Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Tong Zelan rushed to Capital City from Magic City.

Last month she went abroad and was gone for almost half a month, Antler Coffee was her major project at hand.

Excluding other investments, she had put in about one billion in total.

Her shareholding ratio was as high as 30%.

This time, she also brought good news.

"Old Chen, Antler Coffee's IPO valuation can go up to at least 20 billion."

The domestic coffee market clearly has huge room for growth, with Starbucks alone far from enough to meet the demand.

Twenty billion?

Chen Pingsheng was not too surprised, given that his total investment in Antler Coffee was close to 1.5 billion.

Now that they had opened up their national franchise market, and with half of the entertainment circle's resources thrown into it as well,

the market reputation was very favorable.

Under such circumstances, a valuation of 20 billion actually didn't seem too high.

"According to the survey of foreign listings, this month is pretty crucial."

"That's true, but I still believe that with the reputation and prestige Antler Coffee has built up over the past year, there will definitely be no problem," Tong Zelan said.

Soon after, Chu Qiuyan and Qin Xue also arrived.

The news that Antler Coffee had applied to be listed on Nasdaq had spread throughout the company.

It was quite inspiring.

After all, this was about being listed on US stocks and earning American money.

The tech companies there were worth hundreds of billions of US Dollars, and simply weren't comparable to domestic real estate enterprises.

Chu Qiuyan never expected that her university lecture would lead to a continuous drop in Tengying's stock prices.

Up to now, there wasn't any sign of it bottoming out.

Chen Pingsheng asked Tong Zelan, "How long do you estimate before we can officially start Antler Coffee's IPO?"

"About twenty days," she guessed. "It's just about a week until the overseas team arrives. After they complete all the surveys, then we can go abroad and officially start the IPO," Tong Zelan said.

"This period is still very critical, not just for their survey reports, but also for us to make a big push in this area. If we can further increase Antler Coffee's valuation, reaching 30 billion is highly possible."

Thirty billion, which is actually around fifty billion US Dollars.

You say it's high, but the domestic beverage industry is truly unique.

If you say it isn't high, Starbucks has a market capitalization of a hundred billion US Dollars.

Compared to that, a valuation of fifty billion US Dollars doesn't seem so significant.

To raise Antler Coffee's valuation during this period, we must show the survey team that there's even greater potential for growth.

Celebrity endorsements, social media influencers making videos, talent contests, Antler Coffee concerts, etc.

Methods to quickly boost brand recognition had all been tried.

Chen Pingsheng felt that to truly increase Antler Coffee's value, we needed to get to the core of it.

Which was to enhance its money-making abilities.

The improvement in earning ability mainly comes down to two aspects.

One is revenue; the other is costs.

On the revenue side, Antler Coffee's new milk-coffee product is already in short supply.

As for costs, the investment per Antler Coffee shop has dropped to around 800,000.

To further reduce start-up costs, we must target customers accurately.

Be small but excellent, or opt for a purely takeout approach.

After pondering for a few minutes, Chen Pingsheng said, "What do you think of this? The earliest Antler Coffee stores were mainly in the bustling commercial areas of first-tier cities, right at the most central storefronts."

"Although the business was good, a single store investment cost over 2 million, with a payback period of at least three years."

"Then the cost per store dropped to 1.5 million, 1.2 million, and now to the current 800,000. The lower the investment cost per store, the faster the payback and the more profitable it becomes."

"If we opened Antler Coffee directly inside office buildings, focusing on takeout or order production, then the cost of opening a store is estimated to be around 200,000. Once we get this right, Antler Coffee's future profit model will surely become like Bobo Milk Tea's, walking down a path of fast payback," he said.

Traditional stores taking more than three years to break even,

with such a business model, it's not just about whether the valuation could reach 20 billion, but whether it could be listed at all poses a big question.

The risk is undoubtedly high.

Once the per-store investment cost of Antler Coffee could be reduced to 200,000 and if the business were still doing well,

earning back the initial investment within a year would definitely not be an issue.

The reputation of Antler Coffee was already significant enough that there was no need to open flashy but impractical large stores just for the sake of reputation.

What are termed as flashy but impractical stores? The Antler Coffee on Nanjing Street in Magic City is one.

Its annual rent is as high as 9 million yuan for an area of just over 200 square meters.

The Antler Coffee in the central area of Sanlitun in Capital City too, with an annual rent of around 5 million yuan.

Do you think such stores can make money?

They are essentially working for the landlords for nothing.

This is the case for many traditional domestic stores.

In the early stages, it was understandable to do this to increase brand awareness.

But now that it is well-known throughout the country, this is entirely unnecessary.

How to reduce the cost of opening stores, quickly recover the initial investment, and realize a high turnover model is what they really need to consider now.

The customer base of Antler Coffee itself is targeted at the white-collar workers in office buildings.

Opening stores inside office buildings fits perfectly with their market positioning.

Tong Zelan thought this proposal was excellent.

Once the opening cost could be reduced to under 200,000, in less than a year, Antler Coffee could again open 5,000 stores nationwide, achieving massive scale.

Antler Coffee was not short of money now, but it did not have sufficient funds to realize this idea quickly.

Though the franchisees' security deposits amounted to 300 million sitting there, that money was absolutely untouchable.

A bank had even notarized the payment at the time.

Hadn't Tong Zelan invested in Ofo?

Why did Ofo fail so fast in the market? Wasn't it because they indiscriminately misused customers' deposits without any bottom line?

Which investor would dare to put money into such a business?

Chen Pingsheng didn't need to touch the franchisees' money at all; he put forth another 250 million himself.

Tong Zelan would add another 250 million.

Together, they secured another 500 million in financing for Antler Coffee and looked everywhere for those huge office buildings.

By opening Antler Coffee inside office buildings, just the savings on storefront transfer fees were astronomical.

Additionally, the rent of its stores would be at least half lower than those of the prime ground-floor retail spaces.

Add up these two factors, and you'll find that costs are greatly reduced.

Initially, without brand awareness, it definitely wouldn't work to open in office buildings with no foot traffic.

Now that it has become so well-known, there's no need to worry about a lack of customers.

Lowering costs and directly moving into office buildings has thus become inevitable.

If this step were successful, Chen Pingsheng felt that not to mention international markets, there was great hope for overtaking Starbucks in the domestic market.

After all, a simple iced tea drink at Starbucks costs thirty-five yuan.

Whereas a cup of milk coffee at Antler Coffee costs only about fifteen yuan.

Don't think that the people in the country who drink coffee are all wealthy; they're not.

It's those urban white-collar workers, with a monthly income ranging from six thousand to twenty thousand yuan, who make up the largest customer group.

Seventy percent of them are women, with men accounting for only about thirty percent of coffee drinkers. Your next read is at empire

At this income level, value for money is still a key consideration.

Those who really don't have to consider value for money at all start at an annual salary of five million yuan.

The main reason Chen Pingsheng was so eager to take Antler Coffee public was because he wanted to fetch several billion yuan to completely buy back his family's stock.

If the stock keeps dropping for another month, it would fall back to the initial offering price.

Even Fei Yangyang has already dropped below its offering price.

If he took the opportunity to buy back stocks now, he could not only bolster market confidence,

but also make a huge profit.

Such an opportunity must be seized.