茶百道需重视“品控”

This article unpacks the root causes behind Chabaidao's repeated food safety incidents, and summarizes key takeaways and actionable rights protection guidance for general consumers.

1. Chabaidao currently operates over 8,600 stores across China, of which only 13 are company-owned. Its core revenue comes from selling raw materials and equipment to franchisees. Blinded by a relentless push for expansion, the brand has neglected quality control system building, and faces extremely low penalties for violations. In recent years, it has been repeatedly involved in food safety scandals ranging from spoiled avocados and screws in drinks to moldy tableware, severely eroding consumer trust.

2. If consumers encounter food safety issues at Chabaidao, they can claim compensation equal to 10 times the product price or three times their actual loss under China's Food Safety Law, with a minimum compensation of 1,000 RMB if the calculated amount is lower. They can also submit evidence to the Black Cat Complaint platform and the 12315 hotline, and share objective exposures on social media; collective oversight can push the brand to implement reforms.

3. Facing frequent food safety incidents, consumers can also "vote with their feet" by reducing repeat purchases to avoid the risk of rights infringement from the source.

Using Chabaidao's repeated food safety scandals as a case study, this article unpacks structural flaws in the franchise expansion model, and provides actionable insights for brand building and model development for all chain brands.

1. When a franchise model centers revenue on selling raw materials and equipment to franchisees and prioritizes expansion speed over quality control, it easily leads to failed oversight and ultimately erodes brand trust. Chabaidao is already grappling with a fourfold surge in store closures, persistently high food safety complaint volumes, and collapsed consumer trust – problems that should serve as a warning for all franchise-based brands.

2. In quality control management, the cost of non-compliance directly determines the binding force of rules. Chabaidao only fines franchisees several hundred RMB for a single food safety violation, far less than the gains from cutting corners, leaving its rules effectively toothless. Technological fixes such as AI monitoring alone cannot solve the root problem; a full restructuring of top-level institutional design is required.

3. As consumers become increasingly sensitive to food safety, brands must place quality control at the center of their strategy. Headquarters need to transform from "product suppliers" to "setters and enforcers of quality control standards" to achieve long-term, stable growth.

This article outlines the current status and pain points of Chabaidao's franchise system, and organizes risk warnings and actionable guidance for prospective and existing Chabaidao franchisees in the bubble tea industry.

1. Chabaidao publicly advertises an estimated initial investment of 175,000 RMB to open a franchise store, and launched new incentives for 2025 including zero franchise fees in the first year and equipment installment plans, making entry barriers look very low. However, the actual total investment for a single store is generally above 250,000 RMB. In recent years, headquarters has continuously raised raw material prices and cut subsidies, sharply increasing cost pressure on franchisees: 1,144 franchisees terminated their contracts in 2024, and total store closures were more than four times the 2023 level, indicating rising industry risks.

2. For franchisees, the long-term costs of non-compliance far outweigh short-term gains. A single food safety incident can lead to high compensation claims, store closure, and termination of the franchise contract – outcomes that can ruin small business owners.

3. Under the current institutional framework, franchisees can proactively apply for loss subsidies and operational support from regional supervisors, strictly follow standardized operating procedures, and establish internal self-inspection mechanisms. Compliant operation is the most effective way to minimize risk.

This article analyzes the current development of leading new-style tea brand Chabaidao, and summarizes implications for product demand, business opportunities and digital transformation for bubble tea supply chain factories and food processing contractors.

1. In terms of product development and production demand, new-style tea brands now have an extremely fast product launch pace: Chabaidao launches nearly 10 new products per month on average, which sets high requirements for raw material freshness and stable supply. Factories can tailor their production, quality control and supply systems to meet brands' demand for frequent new product launches, to win more cooperation opportunities.

2. For business opportunities, Chabaidao is accelerating its overseas expansion, with 38 stores already open in 8 countries including South Korea, France, and the United States. Upstream raw material factories can follow these brands to enter overseas markets, expand their international business, and unlock new growth opportunities.

3. Implications for digital transformation: Chabaidao has adopted a large AI model to build an end-to-end food safety control system, which requires upstream raw material factories to integrate with its smart management system. Factories that advance digital upgrades to align with brands' control requirements will improve their core competitiveness and gain greater advantages in winning cooperation.

This article outlines the core pain points of the franchise-based new-style tea chain industry, and points out industry trends, client pain points and service directions for all catering industry service providers.

1. The core pain point of the current franchise-based new-style tea industry is that brand expansion has far outpaced the building of quality control systems: headquarters oversight capacity cannot keep up with store network growth, franchisees face mounting cost pressure, and food safety incidents are frequent, leaving both brand owners and stores with strong unmet demand for solutions.

2. On the technical service side, leading brands have already started testing large AI models to build end-to-end food safety control systems that enable real-time monitoring of inventory, expiration dates, and production data, creating massive market demand for AI technology providers and smart catering solution providers.

3. Service providers can develop tailored offerings: for brand owners, build integrated quality control management solutions covering everything from headquarters oversight to in-store execution; for franchisees, develop supporting services for operational empowerment and cost control. They can also explore consulting services to help brands build franchise restraint mechanisms and cost-sharing systems, to align with industry demand.

Chabaidao's food safety scandals have exposed multiple problems in cooperation between chain tea brands and various platform operators, and this article summarizes directions for risk prevention and operational optimization for food delivery platforms and franchise recruitment platforms.

1. For food delivery platforms: Most Chabaidao food safety problems are discovered through the delivery channel, as stores fail to conduct packaging checks before dispatching orders, allowing non-compliant products to reach consumers. When problems occur, merchants often shift blame to platforms. Food delivery platforms need to optimize quality control oversight rules for delivery channels, introduce restraint measures for brand stores with frequent food safety violations, and avoid reputational damage.

2. For franchise recruitment platforms: Chabaidao's case highlights information asymmetry, where the brand advertises low entry barriers but actual investment far exceeds disclosed figures. Platforms need to improve franchise information disclosure mechanisms, publish authentic data such as recent store closure rates and cost increases to help franchisees make rational decisions, and avoid platform risks stemming from misleading advertising.

3. Platforms can also build dedicated rapid response channels for food safety complaints from brands, to meet consumers' rights protection demand, boost user trust in the platform, and also push brands to strengthen quality control management.

Starting from Chabaidao's spoiled avocado food safety incident, this article unpacks the business model pain points of leading franchise-based new-style tea brands, and provides a typical case and research directions for industry researchers.

1. New industry issues: Currently, China's franchise-based chain catering industry widely follows an "expansion-first" business model, where headquarters' core revenue comes from selling raw materials and equipment to franchisees. This model inherently creates tension between expansion speed and quality control oversight; headquarters shifts operating costs to franchisees, creating unequal rights and responsibilities, and ultimately leading to systemic food safety problems, which is a newly prominent issue in the franchise catering sector in recent years.

2. This article provides rich first-hand research data: only 13 of Chabaidao's 8,621 stores are company-owned, 2024 store closures reached four times the 2023 level, 1,144 franchisees terminated cooperation, and food safety complaints on the Black Cat Complaint platform have remained persistently high. This authentic data provides a valid sample for researching development risks of franchise-based catering.

3. Research implications: The sustainable development of franchise-based catering requires headquarters to complete strategic transformation, shifting from product supplier to quality control manager, and restructuring franchise restraint and cost-sharing mechanisms. This provides new directions for industrial policy research and business model innovation research.