Chatime to leverage franchisees to speed up expansion plans

The tea brand is eyeing to open 100 more stores in the next three years.

QSR brand, Chatime, CEO Carlos Antonius revealed that they will leverage existing franchisee networks to boost multi-unit ownership as they seek to open 100 additional stores by 2025. 

Antonius also shared how they struggled with the delays in getting an approval for a business permit as well as stricter rules for processing the permits.

Antonius said they also currently tap technology and delivery aggregators to address inflation and labour shortage.

In this Q&A, Antonius will share more about Chatime’s expansion plans and other innovations.

QSR Media: How did Chatime manage to expand despite rising costs and shifts in consumer spending behaviour?

Antonius: Maintaining downward pressure on cost of entry for franchisees, continuing investment in digital platforms  such as self-serve Kiosks, e-commerce platform launch, and delivery aggregators to drive higher rates of transactions through these channels to assist networks with labour constraints, reduce over the counter ordering, and drive improved productivity targets for networks. 

Continuing focus of driving improved unit economics across the franchise network through margin enhancements. 

How will Chatime speed up or attain its goal of opening 100 more stores by 2025?

Leveraging the strength of the existing franchisee network to drive higher rates of multi-unit ownership, currently at 14% to a target of above 30% and driving our domestic regional growth strategy across the country.  

What are Chatime’s current challenges and what is the brand doing to mitigate these?

One of the key challenges facing us from a development perspective is the turnaround time for building permits and impacting building commencing on sites, not all but general increases in delays to the program, sometimes two to three weeks for an approval when it used to be five to seven days. 

It seems the newer stringent rules that are in place make the certifiers more cautious as they seem to be scrutinised, so it takes them longer to review and approve request for information (RFI) lists than previous years. 

Amongst the list of requirements to complete to obtain the permit including for example:

Class one and two issues (building residential with retail) issues to manage and less clarity about rules 

Some local councils implementing different rules

New plumbing documentation – only applicable to some councils 

Does Chatime have any other plans or innovations?

Maintaining our commitment to ongoing business transformation, driving accountability and profitability across the business. Continuing focus on digital investment, additional distribution channels for Chatime FMCG range, domestic regional growth strategy, New Zealand and USA markets growth strategy.