The tea consumer brand "CHALI", which once determined to create "Chinese Lipton Tea", fell into financial trouble. Recently, Chali issued a statement responding to the company's recent financial situation. A reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that since this year, many

once determined to build the tea consumer brand "Chali Chali" of "Chinese Lipton Tea", but fell into financial trouble. Recently, Chali issued a statement responding to the company's recent financial situation. A reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that since this year, many Chali executives have resigned, and two offline stores have recently closed. There are various signs that Chali, which has been favored by capital, is falling into various crises.

is involved in layoffs and wage arrears turmoil

Recently, many netizens claiming to be Chali employees have been asking for wages on social platforms, and the news continues to ferment.

"Chali Chali is in arrears with three months' wages and provident fund. Since June and July this year, he has been in arrears with wages and provident fund has been stopped. When he resigned in October, he was even asked to sign an agreement and was not allowed to collect provident fund." On November 8, A netizen who claimed to be a Chali employee and went by the online name "dhiuddghj" said, "I should have settled all the payments when I resigned. Xiang, as a result, he has not received his salary for August, let alone the provident fund.”

According to another netizen who claims to be a Chali employee, “Jinshan Yinshan Qian You Have”, there are already signs that Chali Company cannot pay wages. "First, the meal subsidy was quietly canceled at the beginning of the year, the housing subsidy disappeared, and the shuttle bus stopped abruptly in July. I persisted until October, and finally had no choice but to resign."

On November 13, "Chali Chali" officially issued a statement, which mentioned, "This year, against the market background of national and even global economic environment fluctuations and a general decline in consumer purchasing power, and at the same time due to banks withdrawing loans, our company is facing tremendous pressure and challenges, companies need to constantly adjust product strategies and optimize operating costs; our company is also here Under the circumstances, we have never given up. In order to strive to maintain operations and brands and pursue sustainable development, we have streamlined or eliminated certain departments in accordance with the law. This is a normal operation and management behavior of the company in response to market risks and competition. As of the date of this statement, Our company has completed the payment and compensation of resigned and current employees in accordance with the law (salaries and compensation payable until the October pay date)."

The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System shows that since May this year, three senior executives of Chali Group have resigned, including Zheng Xin, vice president and partner of Chali Company, Hu Yi, CMO of Chali Company, and investor Liu Yihua. While

is caught in the controversy of wage arrears and layoffs, Chali’s offline Guangzhou Book Buying Center and Tiyu West Road store have also recently closed down. A Beijing Business Daily reporter contacted the customer service at the front desk of Chali headquarters through the phone number saved by the e-commerce platform. The other party said, "This is a decision for the company's internal business adjustment. When it will be restored depends on the follow-up arrangements. If there is still a balance in the store membership card , it will be recorded first and the staff will contact you later."

On the e-commerce platform, Chali flagship store is still live broadcasting normally. According to data from Cicada Mama, the "Chali Official Flagship Store" has 348,000 fans. In the past 30 days, it has sold 10,000 to 25,000 pieces, with sales ranging from 1 million to 2.5 million yuan, and the average customer price is 104.28 yuan.

Regarding questions such as whether the compensation includes the provident fund part and the reasons for the closure of offline stores, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview letter to Chali via email, but no reply was received as of press time.

has received nine rounds of financing

According to the official website, Chali was founded in August 2013 and is headquartered in Guangzhou. It is a professional tea service provider. It owns the high-end FMCG tea brand "chali" and the high-end new health tea brand "Chali". "Yushou Tea" specializes in various tea products such as original leaf tea bags, bottled ready-to-drink tea, freeze-dried tea cubes, and tea powder. Public information shows that Chali has experienced nine rounds of financing since its establishment.

As early as 2015, Chali received a pre-A round of financing of 10 million yuan, and the investor was Guangdong Cultural Investment Guofu; in November 2020, Chali completed a 100 million yuan round of B financing, led by Country Garden Venture Capital Investment, Wen's Investment and Yikai Fund followed suit; In June 2021, Chali completed hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic financing, led by GGV Capital, followed by Country Garden Ventures and Yikai Capital; in May 2024, Chali received a B+ round of financing from Wanlian The investment amount of Tianze and Wanlian Guangsheng was not disclosed. This is also its latest round of financing.

