Chatime

Chatime (Chinese: 日出茶太) is a

Taiwanese global franchise teahouse
chain based in Zhubei. Chatime is the
largest teahouse franchise in the world.
Its expansion and growth model is
through franchising.[4] It operates 2500+
outlets in 38 countries. In 2006, it opened
its first store outside of Taiwan in
California, United States and it has since
expanded to China, Malaysia, Canada,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines,
Cambodia, Thailand, United States,
Australia, New Zealand, India, United
Arab Emirates, Japan and South Korea,
among others.[4][5]
 Chatime

Native name 日出茶太

Industry Beverages

Genre Bubble tea

Founded Zhubei, Hsinchu

County, Taiwan
(2005)[1]

Headquarters Zhubei, Hsinchu

County, Taiwan
Number of locations 2500 in 38 countries
(December 2018)
Area served Worldwide
Key people Henry Wang Yao-Hui
(Chairperson,
Founder)[2]
Products Bubble tea  • Tea  •

Flavored tea
Services Tea

Revenue US$20 million

(2011)[1][3]

Website chatime.com.tw/zh
chatime.com.tw/en

Its parent company, La Kaffa

International Co Ltd, debuted on the
Emerging Stock Market (興櫃市場) in
December 2012 at NT$168 per share. It
is the only publicly listed bubble tea
company in Taiwan.[6]

History
Chatime tea.

Henry Wang Yao-Hui founded Chatime in

2005 in Hsinchu, Taiwan, under the
parent company, La Kaffa Coffee.[3]

Expansion

The company opened its first outlet

outside of Taiwan in California in 2006,[5]
followed by Australia in 2009,[7] where it
currently has over 70 stores.[8] This was
followed by Malaysia[9] in 2010.[10] Its
Malaysian operations currently account
for just under 50% of its global revenue.[9]

In 2012, the brand opened its first store

in India, a traditional tea drinking country,
in New Delhi.[11]

After its two stores in New York, its third

store in the United States opened at Mall
of America in March 2012.[12] The
Chatime store in London is located on
Old Compton Street.[13]

In the Philippines, it planned to open 50

stores by 2014,[1] while in Malaysia, it
opened its 100th store in 2013, with
plans to open up to 250 stores within a
three to five-year period.[14]
As of December 2018, the brand has 16
locations throughout Vancouver, BC and
2 locations in Halifax, NS, Canada.

As of 2018, Chatime has seven stores in

Dhaka and one store in Chittagong in
Bangladesh.

Chatime outlet in Æon, Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang,

Malaysia

Chatime's parent company, La Kaffa

International Co. Ltd., debuted on
Taiwan's Emerging Stock Market (興櫃市
場) in December 2012 at NT$168 per
share[15] under the stock code 2732.[4] It
is the only publicly listed bubble tea
company in Taiwan.[6]

Products
The brand's best-selling drink is its
Chatime "pearl" milk tea.[3] The brand has
a variety of drinks under categories such
as milk tea, fresh tea, fruit tea, "oriental
pop tea", "QQ" jelly (Not available in
Australia), "mousse", juices, smoothies
and coffee.[16][17] Its products are
available with less sugar.[1]

Typically, Chatime products come with a

variety of toppings such as "pearls", while
"QQ" jelly is a mixture of "pearls" and nata
de coco.[1]

Some products are only available in

certain countries. For example, in
Malaysia, Chatime introduced three
flavours in collaboration with Horlicks
from GlaxoSmithKline.[18]

Locations
As of 2018, Chatime is present in 38
countries and territories.[19]
America Europe Middle East Africa Oceania Asia

Canada United United Arab Mauritius Australia Bangladesh

Kingdom Emirates
United Guam Brunei
States France Oman
New Cambodia
Mexico Germany Kuwait Zealand
China
Colombia Czech Qatar Fiji
Hong Kong
Republic
India

Indonesia

Japan

Macau

Malaysia

Maldives

Myanmar

Pakistan

Philippines

Singapore

South
Korea

Taiwan

Thailand

Vietnam

Collaborations
Chatime was the first bubble tea brand to be made
available in-flight in a collaboration with AirAsia

