Last Updated -
October 26, 2026
Explore the business model, global strategy, and market performance including insights into its position in China.
Chagee Holdings Limited is a premium freshly made tea drinks company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Shanghai, China. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and listed its American depositary shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in 2025 under the ticker CHA. Its core brand, CHAGEE, sells modern Chinese tea drinks, with a strong focus on tea lattes that combine brewed tea with milk or other dairy-style ingredients.
Chagee has grown from a China-based tea chain into a large teahouse network across Greater China and selected overseas markets. It operates through a mix of franchised and company-owned stores, earning revenue from franchise-related services, product and material supply, and direct sales at company-operated teahouses. The brand positions itself around healthier, freshly made premium tea drinks rooted in Chinese tea culture, while using digital ordering and membership tools to drive repeat purchases.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, Chagee reported net revenue of RMB3.41 billion, up 2.5% year over year, and GAAP net income of RMB464.8 million with a 13.6% net margin. The company had 7,639 teahouses globally at quarter-end, including 6,756 franchised stores and 883 company-owned stores. Greater China remained the core market, contributing RMB7.16 billion of the company’s RMB7.66 billion in quarterly gross merchandise value, while overseas GMV grew 114.3% year over year to RMB504.0 million.
Chagee is a premium freshly made tea drinks company built around the CHAGEE brand, modern Chinese tea culture and a large teahouse network. Its core products are tea drinks, especially tea lattes, which accounted for the large majority of China GMV in recent years. The company makes money through a mixed model of franchised teahouses and company-owned stores, with Greater China still serving as the economic center of the business.
In Q2 2026, Chagee generated net revenue of RMB3.41 billion, up 2.5% year over year. Total GMV was RMB7.66 billion, with RMB7.16 billion from Greater China and RMB504.0 million from overseas markets. Greater China represented about 93.4% of total GMV, making domestic consumer demand and China’s competitive tea drinks market central to the investment case.
Chagee had 7,639 teahouses globally as of June 30, 2026, up 8.5% year over year. The network included 6,756 franchised teahouses and 883 company-owned teahouses. Greater China accounted for 7,240 locations, including 6,616 franchised stores and 624 company-owned stores, while overseas markets remained smaller but faster growing.
The company’s competitive advantages are scale, brand positioning, a focused tea latte menu, standardized store operations and a large digital member base. Its premium positioning separates it from lower-priced mass-market beverage chains, while its Chinese tea identity differentiates it from coffee-led formats. Its cash, restricted cash and time deposits of RMB6.80 billion at the end of Q2 2026 also give it financial capacity for expansion, technology, marketing and shareholder returns.
Chagee competes in China’s intensely competitive freshly made drinks market. Direct competitors include Mixue Group, a large China-origin freshly made drinks chain with a franchise-heavy model and overseas expansion, and Luckin Coffee, which competes for frequent beverage purchases through a dense store network and digital ordering model. Mixue is a useful comparison because both companies rely heavily on franchising and international growth, although Chagee is positioned more toward premium tea drinks while Mixue is broader and more value-oriented.
Chagee’s market position is strong in scale but under pressure in store productivity. Same-store GMV growth was negative 16.1% in Q2 2026, including negative 16.1% in Greater China and negative 15.1% overseas. Greater China GMV declined from RMB7.87 billion in Q2 2025 to RMB7.16 billion in Q2 2026, and management cited macroeconomic headwinds and intense industry competition as the main reasons for lower franchised teahouse revenue.
Overseas expansion is the clearest growth area. Overseas GMV rose 114.3% year over year to RMB504.0 million in Q2 2026, although it still represented only about 6.6% of total GMV. This gives Chagee a path to diversify beyond China, but it adds execution risk, higher operating complexity and brand localization requirements.
China is Chagee’s core market. In Q2 2026, Greater China generated RMB7.16 billion of GMV, about 93% of total company GMV, though this was down from RMB7.87 billion a year earlier. As of June 30, 2026, Chagee had 7,240 teahouses in Greater China, including 6,616 franchised stores and 624 company-owned stores. Its local strategy centers on premium freshly made tea drinks, Chinese tea culture branding, and signature tea lattes, which accounted for most China GMV in recent years. The company also relies on digital membership and ordering, with 47.1 million active members in Q2, down from 50.0 million in Q1. Competition remains intense against large freshly made drinks chains such as Mixue and Luckin Coffee. Same-store GMV in Greater China fell 16.1% in Q2, reflecting weaker consumer demand and pricing pressure despite Chagee’s large store base.
Chagee’s latest results show a company still expanding its network, but facing weaker store-level productivity in its core market. In Q2 2026, net revenues rose 2.5% year over year to RMB3.4146 billion, while GAAP net income increased to RMB464.8 million and operating income rose sharply to RMB524.7 million. The improvement in reported profitability partly reflects comparisons with a weaker prior-year period, while non-GAAP net income declined to RMB488.7 million from RMB629.8 million. The main turning point is the mix shift from a mostly franchised growth model toward a larger company-owned contribution, especially as overseas expansion develops.
Chagee’s outlook depends on whether overseas growth and company-owned expansion offset weaker same-store trends in Greater China. The company has scale, cash resources and a recognizable product platform, but near-term growth quality will be judged by store productivity, member retention and whether overseas markets develop without eroding margins.
This Company Profile was written by Dominik Diemer
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