Dynamic Vietnamese Milk Tea Market

DNHN - The annual revenue of Vietnam's milk tea industry ranks third among all Southeast Asian countries with USD 362 million (equivalent to about VND 8,400 billion).

The “craze” of bubble tea across Southeast Asia has brought this food industry a huge revenue of up to 3.7 billion US dollars (about 86,000 billion dongs) per year, according to new research by Momentum Works and the payment startup club announced recently.

The report also shows that Indonesia's bubble milk tea industry ranks first in terms of market size among all Southeast Asian countries, with an annual turnover of up to 1.6 billion USD (about 37,400 billion VND).

Thailand ranked second with 749 million USD (VND 17,500 billion) earned from more than 31,000 milk tea shops and other retail channels. In Vietnam, according to statistics, Vietnamese people spend about 362 million USD (equivalent to 8,400 billion VND) to drink milk tea in a year.

According to the market research company Euromonitor, Vietnam's milk tea market has an annual growth rate of about 20% and has reached a size of nearly 300 million USD since 2017. Surveys of some other companies also give impressive numbers. In Vietnam, milk tea is ranked second in terms of popularity with 23% and most of them focus on women (53%) and young people from 15 to 22 years old (35%). There are about 1,500 milk tea shops nationwide with about 100 brands competing fiercely; This number tends to increase rapidly because a series of big brands have just entered the market.

Mr Tran Ngoc An, the representative of Gong Cha VN milk tea company, acknowledged: “Milk tea is not a popular trend in the short-term, “soon to bloom” like spicy noodles or mango shakes, it seems to have been become a familiar drink, especially before the explosion of Gen Y and Gen Z.

Especially in the segment of professional milk tea chains, a series of big men have jumped into huge investments to find a foothold. For example, in the middle of last year, Masan Group spent 15 million USD to hold 20% of the shares of the Phuc Long brand. By February 2022, this group will continue to spend another 110 million USD to become the parent company of the Phuc Long milk tea chain, thereby taking control and consolidating the business results of this brand.

With support from giant Masan, Phuc Long quickly expanded its kiosk business model and expanded the market in the North. As a result, only in the last two months of the first quarter of 2022, with a gross profit margin of 68.6% of the milk tea chain, Phuc Long coffee earned a gross profit of more than VND 176 billion.

Not to be left out, KIDO Group has recently officially launched the Chuk Chuk brand, trading ice cream, tea, pearl milk tea, coffee and other soft drinks. The group hopes to open about 300-400 stores in Vietnam by the end of this year and connect with strategic partners to bring the chain to Southeast Asia, Thailand, and South Korea.

To realize this goal, KIDO cooperates with the leading retail group in Thailand Central Retail to bring its chain into the system of 39 GO! Malls nationwide. At the same time, cooperate with Son Kim Group to implement a plan to cover Chuk Chuk's products in GS25 convenience store chains.

Mr Tran Le Nguyen, General Director of KIDO Group, said: “We choose to marry big retail giants to go far and go faster. It is expected that by the end of this year, sales from the Chuk Chuk brand can reach VND 500 billion.”

Many other big players such as the E-coffee of Trung Nguyen Group, The Coffee House or the famous hot pot company Haidilao, and Manwah restaurant... also put milk tea on the menu to serve customers, besides drinks and other food.

 According to Kantar WorldPanel – a market research unit, although coffee is the most purchased beverage, it is a tea that contributes the most revenue in 2021. This statistic is for beverages. No alcohol when consumed externally. In, for every 100,000 VND spent on tea-based drinks, 40,000 VND is spent on milk tea. Specifically, 42% of people bought mixed milk tea (including milk tea, creamed tea, or black sugar pearl fresh milk) with an average order value of about 32,000 VND per purchase.

Lam Nghi