---
title: "Lowering thresholds and accelerating returns, popular tea brands are making franchising \"lightweight\" and profitable"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/283288197.md"
description: "New tea beverage brands are achieving sustainable growth by lowering franchise thresholds and accelerating return on investment. In recent years, brands have relied on high-density store openings but are facing profitability pressures at individual stores and high closure rates. According to the \"2025 China New Tea Beverage Industry Deep Research Report,\" the net number of freshly made tea beverage stores nationwide has decreased by 39,000. Brands have realized the need to focus on store quality and franchise ecology, shifting towards a light asset and fast turnover growth model. Despite the slowdown in growth, leading brands are still expanding, and brands like Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea are also accelerating store openings, emphasizing the quality of store openings"
datetime: "2026-04-20T02:39:17.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/283288197.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283288197.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/283288197.md)
---

# Lowering thresholds and accelerating returns, popular tea brands are making franchising "lightweight" and profitable

> Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea's new franchise policy releases not only the signal of "low-cost store opening" but also reshapes the franchise logic with a long-term perspective.

The growth logic of the new tea beverage industry is undergoing a significant shift.

In the past few years, new tea beverage brands rapidly expanded the market through "high-density store openings + franchise-driven" strategies. However, issues such as pressure on single-store profitability, prolonged payback periods for franchisees, and fluctuations in closure rates have also begun to emerge. According to the "2025 China New Tea Beverage Industry Deep Research Report," the number of newly opened ready-to-drink tea stores nationwide reached 118,000, while the number of closures was as high as 157,000, resulting in a net decrease of 39,000.

Brands are gradually realizing that relying solely on "opening more stores" can no longer support sustainable growth. The quality of stores and the stability of the franchise ecosystem have become new dividing lines between leading brands and mid-tier brands.

Against this backdrop, from listed companies like Mixue Ice City, Guming, and Chabaidao to popular brands like Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea, there has been a proactive move to "lower the thresholds."

Lowering franchise thresholds is not merely about reducing costs but involves a systematic reconstruction around "investment structure, risk control, and asset efficiency." Essentially, it is a shift from the past expansion model of "heavy investment for scale" to a growth path that emphasizes light assets, quick turnover, and replicability, reshaping the healthy ecosystem between brands and franchisees.

## 01\. New tea beverages enter the "light asset" growth phase

Despite the overall slowdown in growth, new tea beverages continue to open stores.

According to Hongcan Big Data, by December 2025, the number of tea beverage stores nationwide is expected to reach 449,000, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. Leading brands are still accelerating their expansion. Annual reports disclosed by listed companies show that the total number of global stores for the Mixue Ice City brand is approaching 60,000, with an increase of over 13,000 in one year; Guming plans to add 3,640 stores in 2025, and Auntea Jenny will add 2,273 stores, with the total number of stores already entering the "10,000-store club."

Non-listed "unicorn" brands are also speeding up. Public data shows that Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea plans to open about 1,800 new stores in 2024 and another 1,000 in 2025, ranking among the top five in absolute growth in the industry, with the current number of stores nationwide approaching 3,000 (including those in preparation).

In this round of growth, new tea beverage brands are placing greater emphasis on store quality. For example, Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea's data from Yilan Commercial shows that in December 2025, its net increase in stores reached 2.75%. This figure is uncommon during a period when the industry is stabilizing.

 Behind this is not a simple scale competition, but a deep optimization of the growth model. In order to better "adapt" to entrepreneurs from different identities and backgrounds, new tea beverage brands have begun to optimize their own profit models, aiming to achieve "light asset" growth.

In the past restaurant franchise model, opening a franchise store often meant high franchise fees, heavy renovation investments, full sets of new equipment purchases, and a long operational ramp-up period. If there were deviations in site selection or operations, franchisees would need to bear high trial-and-error costs.

After experiencing rapid expansion and intense competition in the market over the past few years, brands have also realized that if they cannot ensure the long-term operational stability of franchise stores, the larger the scale, the higher the systemic risk. New tea beverage brands are trying to minimize the "uncertainty" for franchisees: by reducing initial investments, providing inventory support, and streamlining equipment circulation mechanisms, making franchising no longer a high-risk decision of "heavily betting on a single store."

Recently, the latest franchise policy launched by Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea has sent a clear signal of low cost and low risk.

For example, directly compressing the "initial investment." The maximum franchise fee for a single store is reduced by 29,800 yuan, and a "New Store Explosion Plan Fund" has been introduced, with inventory support up to 50%, directly alleviating the financial pressure on new stores.

