Successful take-away teashop business model?

Business Money
1

Taiwan is ridden with take-away tea shops. They’re everywhere. And by the looks of it some are super-busy, and I’m sure quite successful.

Now, back in my native country there are none of these.

But I’m sure there’s potential to open one, and possibly franchise it, marketing it as the ‘healthy lifestyle’ option.

What I want to get hold of is a successful formula/business plan/business model, on which to structure my own.

I’d be a first-time tea shop owner, and would need all the advice I could get. Also, sources for raw materials (black/red/green tea powder, pearls, teas, cup-sealing machine, etc).

Any advice - please offer it below. And reading material that might be useful in getting my business plan together, getting finance, attracting investors, etc - again, please offer below.

Thanks a million!

2

If you wish to offer solely teas, I think the Ching Shin franchise looks like a doable, repeatable franchise example. Andtheir product quality is first rate.
You might like to look at one of these shops/stands.

3

Ten Rens is all over Toronto…

4

and nyc supposedly

5

But for Taiwan, what you want is “EnglishTea”…the bubble tea that gives you an English sentence on every pasted-on cover. (Accurate English sentences cost more, of course. :smiley: Or maybe less…depends on the business model.)

It’s another great opportunity like “TaxiEnglish” where foreigners get hack licenses and drive special red taxis around the cities offering transportation and English practice for mere double rates. Heck, there’s a TV show on now, some kind of quiz show, where the contestant gets into a taxi and has to answer questions to win money. Or “McEnglish” where every McDonald’s hires a foreigner to just hang out and answer English questions while receiving free coffee refills and an ARC. :smiley:

Oh, I got a million of 'em!

6

Hmmm, the equipment is made locally, and that’s not too expensive to buy. I once tried to make a UK guy interested in the cup sealers as a more environmental alternative to the domed lids, however he did not take the bait on that one.

One issue is to get the equipment certified for use in north America.

good luck on that one.

some of it should have CE, so it’s Ok for Europe, at least to July 1st, when RoHS comes into force.

7

oz is full of these shops as well

do some research on the healthiness of the teas as i am 99% sure the powedered junk and liquid sweeteners they use arent particularly healthy… unless of course you plan on doing things ‘right’…

8

In some ways I think the appreciation of these kinds of teas in Taiwan (I’m not an appreciator) requires the fostering of “Tea Culture” and that so far the west probably doesn’t.

Its similar to the wine industry here. Taiwanese just generally cannot and do not appreciate or recognize a good wine. I’ve heard stories about the top tea’s being worth more than their weight in gold. That requires a certain level of sophistication.

I think the one thing that the tea’s here have going for them is the health aspect. Unfortunately from what I have seen, the tea places I’ve seen in Brisbane are the instant / takeaway cold drinks that are so far removed from the original “Tea Culture” that its as another posted mentioned, no longer healthy.

I really don’t think the teahouse method would work. You guys just don’t understand western culture.

9

Western culture has a somewhat morbid (excuse the contradiction) fascination with all that is perceived to be healthy, or having health benefits.

There’s definitely market demand for takeaway teashops here in SA (which is a strong mix of Western, Eastern and African cultures). It needs to be determined how strong that demand is.

It also requires a good marketing/advertising campaign.

The tea selection at supermarkets has grown from five or so different teas ten years ago, to over 30, last time I checked.

Coffee shops are big. Health juice stores do well. Tea shops stand to do just as well.

10

You can get these from Mr. Chen at Yuan Yang Frozen Machine Company (02)2311-1877.

11

Please, get serious … ‘health’ and ‘Taiwanese tea stalls’ should NOT be used in the same sentence.

You don’t want to know what goes into those things.

If you really want to sell healthy drinks, think green tea. New health benefits are being discovered daily, and people in the west think it’s cool to drink green tea - call it “asian fascination”.

12

I’ve been thinking a bit in the same tracks as well. The labor cost could be pretty prohibitive back home in Sweden though. Anyone knows any good contacts for franchising?

Selling it as healthy would be a joke though. Man, I don’t want to think about how much sugar there is in there. My gf ordered a half sugar no ice zhen nai the other day and man that tasted like shit. The selling point would be that it tastes so good you can’t keep away even if you wanna be healthy. I don’t drink soft drinks but since I came here I’m gulping ridiculous amounts of zhen nai.

13

I would plan to sell a wide range of teas - using green, black and rooibos as the base teas.

And then all the herbal teas.

And various combos. The choice of teas is vast.

South Africa has rooibos, honeybush, and others.

Then there are teas from plenty of other countries.

As it stands at the moment there are no tea-to-go shops here (SA). It’s a case of having the right marketing/advertising campaign.

Ice cold teas for summer, hot teas for winter. Teas for dodgy tummy, teas to soothe, teas to invigorate. The list goes on.

First step: a business plan…

14

LA is full of bubble tea franchises selling 珍珠奶茶 pearl milk tea for $3.50 a pop or more. Then again, I don’t envy the guy who has to cover the rent and expenses of an LA store while facing somewhat stiff competition from ABCs who already have an established base.

This kind of thing seems to work where there is already a fairly large Asian community and the locals are used to ‘weird food’ etc. The only place I can think of with this kind of international community and notable lack of Taiwanese-style tea shops is London. God only knows what the startup costs of a London store are nowadays though.

Lollicup is a boba tea franchise with quite a few stores across California. They seem to carry all the necessary equipment but I don’t know much about them except that the quality was decent in the stores I visited a few years back.

[quote=“Dirt Merchant”]Taiwan is ridden with take-away tea shops. They’re everywhere. And by the looks of it some are super-busy, and I’m sure quite successful.

Now, back in my native country there are none of these.

But I’m sure there’s potential to open one, and possibly franchise it, marketing it as the ‘healthy lifestyle’ option.

What I want to get hold of is a successful formula/business plan/business model, on which to structure my own.

I’d be a first-time tea shop owner, and would need all the advice I could get. Also, sources for raw materials (black/red/green tea powder, pearls, teas, cup-sealing machine, etc).

Any advice - please offer it below. And reading material that might be useful in getting my business plan together, getting finance, attracting investors, etc - again, please offer below.

Thanks a million![/quote]

15

[quote=“EddieG”]I’ve been thinking a bit in the same tracks as well. The labor cost could be pretty prohibitive back home in Sweden though. Anyone knows any good contacts for franchising?

Selling it as healthy would be a joke though. Man, I don’t want to think about how much sugar there is in there. My gf ordered a half sugar no ice zhen nai the other day and man that tasted like shit. The selling point would be that it tastes so good you can’t keep away even if you wanna be healthy. I don’t drink soft drinks but since I came here I’m gulping ridiculous amounts of zhen nai.[/quote]

I swear they put cocaine in the zhen nai because I’m a health freak but this is the only stuff I just can’t stop drinking despite knowing how much crap is in it.

16

Fuck man, that’s it! This habit will be very expensive once I get back home :frowning: