China’s Luckin Coffee opens first high-end store as it takes on Starbucks

BEIJING — China’s Luckin Coffee is taking direct purpose at Starbucks‘ high-end roastery chain with a brand new flagship store within the nation’s south that sells premium drinks.

It is Luckin’s first main departure from its authentic technique of working budget-priced espresso kiosks – a transfer that helped the corporate overtake Starbucks when it comes to the variety of storefronts in China.

Now, with the U.S. firm promoting off most of its struggling China enterprise to a neighborhood funding agency, Luckin is proving it’s greater than made a comeback from fraud allegations in 2020 that pressured it to delist from the Nasdaq.

The Chinese language firm on Sunday formally opened its two-floor Luckin Coffee Origin Flagship in Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong.

In distinction to Luckin’s typical choices priced at roughly $1 or $2 for an Americano or latte, the flagship store has nudged costs barely larger for a variety of pour-over and chilly brew espresso drinks. Clients can select beans from Brazil, Ethiopia or China’s Yunnan province, as Luckin faucets into the geographical sourcing “origin” theme fashionable with Starbucks and different espresso corporations.

The brand new store additionally sells a number of specialty drinks such as a “tiramisu latte” with a pastry on high, based on posts on Chinese language social media platform Xiaohongshu. Customers have began posting about 1 to three hour waits for the drinks for the reason that store’s smooth launch on Jan. 20.

The 420-square-meter (4,521 sq. ft) store alerts how intense the competitors in China has grow to be for Starbucks. Again in 2017, the U.S.-based espresso big selected Shanghai for its second-ever Reserve Roastery “megastore,” after launching the premium store idea in Seattle three years earlier.

However as espresso has taken off in China, historically a tea-drinking market, Starbucks has run right into a slew of opponents from boutique cafes to chains such as Cotti Coffee and Method — which frequently promote drinks at half the value as Starbucks.

Luckin reported income of $1.55 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2025, a virtually 48% enhance from a yr earlier.

That is only for the corporate’s self-operated shops, which account for properly over half of Luckin’s China places and most of its handful of abroad shops. The brand new Shenzhen location is billed as Luckin’s 30,000th store. The corporate reported a complete of 29,214 shops worldwide as at Sept. 30.

In distinction, Starbucks has simply over 8,000 shops in China and round 16,900 within the U.S., its greatest market.

The Seattle-based espresso big reported a 6% year-on-year enhance in China internet income to $831.6 million for the three months ended Sept. 28. Comparable same-store gross sales, a typical {industry} metric, was simply 2%, however improved to 7% for the quarter ended Dec. 28.

Starbucks didn’t share China internet income for the newest quarter. The corporate expects to shut a deal within the spring to promote 60% of its China enterprise to Boyu Capital, whereas retaining a 40% stake. When the deal was introduced in November, Starbucks stated it values its China enterprise at $13 billion, together with future licensing charges.

Luckin, whose shares nonetheless commerce over-the-counter within the U.S., had a market worth of round $10.46 billion as of Thursday.

Late final yr, Luckin’s CEO Jinyi Guo hinted at plans to re-list the corporate within the U.S. He didn’t specify a date. Based in late 2017, the corporate achieved a $2.9 billion valuation simply 18 months later and listed on the Nasdaq in Might 2019. However a few yr later, Luckin stated it found a lot of its 2019 gross sales have been fabricated, resulting in the inventory’s delisting.

The Chinese language espresso firm continued to function lots of its shops — and saved its identify and brand.

Luckin additionally jumped to draw customers by way of a slew of well timed collaborations — with premium spirits model Moutai, the Minions cartoon characters and the hit online game Black Fantasy: Wukong simply days after it surged in reputation.

What units Luckin aside has been its capacity to construct a sturdy pool of personal person site visitors by way of its smartphone ordering app, stated Mingchao Xiao, founding father of Zhimeng Traits Consulting. Somewhat than inserting orders with a counter clerk, Luckin prospects choose and pay for drinks instantly by way of an app.

China’s espresso market continues to be in a interval of fast change, Xiao stated. He added that younger customers as we speak are extra prepared to attempt totally different experiences, and search emotional success, which might be met by way of cross-industry model collaborations.

Like many Chinese language corporations, Luckin can also be ramping up its world growth.

Final summer season, Luckin opened its first U.S. shops in New York Metropolis. It debuted its tenth store within the metropolis on Feb. 6.

Luckin additionally has 68 shops in Singapore after it entered the market almost three years in the past, and 45 collectively operated places in Malaysia.