Blue Whale News, June 7th (Reporter Hao Yan) Seesaw, a once well-known boutique coffee chain brand, seems to be facing even greater difficulties.
Seesaw filed for bankruptcy, leaving only 34 stores nationwide
Recently, Blue Whale News reporters found that the operating entity of the boutique coffee brand Seesaw, Shanghai Xishe Coffee Co., Ltd., has added multiple bankruptcy review cases. The applicants are Shanghai Liuli Workshop Glass Art Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Malu Industrial Co., Ltd. The applicants have applied to the court for bankruptcy liquidation of Shanghai Xishe Coffee Co., Ltd. on the grounds that it is unable to repay its due debts and clearly lacks the ability to repay. In addition, the Tianyancha app shows that since 2026, Shanghai Xishe Coffee Co., Ltd. and its legal representative, Seesaw founder Wu Xiaomei, have been subject to height restrictions.
This is not the first time Seesaw has experienced a business crisis.
In March 2025, Seesaw began to be pursued for debt by multiple suppliers. According to the Economic Observer, the supplier claims that Seesaw is in arrears with payment and has repeatedly failed to collect payments. The supplier is currently filing a lawsuit against them. Some employees have reported that Seesaw has delayed their salary for two and a half months, and the direct operated stores where they are located are unable to pay property rental fees, water and electricity fees due to insufficient financial support. The equipment is damaged and cannot be repaired, so they have to be forced to close.
Blue Whale News reporters found that Shanghai Xishe Coffee Co., Ltd. is currently involved in litigation with a total debt of 16.463 million yuan, with the main cause of action being disputes over sales contracts. It can be inferred that after a year of development, Seesaw's business situation has not improved.
This can also be seen from the significant contraction of its stores. According to data from Narrow Gate Restaurant, as of May 13th, Seesaw has 34 operating stores nationwide, including 7 in Zhejiang, 6 in Shanghai, and 4 in Jiangsu. This number is more than 100 fewer than its peak of 135 stores in March 2023. In fact, Seesaw's situation may be even worse. Blue Whale News reporters found through the Seesaw mini program that there are only 5 stores in Shanghai, of which 2 are not operating normally. In addition, the operation of Seesaw social media has basically stopped in November 2025.
In addition to offline coffee shop business, Seesaw also has online retail business, but according to third-party data platform, the sales of Seesaw Tiktok platform in the past 90 days were only 100000-250000 yuan.
Starting early and having a good reputation, what did Seesaw do wrong
Looking back at the current competition among major brands for coffee business, Seesaw started very early and is one of the first representative brands of premium coffee in China. In 2012, it opened its first store at the Jing'an Design Center at 433 Yuyuan Road, Shanghai.
Unlike today's chain coffee shops with high prices, the early Seesaw stores are well-designed and positioned as mid to high end boutique coffee, with an average price of around 30-40 yuan. In the years when boutique coffee was booming, Seesaw also attracted the favor of capital.
In June 2017, Seesaw received a RMB 45 million investment from Baifu Holdings, becoming the first domestic boutique coffee brand to obtain financing; In July 2021, we received an A+round financing of over 100 million yuan led by HEYTEA and co invested by our old shareholder Hongyi Baifu; In 2022, Seesaw announced the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A++financing led by Black Ant Capital and co invested by Cornerstone Capital.
Seesaw, which received the money, began to expand. According to Narrow Gate Restaurant, it opened 43 and 67 new stores in 2021 and 2022, respectively. In August 2022, the number of Seesaw stores exceeded 100. Seesaw founder Wu Xiaomei publicly stated in 2021 that Seesaw expects to reach 200 stores by the end of 2022 and expand to 500-1000 stores within the next five years.
But as Seesaw, which focuses on high-quality products, accelerates, the risk index also increases accordingly.
In the early days of the Seesaw brand, maintaining tone was a key reason for its uniqueness. According to Redfood.com, each new store of Seesaw Coffee in the early days was like a "work", with different stores designed by different designers. The preparation period for a Seesaw Coffee store was about three to four months. In addition, Seesaw had a high proportion of offline orders in the early days, with products mainly consisting of Italian coffee and hand brewed coffee. These are all characteristics of 'small and beautiful'.
But as' small and beautiful 'gradually' grows', Seesaw becomes quite different. According to a report by First Financial, Seesaw underwent a brand upgrade in 2020, transitioning towards the commercialization of premium coffee and launching a series of "tea coffee" and "fruit coffee" products such as Camellia Peach Gum Latte and Cloud Peach Cold Extract. During the same period, Seesaw expanded into e-commerce channels such as Tmall and JD.com, launching a variety of retail products including coffee beans, ear bags, cold extracts, freeze-dried powders, and more. By 2022, both food delivery and online retail businesses will contribute 30% of sales revenue. The brand's business philosophy has shifted from boutique (experience) to "efficiency".
At the same time, the public's attitude towards premium coffee seems to be changing.
Starting from 2023, the chain coffee industry has entered a new stage of rolling prices, with Luckin Coffee's 9.9 yuan and Kudi's 8.8 yuan causing many chain coffee brands to be involved in price wars. This large-scale price war has also unconsciously changed the psychological price anchor of coffee among the public. The unit price of 30-40 yuan for premium coffee seems outdated compared to the uniform price of 9.9 yuan. Seesaw also attempted to "let go of its ego" and after cooperating with e-commerce group buying platforms, the average coffee price of 30 yuan dropped to 9.9 yuan or even lower. However, at this time, this "compromise" option had little effect. The characteristics of premium coffee are starting to lose their flavor, and the level of production is becoming more difficult to control.
At the end of 2023, Seesaw closed some stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Hangzhou. Seesaw founder Wu Xiaomei responded to the media that in the three years from 2021 to 2023, the brand has completed its strategic goals and achieved nationwide layout in first tier cities and new first tier cities. Recently, some "three no" stores that do not comply with the regional focus strategy, brand positioning, and store model have been closed to ensure a more solid foundation for future expansion.
However, the story after Seesaw did not lead to a happy ending. In 2026, the price war in the chain coffee industry has come to a temporary end, with new tea drinks entering the market one after another. Coffee seems to have once again become a popular track in the consumer industry, but veteran player Seesaw is no longer on the table and has lost the opportunity to turn the tables.