China’s on-demand beverage chain Luckin Coffee will soon offer not-from-concentrate orange, lemon, and app juices in all of its stores after signing an agreement on Thursday to set up a joint venture with multinational agricultural conglomerate Louis Dreyfus Company, according to a Luckin Coffee’s press release.
The new business will be limited to China and is expected to be launched in early 2020, said Luckin.
The JV will build its own bottling plant and will offer the new beverages in Luckin’s nearly 3,000 brick-and-mortar stores, Luckin’s app and mini program on WeChat, under a new brand called Luckin Juice.
Louis Dreyfus, founded in 1851 and headquartered in the Netherlands, is active in more than 100 countries and has mastered the full value chain from sourcing raw materials from the farm to providing final juices to end consumers, according to Luckin.
Through this JV, Luckin said it expects to reduce costs while providing more diverse products to its consumers.
Currently, not-from-concentrates juices from other suppliers are part of Luckin’s offer but they account for a very small part of the beverage chain product line.
Luckin Coffee, which was founded in June 2017, raised USD 561 million in its initial public offering in the United States in May, setting the shortest time record for a startup from being initiated to become a US-listed public company. The company has also been diversifying into other areas beyond coffee.
Early this month, Luckin spun off its tea business, which is only months old, into Luckin Tea, allowing it to run independently.