Vietnamese coffee chain Trung Nguyen has begun the international expansion of its premium café brand Trung Nguyen Legend, opening its first store in Shanghai
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Ho Chi Minh City-based Trung Nguyen Legend operates 77 stores in Vietnam | Photo credit: Trung Nguyen Legend
Trung Nguyen Legend has opened a new store in China, the coffee chain’s first location outside of Vietnam.
The company’s first international store, located at Shanghai’s Taikoo Hui Mall, features traditional Vietnamese architecture, design and menus. Additional stores in Beijing and Chongqing are expected to open in October 2022.
Ho Chi Minh City-based Trung Nguyen Legend operates 77 stores in Vietnam and has distributed packaged coffee in China since November 2017, where it promotes that one in every 18 cups consumed is sold under its brand.
Trung Nguyen Legend coffee products are available in more than 60 countries worldwide. Trung Nguyen also produces the G7 and King Coffee instant packaged coffee brands alongside the Legend premium brand.
Trung Nguyen was founded in 1996 by husband and wife Dang Le Nguyen Vu and Le Hoang Diep Thao. After the couple divorced in 2021, Thao's role at Trung Nguyen shifted to overseeing the company's foreign operations, most notably the company’s move into Singapore, where she launched Trung Nguyen International and the TNI King Coffee chain.
World Coffee Portal forecasts the total Chinese market to exceed 36,000 outlets by 2025.
Although still a predominantly tea-drinking nation, China is becoming increasingly attractive to international brands keen to capitalise on the country’s developing appetite for coffee.
McDonald’s-owned café concept McCafé is seeking to launch 1,000 new locations in China by the end of 2023, while coffee giant Starbucks plans to increase its store count in the country by 50% in the next three years, potentially reaching 9,000 outlets.
Furthermore, boutique US coffee chain Blue Bottle Coffee made its mainland China debut in March 2022, with the Shanghai store adding to its two locations in Hong Kong.