Coucou hotpot may enter Southeast Asian market by the end of the year

On July 10th, Coucou Hotpot announced its overseas expansion plans for the next three years.

Since the second half of 2019, Coucou Hotpot has begun to copy the mainland store model in order to open up the larger market. Hong Kong, China welcomed the first Coucou Hotpot store in August 2019, and the second and third stores were opened in December of the same year. According to its plan, Coucou Hotpot is about to open its fourth store in Hong Kong, China, and is expected to open its first store in overseas markets such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia before the end of the year.

“This year in Southeast Asia, next year in South Korea and Japan, and the year after that in Europe, this is our current store opening plan, but it will also be adjusted specifically according to the epidemic.” Zhang Zhenwei added.

Coucou Hotpot, which has been known as the online celebrity hot pot restaurant in recent years, was founded in 2016 and is a mid-to-high-end hot pot brand incubated by Taiwan’s hot pot brand Xiabuxiabu. It uses a combination of hot pot and milk tea as an innovative model and focuses on gathering young people. Compared with the per capita consumption standard of 55 yuan in Xiabuxiabu, the guest unit price of Coucou Hotpot is about 150 yuan. Offline store, Coucou Hotpot stores will be selected in the mall, mainly for middle and high-end people, and will set up another tea shop next to the hot pot shop to achieve the combination of “hot pot + milk tea”.

Coucou Hotpot has its own set of ideas in terms of brand style. For example, in Coucou 2049, a theme stores in Shanghai, the restaurant focuses on “the future”. There are karaoke boxes, 360 round-screen boxes, and a seasoning area in the shape of a space capsule. Coucou also offers cocktails and other products that can not be seen in ordinary hot pot restaurants. In the future, Coucou may open more stores with different themes, and Coucou’s unique atmosphere provides a new choice for young people’s parties.

Less than four years after its establishment, Coucou Hotpot has expanded 107 stores,  54 of which opened in 2019, and its operating revenue reached 1.2 billion yuan in 2019, accounting for 19.9% of the revenue of listed company Xiabuxiabu (00520.HK). Coucou Hotpot has become the fastest growing brand in the Xiabuxiabu Group when the growth of its main brand slows down. Data shows that Coucou Hotpot began to turn a profit in 2018.

Zhang Zhenwei revealed that there were more than 30 Coucou Hotpot stores under renovation in China, and the number of stores opened this year wasis expected to exceed 54 in 2019. From this year’s new store location, Coucou Hotpot channels have a sinking trend. New stores will be opened in Ningbo, Nantong, Dongguan and other second-and third-tier cities.