Kudi Coffee has also started selling affordable meal sets

Author | Zheng Qiao

Editor | Wang Xiaojun

Kudi Coffee, a brand once defined by its founder Lu Zhengyao as "Luckin 2.0," has once again stirred the market unexpectedly after its 9.9 yuan price war.

Recently, a Kudi Coffee store in Beijing quietly launched "hot meal bento" and "breakfast pastries," including a 13.9 yuan lion head rice set and a 14.9 yuan chicken leg rice set. In addition to the meal sets, Kudi is also selling marinated goods directly: braised pork, lion head, marinated chicken legs, marinated eggs, and marinated tofu.

However, Wall Street News found through the Kudi Coffee mini-program that the ordering page for the Beijing Jiajing Tiangcheng store, which offers "hot meal bento," no longer shows the related dishes.

Kudi Coffee's customer service also told Wall Street News that the bento meal sets are still in the experimental stage and are only available in some stores, not widely rolled out, with specifics based on what the mini-program displays. As for the reason for the removal, the customer service indicated that there are claims of needing upgrades and improvements, but the specific situation is unclear, and whether they will be reintroduced will depend on future notifications.

Kudi's launch of the coffee and meal combination is quite tactical, with prices closely competing with convenience store bento meals, and the cost-effectiveness can be described as "overwhelming" compared to Shaxian snacks. However, it is still too early to say that Kudi hopes to achieve growth through selling marinated meat. Currently, this seems to be just a small test by Kudi. If this model proves successful in the pilot at the Beijing Jiajing Tiangcheng store, it may be replicated in large stores in other first- and second-tier cities, further driving the brand's overall growth.

As the tea beverage sector falls into homogeneous competition, the shift from the "coffee war" to the "table revolution" reflects the collective anxiety of new-style tea brands seeking growth in a saturated market.

Filling the coffee consumption low period with the high-frequency necessity of lunch scenarios is not an isolated case. Luckin launched a light food series as early as 2018, bundling bagels and sandwiches with coffee; Heytea experimented with stir-fried beef ciabatta in 2022; Bawang Chaji introduced a baking series in its 4.0 stores; Guming launched grain bacon egg bagels and pork floss toast in some stores; and Nayuki Tea launched the "Nayuki Tea·green light drink and light food" store type in its Qianhai Yinyi store in Shenzhen, offering energy bowl and light drink series.

These attempts indicate that new tea brands are exploring ways to meet consumers' more diverse needs by adding light food categories, further increasing the average transaction value.

However, Kudi's aggressive strategy remains unique. Unlike other brands' positioning in baked light food or afternoon tea, it directly enters the red ocean of Chinese fast food, competing head-on with specialized players like Laoxiangji and Mr. Rice. Behind this is the brand's extreme pursuit of scene occupation—when coffee becomes a traffic driver, real profits need to be supported by more essential dining scenarios.

However, the bento business is just one part of Kudi's breakout strategy. From its previous strategic trajectory, Kudi has clearly followed the logic of "scene fission."

Previously, Kudi had experimented with craft beer at night, introduced self-service coffee machines at transportation hubs, developed Wuchang rice latte, and collaborated with Moutai Health Wine Company to launch liquor products, while also laying out tea beverages, ice cream, and other categories; in October last year, Kudi Coffee also launched a new store-in-store model, partnering with Meiyijia, Wallace, and Suning.com to implant mini Kudi stores within their outlets These explorations have yielded divergent results: Kudi Coffee's "Day Coffee Night Beer" model, while conceptually appealing, has not seen high consumer acceptance for its craft beer during nighttime operations; the sales of its liquor products have not been ideal, contrasting sharply with the explosive popularity of Luckin Coffee's sauce-flavored latte launch, as Kudi Coffee's liquor marketing and market response have been relatively tepid; moreover, the store-in-store model did not last long. This high trial-and-error cost innovation exposes the brand's contradiction between strategic focus and growth pressure.

However, after the store-in-store and bento sales, Kudi Coffee has been reported to venture into convenience stores selling beer and instant noodles. Wall Street News has learned that a new Kudi Coffee store is under renovation in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing, with a prominent sign indicating it is a convenience store.

Looking at the industry, the new tea beverage sector's crossover into simple meals faces deep structural challenges. On one hand, consumers' category recognition of brands has formed a protective moat, with some consumers believing that "a coffee shop selling boxed meals is not professional enough," raising doubts about customer matching; on the other hand, simple meals require a completely different supply chain system. If a brand operates both coffee and simple meals simultaneously, it may face issues of declining inventory turnover rates and increasing loss rates. Additionally, excessive expansion may weaken the brand's core advantages.

In the era of stock competition, the crossover of new tea beverages should not stop at monetizing traffic but should build a true scene ecosystem.

Kudi's boxed meal experiment is essentially a survival breakthrough for consumer brands after the traffic dividend has faded. When price wars hit the bottom line, a scene revolution may open new dimensions for growth. However, this transformation is no longer about chasing a hot product but about a systematic reconstruction of the "people, goods, and scene" relationship.

As management scholar Hermann Simon said, "The future belongs to those integrators who can break category boundaries and redefine consumption scenarios." The crossover long march of new tea beverages has only just begun