, who is very professional in personnel training, uses semi-automatic equipment, it will be a new test for barista training, product quality control, and store operation.

4. Latte within 20 yuan per cup, cup pull flower

Whether it's dinner or delivery, McCoffee requires a latte to "pull flowers in a cup". How to ensure that pull flowers reach the hands of takeout customers, and you can still see them?

Pull flowers can be seen in the cup.

McCoffee works hard on milk and chooses refrigerated fresh milk with a shelf life of 12 days. the milk foam is delicate and tastes dense, which can slow down the rate of dissipation.

I found that the barista of McCoffee had a heart-shaped or leaf-shaped medal on his chest.

The medal on the barista's chest represents the pattern that can be pulled.

The scene learned that if you go to McCoffee to order and receive your barista, several pattern medals represent that TA can pull several patterns, and customers can specify patterns.

5. The newly opened flagship store will provide single item hand-made.

In the upcoming McDonald's Corp store in Beijing and Macao, there will be a single item hand-made.

In the future, in McDonald's Corp, you can get a pot of 480ml by hand for only 24 yuan, bourbon beans from Rwanda, moderately roasted, bright sour and unique Huigan, sharing cups with narrow ceramic mouths and paper cups to take out.

As more and more customers become heavy users of coffee, the pursuit of taste will follow, while McCoffee has begun to explore a richer product experience.

6. Coffee changes from social attribute to functional attribute.

After entering the Chinese market for more than 30 years, McDonald's Corp's investment in wheat coffee has been relatively conservative. Why did he start to spend a lot of money this year?

One of the key points is that McDonald's Corp seems to capture that Chinese coffee is returning to an ordinary drink, becoming everyday and daily rather than being "deified".

Consumers' demand for coffee is changing from social attribute to functional attribute.

When more consumers come for a cup of coffee, the market will be really lively, and coffee, which belongs to a convenient and affordable racetrack, will usher in spring.

7. The handmade coffee bar in the restaurant

Whether they are fast food restaurants, convenience stores or tea shops, these coffee which is not the main business of coffee and whose price is less than 20 yuan and mainly take away, in my opinion, what they are doing is the same thing: selling coffee at 0 rent / low rent.

At present, the opening mode of McCoffee is known as the "handmade Coffee Bar" model, that is, the use of McDonald's Corp's existing restaurant resources to provide a relatively independent McCoffee counter.

For them, coffee is just one of many formats, which aims to transform the coffee demand of existing customers and increase store revenue with high frequency band and low frequency.

This model, a variety of formats to share rental costs, and enterprises in the operation, training, delivery, supply chain have deep cultivation, derived from the coffee product line, do not need to start from 0.

Even coffee can be used as a drainage tool: one cup full of XX and one cup recharged with XX.

In China, it may be difficult to support a chain of thousands of brands with an annual consumption of less than 10 cups per capita, but it is enough to tell a story of "selling coffee at zero rent".

What is the prospect of the high-quality transformation of convenient coffee?

For a long time, the industry has a stereotype of "average taste, only convenience" to fast food restaurant coffee, milk tea shop coffee and convenience store coffee.

In fact, through the upgrade of McCoffee, I see the "boutique trend" of convenient coffee, whether beans, milk, equipment, baristas, are all configured according to a boutique.

Recently, I read about the definition of boutique coffee in a book:

European boutique association: after consumers drink, give the evaluation of carefully carved high-quality coffee.

American Fine Coffee Association: five related people who pursue quality all their lives work together to complete it.

Japan boutique Coffee Association: consumers drink coffee with excellent flavor and are willing to give praise.

McDonald's Corp defines McCoffee as a "handmade coffee bar", positioning its products as "fragrant", using beans certified by the Rainforest Alliance, as well as trained baristas, semi-automatic equipment, lattes for cups and flowers, and handcups that are about to be launched.

No matter which country's definition of boutique coffee, from many dimensions, we can see the determination of wheat coffee boutique transformation.

The whole family's guest coffee also completed a new upgrade last month. Honey Snow Ice City also has its own coffee base in Yunnan. CoCo began to upgrade its coffee production line as early as two years ago to produce Yejia Xuefei.

Convenient coffee is doing a "boutique transformation", the addition of McDonald's Corp, will speed up the process.

In the future, the convenient coffee that completes the "fine transformation", with its lower operating costs and higher supply bargaining power, may show a crushing advantage in the 10-20 yuan price band with the broadest market.