Beijing – China Luckin Coffee Aiming directly Starbucks‘The high-end bakery chain, which sells premium drinks, has opened a new flagship store in the south of the country.

This is Luckin Coffee’s first major departure from its original strategy of operating low-price coffee kiosks, a move that helped the company surpass Starbucks in the number of stores in China.

Now, as the U.S. company sells much of its troubled China business to a local investment firm, Luckin Coffee is proving that it has bounced back from the fraud allegations that forced it to delist from Nasdaq in 2020.

The Chinese company officially opened its two-story Luckin Coffee Origin flagship store in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, on Sunday.

In stark contrast to Luckin Coffee, which typically sells an Americano or latte for about $1 or $2, the flagship store is offering slightly higher prices on a range of hand-brewed and cold-brew coffee drinks. Customers can choose coffee beans from Brazil, Ethiopia or China’s Yunnan Province, with Luckin taking advantage of the geographic sourcing “origin” theme popular with Starbucks and other coffee companies.

The new store also sells a variety of specialty drinks, such as a “tiramisu latte” topped with pastries, according to a post on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. Since the soft opening on January 20, users have been waiting for drinks for about 1 to 3 hours.

The 420-square-meter (4,521-square-foot) store is a sign of how fierce competition is for Starbucks in China. Back in 2017, the American coffee giant Choose Shanghai second time ever Reserve bakery “megastore”, after launching the premium store concept in Seattle three years ago.

But as coffee takes off in China’s traditional tea-drinking market, Starbucks has encountered many competitors, from specialty coffee houses to chains such as Cotti Coffee and Manner, whose drinks are often half the price of Starbucks.

Luckin Coffee reported revenue of US$1.55 billion for the three months ended September 30, 2025. An increase of nearly 48% compared with the same period last year.

This is just for the company Self-operated stores account for far more than half Luckin Coffee stores in China and most overseas stores. The new Shenzhen store is billed as Luckin Coffee’s 30,000th store. As of September 30, the company had 29,214 stores worldwide.

By comparison, Starbucks has more than 8,000 stores in China and about 16,900 stores in the United States, its largest market.

The Seattle-based coffee giant reported a 6% year-over-year sales increase. China net income reaches $831.6 million For the three months ended September 28. Comparable same-store sales (a standard industry metric) were only 2%, but to 7% for the quarter ended December 28.

Starbucks did not share its China net revenue for the latest quarter. The company expects to complete a deal in the spring to sell 60% of its China operations to Boyu Capital while retaining a 40% stake. When the deal was announced in November, Starbucks said it valued its China business at $13 billionincluding future license fees.

Luckin Coffee’s shares are still traded over the counter in the United States, with a market capitalization of about $10.46 billion as of Thursday.

At the end of last year, Luckin Coffee CEO Guo Jinyi hinted that Plans to relist company in U.S. He did not specify a date. The company was established at the end of 2017 and has achieved Valuation reached US$2.9 billion in just 18 months It was later listed on Nasdaq in May 2019. But about a year later, Luckin said it discovered most of its assets 2019 sales figures are pure fabrication,lead to Stock delisting.

The Chinese coffee company continues to operate many of its stores and retains its name and logo.

Luckin Coffee is also engaging consumers through a series of timely collaborations with premium spirits brands MoutaiMinions cartoon characters and Popular video game “Black Myth: Wukong” Just days after it surged in popularity.

Xiao Mingchao, founder of Zhimeng Trend Consulting, said that what makes Luckin Coffee unique is its ability to build a strong private user traffic pool through its smartphone ordering app. Instead of placing orders at the counter, Luckin Coffee customers select their drinks and pay directly through the app.

Xiao said the Chinese coffee market is still in a period of rapid change. He added that today’s young consumers are more willing to try different experiences and seek emotional satisfaction, which can be satisfied through cross-industry brand cooperation.

Like many Chinese companies, Luckin Coffee is stepping up its global expansion efforts.

Last summer, Luckin Coffee opened its first U.S. store in New York. On February 6, the company opened its 10th store in the city.

After Ruixing Coffee entered the Singapore market nearly three years ago, it has also opened 68 stores in Singapore and 45 joint stores in Malaysia.