Luckin Coffee partners with Hextar Industries Berhad for 2025 Malaysia launch

Hextar Industries Berhad’s Dato Eddie Ong (left) and Global Aroma Sdn Bhd CEO Jeff Lim Chee Lip (right) | Photo credit: Hextar

China’s Luckin Coffee has granted exclusive licensing rights to Hextar Industries Berhad to launch in Malaysia in the first quarter of 2025. 
 

In a press release, Bursa Malaysia-listed conglomerate Hextar said ‘capitalising on the rapid expansion of one of the world’s fastest-growing coffee brands’ marks a significant step for the business as it taps into the local F&B market for the first time.  

The partnership will be fulfilled by Hextar’s newly-formed food and beverage subsidiary, Global Aroma Sdn Bhd (GASB). The business was established in July 2024, a month after Luckin Coffee’s plans to launch in Malaysia became public. 
 

“The partnership with Luckin Coffee unlocks new growth opportunities and marks a significant milestone for Hextar Industries. We have ambitious plans for Luckin Coffee in Malaysia, inspired by the brand’s tremendous growth. We aim to replicate this success by expanding aggressively across the country,” said Eddie Ong, a major shareholder of Hextar. 
 

Hextar said Luckin Coffee’s ‘value-driven pricing and technology-driven approach’ will be key to standing out in Malaysia’s increasingly competitive branded coffee shop market.  
 

At a time when Starbucks’ losses in Malaysia are mounting amid consumer boycotts, several domestic and international chains have gained market share. Backed by recent $57.5m investment, Selangor-based ZUS Coffee has nearly doubled its store count over the last 12 months to reach 586 stores, while small-format Gigi Coffee and food-focused Bask Bear have steadily scaled to 160 and 125 outlets respectively.  

International chains Starbucks, McCafé and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf all have a strong presence in Malaysia, operating 405, 300 and 197 stores respectively. Having made its international debut in Malaysia in October 2022, Indonesia’s Kopi Kenangan now operates 75 stores in the country. 

Founded in 2017, Luckin Coffee currently operates more than 21,000 stores in China and has opened 45 sites in Singapore since making its international debut in March 2023. In October 2024, the value-focused coffee chain confirmed reports that it is ‘actively evaluating’ a US launch, with a first US outlet expected next year. 
 

Luckin Coffee generated record revenues of RMB 24.9bn ($3.5bn) in 2023 – a figure the fast-growing coffee chain matched across the first nine months of 2024. In November 2024, the Beijing-based coffee chain announced a $1.38bn deal to purchase four million 60kg bags of coffee from Brazil between 2025 and 2029.