Chatime became the first beverage company in

Malaysia to host an official account on WeChat. On
the far left and right are WeChat ambassadors Lisa
Surihani and Shaheizy Sam.[20]

In 2012, AirAsia announced that it would

offer Chatime on its flights and claimed
that is would be the "world's first and only
in-flight bubble tea". The airline said that
two speciality bubble tea drinks, Roasted
Milk Tea with Red Bean and Mango
Green Tea with Rainbow Jelly, were
available on flights operated by
Malaysian AirAsia with the airline code
AK to 48 destinations, which include
India, Hong Kong, Thailand and the
Philippines.[21] The collaboration was
organised by Chatime Malaysia's CEO,
Bryan Loo.[21]

Chatime became the first beverage

company in Malaysia to host an official
account on WeChat. To mark the
collaboration, Chatime gave away 1
million cups of drinks worth over RM6
million/US$2 million through digital
coupons made available via the WeChat
platform.[22]

Other collaborations include partnerships

with McDonald's, Horlicks from
GlaxoSmithKline,[23] and biscuit brand
Julie's.[24]

Brand ambassadors

A Chatime outlet in a shopping mall

Chatime announced in 2012 that award-
winning Taiwan actress Ariel Lin would
serve as its brand ambassador.[25]

The following year, the brand announced

that Crystal Lee had become the lifestyle
tea provider's first "Chatime Friend". The
announcement was made soon after Lee
became the youngest actress ever to
have won the award for Best Actress at
the 16th Shanghai International Film
Festival.[26]

Counterfeit
In South Korea, Chatime said it would
take legal action against a store which
sold similar products and was recruiting
potential franchises.[27] Additionally, in
Malaysia, they will seek an injunction
against newly launched Tealive for
operating and selling similar products
and the possibility of using the same
trade practices as its predecessor,
Chatime.[28]

Legal & regulatory matters

In Malaysia, the master franchisee
agreement was terminated on 5 January
2017 by La Kaffa International due to
contractual dispute with its country
master franchisee, Loob Holding. This
legal dispute attracted the attention of
local media and is currently in arbitration
in Singapore. La Kaffa held a press
conference in Kuala Lumpur announcing
it would be taking over the Malaysian
Chatime business operations and
development with immediate effect.[29]
This however appears to be largely
incorrect with Loob Holding rebranding
161 out of 165 Chatime outlets to Tealive
brand on 17 February 2017.[30][31] Due to
Loob Holding's alleged use of
unapproved ingredients (which were later
found out to be collaborations with other
brands for localization purposes),[32]
questionable practices, and a blatant
breach of the terms of contract, La Kaffa
International director Chen Zhao sought
an injunction against the former master
franchisee from operating a similar
(bubble tea) business in Malaysia. On 29
May 2017, the High Court dismissed the
injunction bid by La Kaffa International,
against Loob Holding Sdn Bhd, from
carrying a similar business as
Chatime.[33] Judicial Commissioner
Wong Kian Kheong, in his oral judgement,
ruled that the injunction would cause
great risk of injustice to Loob Holding
and its business and also associates.
The court also found that the franchise
termination by La Kaffa was done in bad
faith. While both companies have taken
their dispute to the Singapore
International Arbitration Centre, La Kaffa
reportedly tries to persuade Loob
Holding to settle this matter outside
court.

