China’s Cotti Coffee reaches 10,000 stores with Doha outlet

The vast majority of Cotti Coffee’s 10,000 stores are in China | Photo credit: Cotti Coffee

Value-focused coffee chain Cotti Coffee has reached 10,000 stores with a new site in Doha, Qatar. 
 

Founded by former Luckin Coffee executives Charles Lu and Jenny Qian, Beijing-based Cotti Coffee opened its first store in Fuzhou in October 2022 and rapidly expanded to reach 5,000 stores across China within 12 months. 

Alongside conveniently located stores, often near high footfall office districts in large cities, Cotti Coffee also deploys heavy discounting on its beverages and utilises an in-house-app to facilitate payments, delivery, pick-up orders and marketing promotions. 

Cotti Coffee made its international debut in South Korea in August 2023 and now has a presence across 28 markets globally. Alongside a growing footprint of licensed stores in East Asia, Cotti Coffee has also expanded its franchise network to Australia, the Middle East and the US – although the vast majority of its 10,000 stores are in China. 

The coffee chain is now the world’s fourth largest branded coffee chain – behind Starbucks, Luckin Coffee and Dunkin’, which have 40,000, 20,000 and 13,700 sites respectively. 

A Cotti Coffee spokesperson told World Coffee Portal the coffee chain has also improved store profitability this year, with the positive cash-flow rate across its global store network staying above 97% over the last five months.