Heytea landed in Glasgow: "Oriental craze" triggered by a cup of milk tea

At 8:40 pm on April 25, a milk tea shop on Byres Road was still bustling with people lining up from inside to outside the store. So what kind of wonderful drink has aroused such great interest? It is Heytea, a new tea drink from faraway China. From the day Heytea decided to settle in Glasgow, it caused a great sensation in the local Chinese community. This is the first in Scotland and the fourth in the UK. For the vast Chinese community and international students, a cup of authentic Heytea is an authentic hometown taste, and for the vast majority of Glaswegians, this is a brand new experience, where they can taste the taste from faraway East. Therefore, this opening event quickly ignited the enthusiasm of the local Chinese community and milk tea lovers. The queue outside the store was hundreds of meters long, with an average waiting time of more than four hours. There were still customers stranded until the store closed late at night, becoming a rare "Oriental landscape" on the streets of Glasgow.

By Jian

Grand opening: from "buy one get one free" to "one cup is hard to come by"

To celebrate the store's opening, the store launched a "buy one get one free for the first three days" promotion and included Glasgow-only refrigerator magnets, which attracted a large number of consumers. Before the opening at 10 a.m., hundreds of people were queuing outside the store, and the queues snaked to the neighboring blocks. Qi Xiao Tian, ​​a student from the University of Glasgow, said: "I saw the news of the opening on Xiaohongshu and took a leave to try it out. I didn't expect so many people!" Xiao Gao, an employee in the store, said that the sales volume in one day would exceed 2,000 cups, far exceeding expectations. Due to the surge in orders, some popular products such as "Succulent Grapes" and "Roasted Brown Sugar Bobo Milk" were once sold out and needed to be restocked temporarily.

Brand potential:

Since its establishment in 2012, Heytea has rapidly risen with its product concept of "real milk, real tea, and real fruit". In 2023, the number of stores worldwide exceeded 3,200, and in 2024, it expanded to 4,000 stores at a rate of 133 new stores per month, becoming the first Chinese tea brand to enter the European and American markets on a large scale. The opening of the Glasgow store is a key step for Heytea to increase its presence in the UK market. Previously, its London store had a power failure due to a surge in orders, and the "dramatic event" of closing on the first day has accumulated topical attention for the brand

Localization challenges and cultural collisions

Although Heytea is known for its high-frequency new products and cross-border joint ventures in the Asian market (such as the "Joy Yellow" series launched in cooperation with FENDI), when facing Glasgow consumers, the brand chooses to focus on classic products while incorporating local elements. For example, the menu specifically marks the caffeine content grading logo and launches low-sugar options to cater to the European healthy diet trend. However, there are still many curious local residents in the queue. A British customer said frankly: "I don't quite understand why milk tea is so popular, but seeing so many people queuing, I want to try it too!" Many passers-by also took the initiative to ask one by one after seeing such a queue scene, stopped and joined the line, looking forward to tasting this oriental taste.

Future and Outlook:

Glasgow is the largest gathering place for Chinese people in Scotland. It is estimated that Heytea's business will continue to be hot in the future. For the majority of international students, this taste represents endless homesickness, and for the majority of Glasgow people, this cup of milk tea is a brand new experience, which changes the taste of nightlife. Heytea stores should work harder to innovate, open up the local market with more Scottish products, and attract more locals to consume, so that they can truly integrate into the city.

(Opening event time 4.25-4.27, address: 124-126 Byres Rd, Glasgow G12 8TB, everyone is welcome to taste it)

You can refer to the video of the queue situation here：