Food & DrinkChina
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JOURNEY · DETAIL
Xiang飘飘: From Pioneer of Cup-Brewed Milk Tea to a Traditional Beverage Breakthrough Sample Driven by Both Brewing and Ready-to-Drink (RTD)
Founded: Jiang Jianqi · Xiang飘飘 Food Co., Ltd.
JOURNEY
Key Fields
FIELD STAMPSIndustryFood & Drink
RegionChina
ScaleGiant
ChannelOther
Origin
Jiang Jianqi originally operated a pastry and candy business. Around 2005, he noticed that while Taiwan-style pearl milk tea was trending on mainland streets, made-to-order queues and inconvenient portability limited consumption frequency. He sealed tea powder, creamer, sugar packets, and coconut jelly into a single cup for consumers to enjoy by adding hot water, bypassing the site-selection and waiting costs of physical storefronts with cup-brewed milk tea. Up to the present day, the company has grown into a listed company with annual revenue of approximately 3 billion yuan (media-reported figure, independent verification not attached).
Milestones
2005
Inception Turning Point
In 2005, drawing on channel experience from the pastry and food industry, Jiang Jianqi founded Xiang飘飘 and launched the first generation of cup-brewed milk tea. The product sealed ingredients such as tea powder, creamer, sugar packets, and coconut jelly inside a single cup, allowing consumers to drink it simply by adding hot water, breaking the consumer habit of having to purchase milk tea in-store at the time.
2007
Growth Growth
In 2007, Xiang飘飘 rapidly opened up the national market through television commercials and a 'milk tea rejuvenation' positioning, with annual revenue reaching hundreds of millions of yuan. The company entered supermarkets, convenience stores, and campus channels, making cup-brewed milk tea a common choice for gifting and household consumption, and rapidly increasing brand awareness.
2010
Expansion Growth
During this period, Xiang飘飘 long held a high market share in cup-brewed milk tea, repeatedly using the promotional phrase 'selling hundreds of millions of cups a year' in official communications. At the same time, channels expanded from traditional supermarkets to e-commerce and lower-tier markets, with annual revenue approaching or breaking the 2 billion yuan range around 2014. This phase extended from 2010 to 2015.
2017
IPO Turning Point
Xiang飘飘 went public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Main Board in 2017, becoming the 'first milk tea stock'. Following the fundraising, the company increased R&D and marketing investments in RTD products, but this also brought performance growth pressure. Post-listing annual reports showed that the growth rate of the brewing business began to slow down, while the RTD business remained in a loss-making investment stage.
2019
Pain Period Failure
Hit by shocks from fresh-brewed milk tea and health consumption trends, Xiang飘飘's net profit came under pressure for consecutive years. Between 2020 and 2022, the company experienced multiple quarterly or annual profit declines, and RTD series such as juice tea and light milk tea failed to scale up quickly, leading the market to temporarily question whether Xiang飘飘 would be abandoned by young people. This phase extended from 2019 to 2022.
2024
Adjustment Inflection Point
Jiang Jianqi's daughter, Jiang Xiaoying, gradually stepped to the forefront, driving health-oriented and youth-focused product renovations, including reducing non-dairy creamer usage and launching low-sugar or zero-trans-fat versions. The company also experimented with instant retail, community group buying, and campus scenarios in hopes of revitalizing the brewing business and stabilizing the channel fundamentals. This phase extended from 2024 to 2025.
2026
Rebound PMF
The 2026 interim report showed that Xiang飘飘 achieved interim profitability for the first time in seven years, with revenue growing over 20% year-on-year, turning losses into profit growth of about 108 million yuan. Meanwhile, the company has opened several offline tea beverage stores in certain cities and plans to build a factory in Thailand to explore the Southeast Asian market. The dual-wheel drive strategy of brewing and RTD has begun to show results.
Turning Points
- Post-IPO RTD business investments dragged down profits after 2017, forcing a re-balance between the brewing foundation and new businesses
- The explosion of fresh-brewed tea after 2020 forced cup-brewed milk tea to pivot its narrative from convenience to cost-effectiveness and household scenarios
- The 2026 interim report reversed consecutive losses for the first time, proving that the combination of the brewing anchor and RTD growth pole can succeed
Failures & Pitfalls
- Early positioning of RTD juice tea was unclear, failing to form sufficient differentiation from fresh-brewed tea, resulting in a prolonged loss-making investment state
- Adhering rigidly to traditional supermarket channels and gift-box scenarios, missing early traffic dividends of instant retail and social e-commerce
- Brand aging led to the loss of young users, causing a clear stall in the growth of the brewing business from 2019 to 2022
关键成功要素
- The status as a pioneer of cup-brewed milk tea brought the first wave of category dividends, but category ceilings can backfire on the brand
- Capital tools and governance pressure brought by the listing forced the company to face the peak of brewing growth head-on for the first time
- Jiang Xiaoying taking over and driving health transformations was essentially finding new user reasons for an old category
- The 2026 Thailand factory construction and offline store experiments marked the transition from a single cup-brewed milk tea factory to a tea beverage platform company
Lessons
- Traditional FMCG cannot rely solely on a single category dividend; it must launch a second curve before the category declines
- RTD and brewing may look homologous, but channel logic and user decision-making are completely different, and cannot be pushed hard using the same playbook
- Generational succession is not simply changing personnel, but requires a simultaneous, systematic update of product, channel, and brand narratives
- Turning losses around does not rely on radical transformation, but on a combination punch of stopping the bleeding in the brewing foundation and small-step validation in the RTD business
Core Data
- 2026 Interim Net Profit：Approximately 108 million yuan (publicly available data, independent review unverified)
- 2026 Interim Revenue YoY Growth Rate：23.31% (publicly available data, independent review unverified)
- Number of Offline Tea Beverage Stores：5 stores (publicly available data, independent review unverified)
- Brewed Milk Tea Market Share：Historically long-ranked first in cup-brewed milk tea (publicly available data, independent review unverified)
- Listing Year：2017 Shanghai Stock Exchange Main Board (publicly available data)
- Planned Overseas Factory：1 in Thailand (publicly available data, independent review unverified)
Competitors / Peers
Xiang飘飘's direct competitors include cup-brewed milk tea brands like U-Love-It, but the real competitive pressure comes from fresh-brewed tea chains such as Heytea, Nayuki, and Mixue Bingcheng, as well as RTD tea giants like Master Kong and Uni-President. Xiang飘飘's advantages lie in the cost-effectiveness of the brewing scenario and channel sinking capabilities, while its disadvantages are that brand rejuvenation and RTD innovation speed have long lagged behind the fresh-brewed tea industry.
Sources