Page 101 - CTI75_EN

T T

And before that, WeDrink had collaborated with see the feasibility and embark on a new entrepreneur-
art shows, concerts and music festivals such as World ial path inspired by the popularization of cocktails.
of Flowers and Luis Chan, and even made its way into The outcome he achieved is WeDrink, which has
ZERO Mama Fitness Studio. People who are physically 17 stores in Shanghai and has stores in other six cities
and psychologically in a state of low health are more like Hangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, etc. Benefiting from
interested in relaxing and decompressing. It is a com- Hangzhou’s middle-class lifestyle and Xiamen’s milk
mon lifestyle to go to the bar after work and gym. tea economy, WeDrink’s path to expansion has been
WeDrink has chosen to partner with gyms to not only smooth. In the future, Huang hopes to bring the ‘tea +
facilitate the scenario for consumers, but also to give wine’ lifestyle to more places, and also projects the
them a ‘two birds with one stone’experience. return of the space for consumers to experience, “We
expect to have a few stores of 50-60 square meters,
Changes in Personal Life and His Brand offering a combination of cocktails and new-style tea
drinks, but incorporating more different experiential
In the interview, Huang also gave us the story features and ambiences.”
of what it was like before starting WeDrink. Original-
ly in the pharmaceutical sales industry, he spent the
whole day working with the hospitals, and to this day
he remembers the depressing scenes and stressful
experiences. Growing up with a love of food and his
own opinions on food, he sought out the baking in-
dustry where spontaneous work is craved. After his
formal training and certification as an intermediate
baker, he was engaged in baking French pastry, and
together with his partners, opened a Western-style
bar, where he was responsible for dessert preparation
and kitchen management.
The opportunity for him to leap out of the cater-
ing industry and into the promising market of tea drinks
came from the revenue from his restaurant bar with
his Western food research and development. It was also
the time of the opening of the first HEYTEA in Shang-
hai, where the growth of tea drinks in 2017 made him

102