CULT favorite milk tea CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice has launched two of its branches in Cebu City in just six months.
Its flagship branch at SM Seaside City opened in March 2019 while its second branch opened in September 2018 at Ayala Center Cebu. CoCo’s rapid expansion in Cebu reflects the surge in demand of milk teas among Cebuanos.
“We are overwhelmed by the response of Cebuanos for CoCo. In fact, Cebu City was one of the most requested areas that we received for CoCo to be present in. When SM Seaside City opened in Cebu, we knew that this is is the perfect location to build our flagship store here,” said Larry Evans Tan, general manager of CoCo.
The milk tea brand was recently awarded as the favorite milk tea brand in the Philippines.
Expansion in Cebu
Because of this, a plan for a third branch is underway.
“Hopefully in 2020, we will be opening our third branch in Cebu to respond to the demand of our Cebuano customers. There’s really a warm welcome response from the market for CoCo and we’re getting really good feedback from the drinks that we have and also on the store designs,” Tan said.
CoCo’s presence in Cebu is its first in the Visayas.
“We cater to almost every market but the bulk that we see are the influential cluster. This is the group that values a good experience, good aesthetic and the product as well. It’s usually the younger market who are quite exposed to global brands,” he said.
CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice originated in Taiwan. It opened its first store in 1997 in Tamsui District, Taipei. In the global tea market, CoCo has 4,000 branches across the world. It posted sales of 100 cups per second globally.
Delivery
In Metro Manila, a cup of CoCo is ordered every four minutes via GrabFood. This food delivery service is also available in Cebu.
“We partnered with Grab when we opened in Metro Manila. They’re one of the good partnerships that we have. So when we opened in Cebu, and they mentioned they are also available here, it was an automatic response for us to tie up with Grab to offer convenience to our customers,” he said. (JOB)