At the same time, a "multi-store tiered discount" has been introduced, redesigned: when franchisees open their 2nd and 3rd stores in the same area, the franchise fee continues to be reduced (up to 40,000 yuan), and equipment prices are reduced to 80%. This means that multi-store operations become a path of decreasing costs and increasing efficiency. For franchisees whose single-store operations have stabilized, this is far more attractive than one-time subsidies.

On this basis, Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea further strengthens the logic of "regional deep cultivation" of the brand.

Old franchisees opening a second store within 2 kilometers of the original store can have 40,000 to 50,000 yuan of franchise fees waived; within a 2.5-kilometer range, both new and old franchisees enjoy reduced franchise fees and equipment discounts. This design essentially guides franchisees from "casting a wide net" to "refining and cultivating," improving store synergy efficiency.

What’s more noteworthy is the "equipment reuse" in the new policy. Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea explicitly allows the use of second-hand equipment from the same brand and even supports the direct use of a complete set of equipment for new stores; once a store closes, the brand will also assist in equipment circulation.

This move provides franchisees with an exit path, effectively reducing their investment losses, and reflects the brand's responsible attitude towards franchisees—encouraging not blind entry, but rather providing each entrepreneur with a true sense of "entry safety" by lowering trial-and-error costs.

In summary, Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea is relinquishing a portion of its profits or management authority, actively reconstructing the relationship of interests between the brand and franchisees. Its core goal has shifted from "collecting one-time franchise and equipment fees" to "maintaining the overall stability and activity of the store network."

## 02\. Not just saving money, but also structurally optimizing to shorten the payback period

Lighter models, lighter investments, lighter operations... The "reduction" of franchise thresholds not only trims the investment amount but also accompanies a "quick run" in profitability.

Taking Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea as an example, its new franchise policy extends resource support to various stages of the store lifecycle—from cost optimization before opening, to on-site support during the opening period, to fee reductions and ongoing assistance during the operational phase, even extending to equipment turnover during the exit stage, reconstructing the store's profit model.

According to official estimates, new stores using second-hand equipment can save up to 60,000 to 80,000 yuan in overall investment. Combining this with data from the Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea partner mini-program, its previous single-store investment budget was about 300,000 yuan. The reuse of equipment alone can bring nearly 20% cost optimization. After adding franchise fee reductions and product subsidy policies, the opening cost is compressed to around 250,000 yuan.

On the operational side, Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea has set up more targeted support for different types of stores: providing product subsidy support for high-rent stores in core business districts to alleviate rental pressure; new stores can have up to 10,000 yuan in operational management fees waived, reducing the burden during the ramp-up period.

At the same time, Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea has established an opening task force "Flying Tigers," composed of experienced store operation experts who form a professional on-site team to help new stores establish standardized processes, train staff, and assist in formulating localized marketing strategies, among other tasks.

The value of these measures lies in creating a "buffer window" for new stores—reducing fixed cost pressure during the phase when customer flow is not yet stable and the model has not fully run through, allowing for a higher margin of error for the stores.

Under the dual effects of cost compression and improved operational efficiency, the payback period for Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea will be further shortened.

Yilan Commercial once conducted a sample survey of the operational conditions of leading tea brands, finding that franchisees typically have a net profit margin of 7% to 15% per store, with a median of 11%. Based on comprehensive calculations, after implementing the new policy, the payback period for a standard Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea store has been shortened from the industry average of 13-22 months to 10-14 months.

If combined with high-quality locations and strong operational capabilities, some stores may even have the opportunity to compress to an even shorter cycle. For example, the Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea store at Zhuhai Jiuzhou Road Shopping Park achieved a GMV of 1.0996 million yuan in its first month, and with a net profit margin of 11%, the net profit for the first month was approximately 121,000 yuan, meaning that over half of the initial investment could be recovered in the first month of operation.

Currently, Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea stores have covered all 31 provincial-level administrative regions in the country, and earlier this year, it officially announced the opening of franchises in Hong Kong. It can be anticipated that after the implementation of this new policy, its future store coverage will be even broader However, Hongcan.com noticed that the new franchise policy of Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea does not apply to Guangdong and Xinjiang regions. This regional limitation is not simply a market choice, but a rational layout made by the brand based on different market conditions.

Firstly, Guangdong is the province with the most intense competition in the new tea beverage industry in the country. The "2025 Research Report on the Ready-to-Drink Tea Industry" shows that the total number of tea beverage stores in Guangdong exceeds 82,000, accounting for about 20% of the national total, ranking first in the country. In such a relatively saturated market environment, it is more important to focus on refined operations to ensure the profitability of franchisees.

In contrast, Xinjiang has a vast territory and a dispersed population, with significant differences in logistics timeliness and supply chain costs compared to other provinces. With nearly 3,000 stores and its supply chain layout, pushing for expansion in Xinjiang without caution would inevitably put pressure on raw material stability and delivery timeliness.

