Xinhua News Agency website. Hello everyone, I am Chen Zhenxi, the regional manager of Robock Coffee. We make ready to drink coffee.
What I want to share today is an ongoing industry issue: ready to drink coffee is being hit by the "dimensionality reduction" of freshly made coffee.
1、 The traditional advantage of ready to drink coffee is being broken
All of you present are practitioners in the coffee industry. You can first think about: in the past, what were the advantages of ready to drink coffee compared to freshly made coffee?
That's right – cheaper and more convenient.
In the past, if you wanted to have a freshly made coffee, you either had to sit down at a coffee shop and drink slowly, or spend 20-30 yuan to buy a cup and take it away. And ready to drink coffee, priced at a few yuan per bottle, can be easily obtained at convenience stores and convenience stores, and can be opened and consumed immediately. The combination of affordability and convenience forms the core moat of ready to drink coffee.
But now, this moat is being filled in.
First, let's take a look at the price. In recent years, freshly made coffee brands such as Luckin Coffee and Kudi have sparked a fierce price war. Luckin Coffee has over 31000 stores worldwide, and a freshly made coffee priced at 9.9 yuan per cup has become the industry's default price band.
Let's take another look at convenience. By the end of 2025, the number of existing stores of Chinese freshly made coffee brands has increased from 54000 at the beginning of the year to 83000, with a net increase of nearly 29000 for the whole year. Luckin Coffee, Kudi Coffee, Lucky Coffee, and Novacoffee have all surpassed 10000 stores. The coffee shop has opened downstairs from the office building, at the entrance of the community, and inside the shopping mall – buying a freshly made coffee is even more convenient than going to a convenience store.
What was the result? According to Euromonitor International data, the Chinese coffee market is expected to reach nearly 150 billion yuan by 2025, with freshly brewed coffee accounting for approximately 85% and maintaining double-digit growth; However, the growth of ready to drink coffee and instant coffee has almost stagnated in the past two years. In 2024, the market share of ready to drink coffee in the beverage category decreased by 13.48% year-on-year. From 2023 to 2025, the compound annual growth rate of ready to drink coffee is only 0.4%. Rising and falling indicates that people are becoming more and more fond of drinking coffee, but less and less fond of buying bottled coffee.
The traditional advantage of ready to drink coffee, which is cheaper and more convenient, is gradually being undermined by freshly brewed coffee. The entire industry is standing at a crossroads.
2、 Why does Robock grow against the trend in the cold winter of the industry?
But it is in such a unpopular track that Robock Coffee has achieved continuous growth.
By 2025, the sales volume of Robbock's mellow latte will exceed 100 million bottles, and the sales volume of Robbock's silky latte will exceed 40 million bottles, with a repurchase rate of over 70%. Ranked among the top five in the domestic ready to drink coffee market share. In the southern region of China, Robock consistently ranks among the top 2 best-selling ready to drink coffee brands.
After landing in Tiktok Mall in July last year, it ranked first in the ready to drink coffee ranking list for 9 consecutive days, with the peak daily sales exceeding 10000 bottles.
On what grounds? Below, I will share Rob's breakthrough strategy from three aspects.
3、 Robeck's Three Breaking Rules
Firstly, retain consumers through product reputation.
The story of Robeck's Fragrant Latte began in 2012. For over a decade, the formula and packaging have remained almost unchanged, but this product has achieved an average annual sales growth of over 30%.
Why can it be sold for more than ten years without decline? Because consumers are really buying back.
Faced with Chinese consumers' preference for "a bit sweet and creamy", Robeck did not follow the bitter competition of specialty coffee. We use Arabica coffee, combined with low-temperature cold extraction technology, to remove the acidic substances that are prone to irritation in coffee. The taste is silky smooth, and the milk and coffee aromas are balanced perfectly. The retail price of a 410ml large capacity terminal remains stable at around 6 yuan, which is nearly two-thirds higher than the common 250ml bottled coffee on the market. Some consumers have commented that 'there is no sour or rough saccharin taste like cheap ready to drink coffee'.
Good taste, large quantity, and affordable – consumers will buy again after drinking, which is the power of product reputation. The data shows that the average repurchase rate of Robock exceeds 70%, which is sufficient to demonstrate the brand's popularity among the target audience in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.
Secondly, attract young consumers with a new product matrix.
Relying solely on a classic product is not enough. Robock has been intensively promoting new products in the past two years and has built a complete product matrix.
The latte series includes mellow latte, silky latte, coconut latte, and jasmine latte; The black coffee series has launched American black coffee and Western plum black coffee. We have also launched the "30" formula product – American black coffee with 0 added sucrose and 0 sugar, 0 fat, and 0 calories. Among them, the annual sales of silky latte have exceeded 40 million bottles.
From classic latte to sugar controlled black coffee, and then to floral milk coffee – Robock is using a richer product line to cover diverse consumer scenarios such as sugar controlled weight loss, light exercise, daily alertness, and floral milk coffee. Behind every segmented demand is a group of young and growing consumers.
Thirdly, deepen the cultivation of channels and scenarios – this is also what I want to focus on today.
Robock did one thing right: instead of competing with big brands for convenience store shelves in first tier cities, he "surrounded the city from the countryside".
Where is our main battlefield? Gas station, highway service area, community supermarket, school convenience store, couple's shop. These places may not be attractive or accessible to big brands, but they are precisely the places that ordinary people pass through every day.
More importantly, scenario based promotion. Our brand slogan is' Drink Robock coffee for fear of fatigue and tiredness' – this sentence is not casually shouted, it accurately corresponds to a real consumer scenario: driving.
Since 2019, Robeck has placed big name advertisements on multiple highways in Guangdong Province, and now covers multiple provinces and cities across the country. The slogan of "Drink Lubbock coffee for fear of drowsiness and fatigue" frequently appears in the sight of drivers traveling north and south. Long distance drivers need to stay alert, but they cannot take a detour to a coffee shop while driving – what they need is a bottle of coffee that can be bought in the service area and can be twisted open to drink. Rob happened to appear there.
The same logic applies to scenarios where students stay up late to review and commuting for office workers. Robock does not require customers to take a detour or wait for takeout, but rather appears in the most familiar daily shopping scenes at any time.
The "cheap" and "convenient" aspects of freshly made coffee are mostly conditional and discounted. The affordability and convenience of ready to drink coffee are unconditional and available anytime, anywhere.
Lubbock has proven over a decade that when the industry is pursuing "cheaper and more convenient," whoever can appear at the moment when consumers need it the most will win.
Editor in Chief: Wang Ruya
Liaoning ICP Security No. 21122402000217