From the darling of capital to the tight capital chain, the "explosion" in tea is unexpected. Li Bing, director of the Xiaoguan Tea Brand Center, told a Beijing Business Daily reporter, “It’s so unexpected. I have always felt that Chali is developing very well.I hope they can overcome the difficulties."

is known as "the most understanding of Chinese young people", and Chali has entered the market with tea bags. Prior to this, "Chali Chali" had won the herbal tea category of Tmall's "Double 11" for seven consecutive years. The current sales champion, with cumulative sales exceeding 1 billion tea bags in 2021. In 2018, Chali also became the double champion of Tmall and JD.com in the “6.18 Big Sale”.

Chali’s fall out of favor may be a problem that every tea company needs to face after its brand ages. Lipton company global CEO nathalie roos resigned due to "personal reasons". Roos once advocated that tea companies learn from coffee and take a more high-end route, and drastically reduced the number of Lipton's SKUs from 13,000 to less than 3,000 in just over 18 months. However, the drastic reforms failed to withstand performance. In 2023, Lipton's revenue will be 17. .400 million euros, while its revenue before being announced by Unilever was approximately 2 billion euros. ‌‌

Another established tea company, "Pu'er Tea No. 1" Lancang Ancient Tea is also facing performance. Pressure. The 2024 semi-annual report shows that Lancang Ancient Tea achieved revenue of approximately 195 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15.9%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was approximately 5.089 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 79.11%. has greater inventory pressure, with its net inventory reaching 909 million yuan, and as of As of December 31, 2023, this figure was 841 million yuan. Among the inventories, the inventory of raw materials, work in progress and finished products have increased to varying degrees, which reflects the unsmooth flow of its products and the backlog of inventory.

Lancang Ancient Tea believes that the decline in operating performance is due to the fact that terminal consumption is still in the process of slow recovery and industry competition has intensified, leading to a decline in the group's operating income; on the other hand, the group's brand publicity and product sales promotion The increase in investment has led to an increase in the group's overall sales expenses. Add.

Are bottled drinks dragged down?

Or the consumption scene of teabags is limited. Chali launched a bottled tea product line in June 2022. The first product was "Yashi Dancong", and later launched Camellia, gardenia and jasmine Waiting for new flavors. This move may pave the way for Chali’s capital chain to develop. In order to develop the bottled tea business, Chali will build its own bottling factory in January 2023. The tea production base announced the completion of the capping work. It is understood that the total construction area of ​​the factory. With an area of ​​17,752 square meters, it has introduced a 26,000 bottles/hour sterile cold canning intelligent high-speed production line and a sealed tea extraction system. While improving the hardware, Chali also announced in June 2023 that it would invite Xiao Zhan as its bottled tea spokesperson. Place Xiao Zhan’s endorsement ads all over the Internet, escalator media, bus stations and other places.

However, before Chali, the competition in the bottled tea track was already very fierce. Not only are Nongfu Spring , Suntory, Uni-President and other beverage giants holding on to their positions, but also cutting-edge brands such as Fruit Ripe, Yuanqi Forest have emerged, and even Heytea , Nayuki's tea and other freshly made tea drinks Brands are also rushing to get involved.

entered the tea market with high-end tea bags, and also chose to compete high in the bottled tea track. For example, the 390 ml "Camellia Flower" black tea is priced at 6.3 yuan/bottle in retail channels, while the 900 ml oriental leaf jasmine tea is priced at 6.9 yuan/bottle. In terms of taste, the current selection of bottled tea in tea is also limited compared to other brands.

On June 18, 2024, the tea bag products of "Chali Chali" were among the top sellers in the Tmall tea industry, JD.com and Douyin (the cumulative number of tea bags sold exceeded 35 million bags), but the bottled tea was not. Only these three platforms ranked among the top 10 tea drinks.

China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpeng said, "Sugar-free tea and tea drinks have become popular in the past two years, and the entire Chinese tea drinks are ushering in a recovery. In the future, tea drinks will enter an all-round and multi-dimensional competitive situation. Currently, 'new players' It is very difficult to compete in this track. Judging from Chali’s current business situation, it is more about solving survival problems rather than expanding across categories.”

In June last year, at the beverage innovation sub-forum of the fbif2023 Food and Beverage Innovation Forum, Hu Yi said when talking about the challenges of making bottled tea, “In fact, we are not only competing with the tea sector, but also with drinks such as juice and coffee. Competing in the bottled form of ingredients. This is a competition of all factors, which requires brand power, product power, channel power, and supply chain protection. The last shortcoming determines how far it can go. Enter this track with awe.”

Beijing Business Daily reporter Kong Wenxie