Therefore, the exclusion of Guangdong and Xinjiang from the new policy is actually the brand's proactive "control of pace," aiming to allow more franchisees to truly achieve profitability, rather than blindly opening up for the sake of attractive numbers.

This approach of not rushing for success and emphasizing quality over quantity reflects the brand's philosophy of "stabilizing operations, earning sustainably, and achieving win-win with partners."

## 03\. Building a Community of Shared Destiny with Franchisees: Where Does Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea's Confidence Come From?

In the past, the relationship between brands and franchisees was more akin to a "transactional relationship"—franchisees paid a one-time fee, and the headquarters authorized the use of the brand and supply chain, with both parties bearing their own operational risks. This model was highly efficient in the early stages of expansion, but as store density increased and customer traffic diluted, its drawbacks became increasingly apparent: the interests of the brand and franchisees were inherently misaligned.

The core of Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea's new policy is to break this misalignment—by lowering the threshold, extending support, and establishing a mechanism for equipment circulation, it binds its own development interests with the long-term operations of franchisees. Lowering the threshold is not just about letting more people in, but also about ensuring that those who come in can stay and earn.

However, this "light asset + strong binding" model requires the brand to possess sufficiently strong underlying capabilities to support the long-term stable operation of stores. Otherwise, the lower the threshold, the more easily the risks can be magnified.

For franchisees, the most fundamental certainty comes from the product.

Whether a store can continue to be profitable depends on short-term traffic and long-term repurchase. The core of repurchase is whether the product has sufficient differentiation and memorability.

Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea's product strategy seeks differentiation from regional culture. For example, it incorporates the intangible cultural heritage rice brewing from Xiaogan, Hubei into its product system, creating core items such as "Lychee Ice Brew." The upgraded Lychee Ice Brew, launched last year, surpassed 7 million cups in sales within just one month, and the cumulative sales have now exceeded 80 million cups. At the same time, it continues to innovate around segmented flavors, launching products like "Empty Mountain Gardenia" and "Xiangning Osmanthus," deeply binding the product core with Jingchu flavors.

 In addition, Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea is actively exploring its product boundaries and continuously developing new products. According to Yilan Business Monitoring, in February this year, Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea launched 5 new products in a single month during the Spring Festival, ranking first among the top 15 tea beverage brands nationwide.

The new products include the "Yichang Big Orange" series, which is centered around the core ingredient of Yichang honey oranges from Hubei, as well as the Golden Fruit Da Hong Pao, which combines the traditional tea base of Da Hong Pao with the Lingnan yellow skin fruit that is favored by tea beverage brands in 2025. This week, Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea also previewed its first attempt at a grape product, "Spanish Red Grape Iced Tea," at the 6th China International Consumer Products Expo, using three varieties of high-quality grapes: Spanish red grapes, summer black ordinary grapes, and Kyoho grapes, to create a new flavor profile.

The raw materials of its products themselves create entry barriers and carry cultural topics, which can form memory anchors in market competition.

Product determines repurchase, while brand volume influences the customer base for in-store consumption.

For most franchisees, the ability to independently acquire traffic is limited, and store foot traffic largely depends on the brand's position in consumers' minds.

In its brand expression, Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea has chosen a path that is closer to the young consumer group—using the concept of "quenching thirst, satisfying hunger, and relieving emo," embedding products into emotional consumption scenarios rather than simply emphasizing functionality or price. For example, artist Li Yunrui endorses "Kongshan Gardenia," inviting "Sister's Who Make Waves" star Ye Tong to serve as the ambassador for "Spring Returns to Cherry Blossoms," making every marketing action a natural extension of the product.

The topics and traffic continuously generated by the brand will naturally flow to each store. Franchisees effectively have a continuous traffic entry point, reducing the difficulty of customer acquisition for individual stores.

Of course, whether a store can continue to be profitable depends on the supply chain. A stable supply of raw materials and controllable prices are essential for predictable cost structures in stores.

By early 2026, Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea had established 24 warehousing and logistics bases nationwide, forming a distribution system of "central warehouse + regional sub-warehouse," with core raw materials supplied directly from the source, ensuring freshness and more effectively controlling procurement and logistics costs.

As the market gradually matures, the number of stores is no longer the only dimension to measure brand competitiveness. Whoever can truly enable franchisees to "operate steadily and earn for a long time" is more likely to take the initiative in the next stage of competition.

This article was originally published by Hongcan Network (ID: hongcan18), author: Zhou Feifei; editor: Fang Yuan. Some of the images in this article are provided by Grandpa Does Not Brew Tea and used with authorization by Hongcan Network

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