See also
Bubble tea
Tea house
Tea culture

References
1. Jamora-Garceau, Therese (12 April
2012). "Lifestyle report from Taiwan:
What time is it? It's Chatime" . Phil
Star. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
2. "La Kaffa International Co Ltd" .
Bloomberg. Retrieved 9 December
2013.
3. Baga-Reyes, Reyes (26 April 2012).
"How Taipei's Chatime came to
Manila" . Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Retrieved 9 December 2013.
4. Su, Amy (8 April 2013). "Food,
beverage firms plan expansion" .
Taipei Times. Retrieved 26 July
2013.
5. "Chatime enters Korea" . Inside
Retail Asia. 18 October 2012.
Archived from the original on 25
October 2012. Retrieved 26 July
2013.
6. "mad about tea - How to sell bubble
tea profitably" . The Edge. 15
November 2011. Archived from the
original on 13 May 2012. Retrieved
11 December 2013.
7. "Bubble tea" . Neat Eats Food news.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2013. Retrieved
9 December 2013.
8. "Chatime Franchising" . Retrieved
4 August 2018.
9. "Chatime boss finds his cup of tea" .
The Star. 11 November 2013.
Retrieved 9 December 2013.
10. "Chatime Malaysia Celebrates 100
Outlets" . La Kaffa. Archived from
the original on 31 December 2013.
Retrieved 9 December 2013.
11. "Chatime opens Taiwanese bubble
tea store in New Delhi" . Want China
Times. 3 August 2012. Archived
from the original on 31 December
2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
12. "Chatime to open at Mall of
America" . Minneapolis.org. Archived
from the original on 31 December
2013. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
13. "Chatime' makes its European début
in London" . Ad-lib Traveller.
Retrieved 10 December 2013.
14. Chan, Jade (26 July 2013). "Chatime
unveils expansion plan at opening of
its 100th store" . The Star. Retrieved
10 December 2013.
15. "Announcement - La Kaffa" . GreTai
Securities Market. Retrieved
9 December 2013.
16. "Products" . Chatime. Archived from
the original on 25 November 2013.
Retrieved 9 December 2013.
17. "Drinks" . Chatime. Archived from
the original on 31 December 2013.
Retrieved 9 December 2013.
18. Sri Priya, Sheila (25 January 2013).
"Tea with Horlicks for Chatime" .
New Straits Times. Archived from
the original on 1 January 2014.
Retrieved 9 December 2013.
19. "Locations" . Chatime. Archived from
the original on 25 July 2015.
Retrieved 23 July 2015.
20. Yu, Steve. "WeChat celebrates
partnership with Chatime with 1
Million Cups of Chatime for
Redemption" . My Techj Quest.
Retrieved 31 December 2013.
21. "AirAsia upbeat on its F&B growth" .
Daily Express. 6 July 2012. Retrieved
10 December 2013.
22. "WeChat and Chatime offer 1 million
cups of Chatime" . Borneo Post. 21
October 2013. Retrieved
30 December 2013.
23. "The "Why" Behind the Chatime-
Horlicks Alliance" . Marketing
Magazine. 16 January 2013.
Archived from the original on 1
January 2014. Retrieved
31 December 2013.
24. "Julie's teams up with Chatime" .
Business Times. 22 November 2013.
Archived from the original on 1
January 2014. Retrieved
31 December 2013.
25. "Ariel Lin as the Official Brand
Ambassador for Chatime" . Chatime
Press Release. Archived from the
original on 31 December 2013.
Retrieved 10 December 2013.
26. "Award-winning child actress debuts
in brand's programme" . The Star. 2
July 2013. Retrieved 10 December
2013.
27. "Taiwanese bubble tea chain opens
first outlet in South Korea" .
WantChinaTimes. 18 October 2012.
Archived from the original on 31
December 2013. Retrieved
10 December 2013.
28. "Chatime Malaysia sues Tealive" .
The Sun Daily. Sun Media. 16 March
2018. Archived from the original on
16 March 2018. Retrieved 27 May
2018.
29. Naidu, Sumisha (25 January 2017).
"Malaysia's Chatime outlets to be
replaced with local brand after
franchise dispute" . Channel
NewsAsia. Mediacorp. Retrieved
28 June 2018.
30. "Loob Holding rebrands Chatime as
Tealive" . The Star Online. Star Media
Group. 17 February 2017. Retrieved
28 June 2018.
31. "Chatime is Tealive from now on,
says Loob" . Malay Mail. 17 February
2017. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
32. Balakrishnan, Nandini (3 February
2017). "La Kaffa Accuses Chatime
Outlets In Malaysia Of Using
"Unapproved Ingredients" " . Says.
Rev Asia. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
33. Ho, Kit Yen (29 May 2017). "Court
dismisses Chatime's bid for
injunction against ex-franchise
holder" . Free Malaysia Today.
Retrieved 28 June 2018.

External links
Official Taiwanese Website
Official English Website
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Chatime&oldid=911880260"

Last edited 9 days ago by MrOllie

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